4 New York Giants most to blame for Daniel Jones catastrophe: Looking beyond Germany

You could identify plenty of different moments as the end of the Daniel Jones Era with the New York Giants, but for sheer thematic resonance, Sunday morning in Germany has to take the cake. Sure, the Giants entered Week 10 at 2-7, buried in last place in the NFC East. And sure, Jones was already well on his way to becoming a cap casualty next spring, New York finally able to get out from under the ill-advised deal they handed out ahead of the 2023 season. You didn't need to convince Giants fans that a change of direction was needed.

Still, if anyone needed a reminder, boy did the 20-17 loss to the Carolina Panthers provide it. Jones went 22-of-37 for 190 yards and two picks, both of which came deep in enemy territory, as New York did wonders for its 2025 draft positioning by frittering away a game against one of the worst teams in the NFL. It's never been more painfully obvious that this team needs to hit the reset button, and hard. But before we get to that, we need to identify who bears most of the blame for this debacle.

4. Jones himself

Look, Jones is too far down the org chart to be public enemy No. 1, but we can't let him off the hook entirely. He's showed shockingly little development since being drafted in the top 10 a full six years ago now, showing the same indecision, inaccuracy and lack of awareness that plagued him as a rookie. His athleticism and arm strength would make him a serviceable backup in several spots around the league, but he's simply not a quarterback capable of elevating the talent around him.

We've seen players with Jones' rough skill set improve to become at least functional as they adapt to the NFL, but Jones' processing speed is the same as it ever was, and he still puts the ball in harm's way constantly. His desire and work ethic isn't at issue here; some players just flat-out don't have it, and Jones appears to be one of them.

3. Joe Schoen

Of course, all of that was pretty apparent some 18 months ago, but that didn't stop the Giants from handing him a four-year, $160 million contract extension anyway. New York's current predicament stems in large part from misevaluating just how close it was to meaningful competitiveness after that surprise playoff run in 2022, and that misevaluation can be laid at Schoen's feet.

It was clear that New York was a little feel-good story, nothing more. Sure, Daboll and OC Mike Kafka had constructed a functional offense out of little more than spare parts, and the defense had found a few playmakers. But a run of close-game luck and a Wild Card Round win over a Minnesota Vikings team that everyone knew was overrated shouldn't have been nearly enough for this braintrust to change course and tie itself to Jones moving forward. Had Schoen simply slapped Jones with the franchise tag, he could've had one more crucial year to evaluate his QB, and maybe kept Saquon Barkley around too.

2. Dave Gettleman

Of course, while Schoen is the reason Jones is still a Giant, he's not the GM who drafted the guy in the first place. That decision goes back to Gettleman, and lest you think this is mere hindsight, please understand that drafting Jones sixth overall in the 2019 NFL Draft was as baffling at the time as it seems now.

A walk-on at Duke, Jones was just fine during his career with the Blue Devils, the kind of guy who gets remembered fondly by his fan base for years to come while never looking like anything more than a nice college quarterback. And yet, because he cut a certain profile and interviewed well, Gettleman was smitten, insisting not just on taking Jones at all but on taking him well ahead of where most big boards had him. Trading down to accrue more draft capital and then throwing a dart at a potential franchise QB is one thing; blowing a golden chance to set the course for your franchise on someone who threw for fewer than seven yards per attempt with a less than 2:1 TD:INT ratio in the ACC is quite another.

And once Gettleman did tie the Giants' fate to Jones, he then promptly failed to surround him with the support he might need to grow and eventually excel. From the offensive line to wide receiver, New York never made Jones' life easier, instead asking a clearly limited player to try and be the best part of his offense from day one. That was always doomed to fail.

1. John Mara

And yet, neither Jones nor Schoen nor Gettleman are the one true common denominator in over a decade of Giants futility. Through it all has been Mara, the one holding the purse strings and making the hires. He's the one who brought Gettleman in, the one who signed off on a series of increasingly questionable head-coaching choices, the man who's long been either incapable of or unwilling to imagine New York growing into the 21st century. Instead, this team still does business the way it always has, and while that maybe worked in the past, it's been clear for years now that the league has left the Giants in the dust — analytically, strategically, organizationally, you name it. Jones is merely a symptom of a team-wide disease, one that has to be placed at the owner's door.