When the New York Giants selected Duke quarterback Daniel Jones with the sixth overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, they were immediately shredded by nearly every expert and analyst across the football landscape.
Among those critics was Chris Simms, son of former Giants quarterback Phil Simms and NBC Sports analyst, whose first instinct was to compare Jones to Dave Brown.
If you’re too young to remember Brown, consider yourself lucky — those were some ugly years. And needless to say, that’s about as ruthless a comparison as anyone could make for Giants quarterback.
But Simms is capable of admitting he was wrong, which is exactly what he did earlier this week during an appearance on Pro Football Talk Live.
“Yes, I crapped on him during the draft process and he crapped on me repeatedly during the 2019 season and said, ‘you’re wrong Chris Simms.’ And I am. I was wrong. I misevaluated him in the draft,” said Simms. “Listen, I’m not going to lie. I fell into a trap that I told myself I wouldn’t fall into before. … A little bit like Dak Prescott where I put some of the struggles of the team and the offense and Daniel Jones maybe not being the sexiest guy to watch at times. I put all of those problems on him and that wasn’t fair coming out of Duke.
“What we saw last year was a guy that was thrown into the lineup and from Day 1 — the running game’s not great, Saquon Barkley is not 100 percent, we don’t have a ton of talent at receiver — but Daniel, we’d like you to carry the offense. He had some really bright moments last year.”
This latest admission from Simms continues a recent trend of praise for Jones.
In an interview with Zack Rosenblatt of NJ Advanced Media late last month, Simms called Jones a “phenomenal” talent.
“I was blown away by Daniel Jones,” Simms continued. “It was good to see (coach) Joe Judge start talking about him (earlier this offseason) and saying ‘everybody’s gotta compete for a job’. But, no, no: Daniel Jones doesn’t have to compete against anyone on that team or on that roster. Anyone who is on that roster, I can just tell you: He’s better than them. Daniel Jones, he was the MVP of the Giants last year, to me. It’s not even close.”
Kudos to Simms for stepping up and acknowledging his mistake. If only some other Daniel Jones critics would do the same…
.jpg?w=600)
