FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS – OCTOBER 10: Daniel Jones #8 of the New York Giants warms up prior to the game against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on October 10, 2019 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Getty Images)
Daniel Jones has remade his body ahead of his sophomore year with the Giants.
After coming out of nowhere throughout the 2019 NFL Draft process, Daniel Jones – who played his college football at Duke – wound up being the sixth overall pick in that year’s draft. He was the second quarterback taken in that draft and the plan was to have him be the successor to Eli Manning.
Well, his rookie year ended up with him playing in a total of 13 games (12 starts) and throwing for 3,027 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. The biggest knock on Jones throughout the course of his rookie season was holding on to the football, losing 11 fumbles, which led the league.
Year two is a big one for Jones and he knows it. According to private quarterbacks trainer, Anthony Boone, Jones will look more cut-up, via Paul Schwartz of The Post.
“He’s done a good job of putting together a good physique,’’ Boone told Schwartz. “At the end of the day, he wanted to get stronger and get a little more meat on his bones but still maintain being able to run and move around and being on the field the whole time. Not ‘I’ve put on too much weight and I get short-winded now.’ His thing was make sure he could stay mobile, agile and be out on the field the whole time.’’
Quarterbacks don’t have to be as athletic and bulky as some of the other positions in the league, but it certainly couldn’t hurt. Jones added muscle to bulk up from 220 to 230 pounds, which matches players like Patrick Mahomes and fellow NFC East signal-caller Dak Prescott.
Jones knows even though this is only going to be his second year in the NFL it’s going to be a telling one for him. The Giants moved on from Manning in favor of him and hope he can be as successful as he was.
Teams tend to move on from quarterbacks more quickly these days if they don’t start to show something (looking at you, Josh Rosen), so if Jones continues to be careless with the football, the G-Men could be looking to move on from him after this year, especially with next year’s loaded draft class at quarterback where Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields and Trey Lance are projected to be high picks.
Adding weight should help Jones be more durable (he missed a few games due to injury last season) and that will go a long way in helping his team decide if he’s worth keeping around for the long-term.
Maybe fans will finally be treated to seeing Danny Dimes at his prime in 2020 and beyond.