The second the Giants’ wild, full-team brawl started on Tuesday morning, Daniel Jones did the last thing anyone would’ve expected. He ran towards the pile of players, and somehow ended up at the bottom.
It was exactly the last place the Giants coaches wanted their franchise quarterback to be.
But his teammates sure did notice that he was there.
“Goll-lee, I love it!” said running back Corey Clement, who took the initial late hit that ignited the fighting. “But at the same time we don’t want to get our starting quarterback hurt. I’m pretty sure Daniel knows that as well. I hope he thinks twice before jumping back in there.”
It’s hard to imagine there’ll be a second chance for Jones, given how angry Giants head coach Joe Judge was after the brawl. But Jones didn’t sound like he was second-guessing his decision get involved. Asked why he jumped in, he said “I’m part of the team, part of the offense and we’re competing.”
It makes sense, as long as you’re not the one player the Giants can least afford to lose.
Surely, Judge – who wasn’t available to the media after the melee – will relay that to the third-year quarterback. As it was, several of his linemen were seen trying to dig him out of the rubble. Guard Kenny Wiggins appeared to be the one who eventually pulled him out.
And after it was over, Jones got the same punishment as the rest of his teammates – four long runs up and down the 100-yard field, with two sets of 30 pushups in between. Oh, and there was also a colorful, expletive-laced lecture from Judge, who got his point across to the quarterback – and everyone – loud and clear.
“There’s consequences for that kind of stuff,” Jones said. “That’s the way it is in a game. If you lose your cool there’s consequences and it hurts your team. That was the message and everyone understands that.”
But one of the “consequences” for Jones could be even more respect in his locker room from teammates excited to see their leader risk his own health to fight for them.
“Yeah, s--t, that’s what you want to see,” Clement said. “Even though he’s not supposed to be doing that, hey man, hats off to him because you want to see a lot of guys do that.”
Safety Logan Ryan, whose blindside hit of tight Evan Engram really kicked off the festivities, said defending players like that is the job of a team leader.
“It’s Daniel’s job, just like it’s a lot of our jobs,” he said. “I’m sure Saquon (Barkley) would’ve hopped in there if they cleared him to.”
Barkley, for the record, seemed to stay on the outside of the fighting, though he did join his teammates for their punishment.
As for Jones, unfortunately the brawl – and his unexpected involvement – took away from what was his best day of training camp so far. He was on target all morning in nearly every drill. His passes were crisp, whether they were from the pocket or on the run. And it didn’t appear that he had any incompletions in team drills at all.
As for the rest, even Jones admitted that “we’ve got to do a better job of handling it” especially when they sensed tempers were flaring with the pads on for the first time.
“We’ve got to control our energy and our enthusiasm and wanting to compete,” he said. “I think we’ve got to control that and be able to harness that and make it productive towards what we’re trying to do.”
