New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones is entering a pivotal season in his career. Many experts are earmarking him for a breakout season while others are saying the Giants wasted $160 million on a player that will never live put to his draft position pedigree.
None of this has phased the reserved North Carolina native. Much like his predecessor, Eli Manning, Jones simply pushes past the talking heads and pundits and goes about his business.
“Still coming in every morning and staying late at night. Daniel is a grinder. Guy like that, he has good traits. I don’t even think he has swag to begin with,” defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence said with a laugh. “You all see him. . . he’s just Daniel.”
Jones is one of the team’s hardest workers and is one of the first employees in the building every day, a fact that offensive coordinator Mike Kafka alluded to last week.
“I never really felt like I needed to show other people or whoever it is. I feel like I’m doing it because I want to do it, because I enjoy doing it and I’m trying to be as good as I can be,” Jones told reporters on Tuesday at the Giants’ minicamp.
“That doesn’t change regardless of what the contract situation is or whatever it may be. But I think we have a lot of guys with that kind of mindset who want to come in and work hard.”
Jones knows he is under the gun to produce this season but feels as if he has nothing to prove if he continues to be dedicated to his craft.
“I don’t think so,” Jones said in response to a question if he’ll ever get to a point in his career where he’ll feel like he has nothing left to prove.
“Like I said, I’m not trying to prove it to anybody, anybody else or anybody outside the building. I think it’s about showing up and putting in the work every day.”
Asked about the Saquon Barkley contract situation that is keeping the star running back out of workouts, Jones kept it in-house.
"I'm going to let Saquon speak for himself on that"
Daniel Jones is asked if he has any doubts that Saquon Barkley will be with the Giants this season: pic.twitter.com/zdBWtJzUl8
— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) June 13, 2023
Jones did say they he could hook up with his close friend Barkley this summer.
“I think we’ll try to do that. I know he’ll be around, I’ll be around,” Jones said.
