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Analyzing Philadelphia’s offensive performance from their Week 11 win over Washington.
I will immediately get a couple of controversial takes out of the way. I’ve read a lot online, and the consensus appears to be that...
I disagree with both points above, and I’ll try to explain why throughout the article.
Let’s start with the first 3rd down of the game. You know a quarterback and receiver are on the same page when they make a play like this. The drag route AJ Brown runs is fantastic against man coverage but pretty useless against zone coverage. AJ Brown does an excellent job slowing down to find an opening and Jalen Hurts throws an excellent ball. The ball is right on AJ Brown rather than in front of him, which allows AJ Brown to turn upfield, avoid the defender, and pick up the first down. This is one of those impressive plays which looks easy, but there’s a lot of good here.
As the sun sets on Jones’ tenure as the Giants’ starting quarterback, I feel worse about Giants general manager Joe Schoen than I do about Jones. Schoen extended Jones after his peak 2022 season, the first season for Jones under coach Brian Daboll — a move that led to the franchise-tagging and eventual well-documented free agency of star running back Saquon Barkley. That 2022 season was pretty evidently fool’s gold, and even if it wasn’t, it was a pretty modest peak to invest in.
After that investment, the Giants remained unable to buttress their offense with the necessary playmakers to succeed — either with a second-contract veteran quarterback or a hapless rookie. The best player that Jones has ever thrown a pass to was Barkley. The second best? Maybe those 30 targets to 31-year-old Darren Waller, or perhaps the 119 to also-31-year-old Golden Tate? The hope is that Malik Nabers will end up being that guy, but it was too little too late at receiver.
Jones will be 28 years old next season, still young enough that you can expect his mobility to remain a big part of his game for the next few seasons. He’ll be as old with his next team as Baker Mayfield was when he joined the Buccaneers, and I can’t help but wonder if Jones’ career will follow the same arc. Mayfield bounced from the Panthers to the Rams before he ended up the bridge starter for the Bucs, but when he finally landed in Tampa Bay, he had multiple quality pass catchers, a great offensive line and an ascendent playcaller in Dave Canales. He...
