The day after the worst start of his career, way back in his rookie season, Eli Manning was summoned to a meeting in Tom Coughlin’s office. But he didn’t come empty handed. He brought a list with him of the plays from the playbook that he liked and wanted to run.
It was a huge step in his development. It was the moment the Giants’ offense truly became his.
And it’s what the Giants are trying to do right now with quarterback Daniel Jones.
It may not be a new effort, but it certainly sounds like it’s been renewed in the days since Jason Garrett was fired as the Giants' offensive coordinator and senior offensive assistant Freddie Kitchens took over. They are trying to make the 24-year-old Jones more comfortable in the offense, and the best way to do that is to find out which plays he likes.
Otherwise, it’s almost impossible to make it work.
“To me, why would you call something if a player’s not comfortable running it?” Kitchens said. “It’s your job to get them comfortable running it. If you think it’s a good scheme or a good play, it’s your job to get them comfortable doing it. But if you can’t get them to that point, it’s kind of diminishing returns.”
That’s true of all the players, and several of them have said that Kitchens and the staff have approached them over the past two weeks to ask which plays they like to run, too. But it is most important for the quarterback, of course, since everything that happens on offense runs through him.
And while it’s standard for quarterbacks to get involved in picking plays for the game plan, it’s not always easy for young quarterbacks to be as assertive as they need to be. That apparently has been the case with Jones during his first three seasons. He’d give his input, his coaches said, but there was always a limit about how far he was willing to push.
“The veteran guys are a little more forceful than that,” said quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski. “It’s like ‘Hey, rank these plays one through 10’ and they’d say ‘Well, this play is like 18’ and you’re like ‘OK, we can’t call that.’ (Jones) certainly has always been very forthcoming, but sometimes you just need to ask him to get it out of him a little bit.”
In the past, Jones has been more deferential to what the coaching staff wanted to do, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Schuplinski said Jones is “always willing to give something a chance and give it a look in practice.” But what they need from him is honesty, because it doesn’t matter how much the coaching staff likes a play if the quarterback doesn’t feel like it’s going to work.
“I think we do a good job of trying to get those plays out of the game plan for him,” Schuplinski said. “Sometimes even if you say ‘Oh man, I think this is really going to work,’ if they’re not comfortable with it, it doesn’t really matter.”
Again, that’s nothing really new. It was a process that began under Garrett, but became even more important when Kitchens took over as the new play caller last week. He even expanded the idea to all his key offensive players – particularly those he wanted more involved in the offense. And it wasn’t just on game day, either. He was listening to them during the game.
“It’s huge,” said receiver Kenny Golladay. “You can come over to the sideline and since you’re the one out there running, you can actually tell them what you’re seeing.”
Kitchens wouldn’t even give a vague idea of how many suggestions he took from Jones or any of the players and actually incorporated into the game plan he used in the 13-7 win over the Philadelphia Eagles last Sunday. He just stressed the importance of that communication and called it “a never-ending process.”
For Kitchens, it’s also a process that’s in the early stages. There was a limit to how much he could change when taking over for Garrett on a short week while still using the same playbook. And he’s probably more limited this week because of Jones’ strained neck and the uncertainty over whether he’ll be able to play in Miami on Sunday.
Most of his emphasis so far has seemed to be on streamlining the in-game communication, which is why Jones now wears a wristband with a list of the plays (and Mike Glennon will too, if he’s forced to start). It’s a way to get Jones thinking less, eliminate any pre-snap “consternation," and hopefully play fast.
“The goal of a play caller and as a staff is to get the play to the quarterback as quick as possible,” Kitchens said. “Not necessarily for him to dissect the play in his head, but for him to break the huddle as fast as possible to get to the line of scrimmage and have more time to see and react.”
And he’ll only see it better and react quicker if he’s comfortable with the play call, likes what he’s about to run, and believes that it’s going to work.
“I think it’s always been our thought as a staff for a long time that the quarterback has to drive this thing,” Kitchens said. “The quarterback has to drive decisions.”
The best quarterbacks understand that. Sometimes it takes time. “He’s getting better at that for sure,” Schuplinski said. In the meantime, they’ll keep asking him to rank his plays to tell them which ones are keepers and which ones belong in the trash. Because it’s the only way they’ll really learn the best way to run the Giants’ offense through him.
