You either trust Daniel Jones against Tom Brady or you don’t.
If you want him to be your franchise quarterback of the future, and all indications right now are that the Giants do, don’t keep him in shackles Monday night at Tampa Bay against the GOAT.
Turn Jones loose.
Most, and perhaps even all, of Jones’ playmakers, starting with Saquon Barkley, will be on the field together at last.
You play to win the game.
Jones is 0-7 in prime-time games. There is no better time than now for Jason Garrett to let Jones — with his arm and with his legs — play to win the game.
Jones and the Giants survived and advanced against the Raiders.
Survive and advance won’t work Monday against Tom Brady.
There are eight games left this season for Jones to show that he can be much more than the game manager he too often has been forced to be, for reasons ranging from play-calling to the off-and-on absences of Barkley, Kenny Golladay, Sterling Shepard and Kadarius Toney, not to mention left tackle Andrew Thomas.
For No. 8, eight is enough.
Now that Jones has finally begun integrating the tight end into the passing game, he will have more than enough of what he needs around him to honor the mandate of the franchise quarterback:
Get your team in the end zone and win the game.
It is asking plenty of him against Brady and the Bucs, yes, but how about a signature win that would enable Giants fans to start feeling good for a change about the future?
“A lot of respect and appreciation for what [Brady has] accomplished,” Jones said.
I asked Jones what it is about the way Brady plays the quarterback position that has impressed him the most.
“I think it’s how consistent he is in his decision-making,” Jones said. “You talk about understanding what the defense is doing and making a good decision on where to go with the ball every single time … how consistent he is with that, how well he understands that part, and how accurate he is when he throws it.”
Brady is somehow still Brady at age 44.
“You’re not gonna trick the guy,” Giants coach Joe Judge said.
He will take what you give him and then, without warning, he will take what he wants.
“The thing he does so well is he’s so committed to being patient within the game,” Judge said.
Against the Raiders, Jones threw twice on first down on his opening possession, which ended with a TD strike to Evan Engram.
He threw for 66 yards the remainder of the game.
Fourteen of the next 17 first-down plays were runs.
I get it: Just find a way to win. Devontae Booker and a resurgent defense was the formula.
The formula has to be scrapped against the Bucs, and against other upper-echelon teams. That’s a formula for a backup quarterback, not for a franchise quarterback.
Jones has done better with the turnovers, though there are still maddening occasions when he will make a costly poor decision or throw.
But if you play scared of your franchise quarterback, then he really isn’t your franchise quarterback.
We know it’s in him — who can forget his first NFL start when he threw for 336 yards and two TDs and ran in two more in a 32-31 win at Tampa Bay?
Let Daniel cook.
And win a prime-time game.
“We haven’t won enough games here recently period,” Jones said.
A quote no one has never heard out of the mouth of Tom Brady.
