Daniel Jones timeline: How Giants QB went from being a top pick to benched

What began with a boom ended with a benching.
That’s the likely summary of Daniel Jones’ roller-coaster six-year tenure with the Giants, whose decision Monday to sit their franchise quarterback for Tommy DeVito seems to spell the beginning of the end of Jones’ time in East Rutherford, N.J.
Jones’ contract includes a $23 million injury guarantee for 2025 that would trigger if he were unable to pass a physical in March.
With the 2-8 Giants all but eliminated from playoff contention, it appears likely they won’t risk playing a healthy Jones again when they can get out of his contract this offseason with a palatable cap hit.
Drew Lock will remain the second-string quarterback, head coach Brian Daboll said Monday.
Should this be it for Jones, the 27-year-old would finish his Giants career with a 24-44-1 record, 14,582 passing yards, 70 passing touchdowns against 47 interceptions, a 64.1% completion percentage, 2,179 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns in 70 career games.
Here’s how Jones and the Giants got to this point.
The Giants selected Jones with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 draft, taking the 6-5 quarterback out of Duke a bit higher than consensus.
Dave Gettleman, the Giants’ general manager at the time, described falling in “full bloom love” with Jones at the Senior Bowl that year.
The plan was for Jones to serve as the heir apparent to Eli Manning, who had just completed his 15th NFL season.
The Giants began the 2019 campaign with Manning as their starter, but with the Giants trailing 35-17 in their season opener in Dallas, Jones entered for the final drive.
Jones completed 3-of-4 passes for 17 yards but lost a fumble on a five-yard scramble.
After falling to 0-2, the Giants made Jones their starter with eyes toward the future.
Jones delivered an electric first NFL start, passing for 336 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for two touchdowns in a 32-31 win over the Buccaneers.
The last of those rushing touchdowns came on a game-winning drive engineered by Jones, who scored from seven yards out on 4th and 5.
Jones’ huge performance inspired hope moving forward.
The rest of Jones’ rookie season was a mixed bag.
He finished with 24 passing touchdowns, which remain a career high, but the Giants went 3-9 in his 12 starts, and his 23 turnovers (12 interceptions and 11 lost fumbles) were tied for the second most in the NFL.
Still, Jones provided enough production to inspire optimism. He had three games that season in which he passed for at least four touchdowns without an interception — including a 352-yard, five-touchdown performance in a 41-35 overtime win against Washington in Week 16.
That win famously took the Giants out of contention to draft star pass rusher Chase Young, whom Washington selected No. 2 overall, but it worked out for the Giants, who used the No. 4 pick to take left tackle Andrew Thomas.
The 2020 season was not as fruitful for Jones, who threw only 11 touchdown passes against 10 interceptions in 14 starts under new offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.
Jones, who was named a team captain for the first time that year, set a record for a Giants quarterback with an 80-yard rush against the Eagles, but he tripped at the end of the run, preventing him from scoring.
He would later miss games with hamstring and ankle injuries.
Jones went 5-9 as a starter that season, and the Giants finished 6-10. They nearly won the historically weak NFC East that year anyway, until the Eagles threw in the towel in a Week 17 loss to Washington on “Sunday Night Football,” allowing the latter to clinch the division at 7-9.
Jones suffered his first significant injury toward the end of his third season, missing the final six games of 2021 with a neck issue.
The Giants, who were 4-7 at the time, lost all six games, then fired head coach Joe Judge, while Gettleman retired.
Jones finished with 10 touchdown passes and seven interceptions in his 11 starts that season.
New general manager Joe Schoen opted against picking up Jones’ fifth-year option, meaning 2022 would be the final year on the quarterback’s rookie contract.
In his first year under Daboll, Jones delivered a resurgent season.
He set career highs with 3,205 passing yards, 708 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns.
His 15 touchdown passes compared to five interceptions marked the best touchdown-to-interception ratio of his career.
The Giants went 9-7-1, clinched a wild-card spot and won a playoff game in Minnesota.
Jones turned in perhaps the best performance of his career in that 31-24 victory over the Vikings, completing 24 of his 35 passes for 301 yards and two touchdowns while adding 78 rushing yards.
The Giants were blown out by the Eagles in the second round, 38-7, in a sobering end to Jones’ lone trip to the postseason.
Ahead of Jones’ free agency, speculation ran rampant as to whether the Giants would extend the quarterback or use the franchise tag on him.
Minutes before the franchise-tag deadline, the Giants and Jones reached a four-year, $160 million contract with $82 million guaranteed.
The guarantees were frontloaded, providing the Giants flexibility to get out of his contract after two seasons.
With Jones taken care of, the Giants used the franchise tag on star running back Saquon Barkley.
The 2023 season went completely differently than 2022.
The Giants were blown out at home, 40-0, by the Cowboys in the season opener in what proved to be a tone-setting defeat.
The following month, Jones suffered another neck injury, costing him three games. In Jones’ first game back — a Week 9 loss to the Raiders — Jones suffered a torn right ACL, ending his season.
Jones finished that year with two touchdown passes, six interceptions and only one win in six starts.
Tommy DeVito, an undrafted rookie from nearby New Jersey, went 3-3 as a fill-in starter, generating considerable fanfare and earning him the nickname “Tommy Cutlets” in a nod to his Italian heritage.
The Giants devoted considerable time last offseason to exploring quarterback options.
They met with free agent Russell Wilson before he joined the Steelers.
They did their homework on touted draft prospects such as Drake Maye and even looked into trading up with the Patriots to take one at No. 3 — a saga chronicled on HBO’s offseason edition of “Hard Knocks.”
In the end, the Giants’ only quarterback move was signing Lock to a one-year, $5 million deal to serve as Jones’ backup.
After the draft, Jones admitted he “wasn’t fired up” about the Giants’ quarterback pursuits.
Jones returned from his knee rehab in time for 2024 training camp, giving him runway to prepare for a pivotal 2024 season.
The personnel around Jones changed considerably over the offseason, with Barkley leaving for the Eagles but with a new-look offensive line and play-making rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers brought in to support the quarterback.
Despite those changes, it’s been more of the same for the Giants’ offense.
Jones threw eight touchdown passes and seven interceptions in his 10 starts, sometimes missing opportunities for big plays, as he did in last week’s 20-17 overtime loss to the lowly Panthers in Munich, Germany.
That loss proved to be the final straw for the Giants, whose 15.6 points per game rank last among NFL offenses.
It’s unclear where the Giants go from here.
If the season ended now, the Giants would have the No. 5 overall pick in the 2025 draft, though the four teams in front of them each have two wins as well.
Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Miami’s Cam Ward are among the top quarterback prospects in next year’s draft.
For now, the only thing that’s known is Jones isn’t starting Sunday at home against the Buccaneers — the team he beat in his first NFL start.