Jordan Raanan, ESPN Staff Writer 2y

Easy decisions for Giants: Shut down Daniel Jones, start Jake Fromm

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- There are three weeks left in a lost season for the New York Giants that has them with double-digit defeats for the fifth straight year.

The playoffs were essentially unrealistic before a decision was made on a Halloween costume. It was written in Sharpie by Thanksgiving. Now it's just playing out the string for little more than pride.

This irrelevance makes it an easy decision for the Giants when it comes to quarterback Daniel Jones and his neck injury. Shut it down.

Jones has missed three straight games and had not been cleared for contact as of Monday morning. Neck injuries can potentially threaten a player's career, as the Giants experienced with running back David Wilson -- a first-round pick in 2012 whose career ended after two seasons.

So why even mess with it when it comes to Jones, a young quarterback who is in his third professional season? The juice is not worth the squeeze in this case. Putting Jones at even the slightest bit of risk in the team's three remaining games -- against the Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears and Washington Football Team -- would be professional malpractice.

These late-season games are unlikely to reveal much more than the Giants already know about their quarterback.

It has been trending in the direction of Jones' season ending prematurely in recent days. A source told ESPN last week that the team was losing hope Jones would return this season.

The location of the injury had a lot to do with that opinion. Defensive lineman Leonard Williams had a similar line of thinking regarding Jones after Sunday's 21-6 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

"I think with injuries, it's hard to compare situations because the injuries are different, you know? Something like me dealing with elbow pain and the injury is something I can possibly play through, whereas if I had something, anything spinal or neck, that's something that's going to affect your life long term if you keep messing with that," said Williams, who played Sunday using a custom-made brace for an elbow injury that most expected would sideline him for weeks. "It's more than just football [for Jones], you've got to think about your life at that point."

It leaves the Giants with a decision between Jake Fromm -- who made his NFL debut Sunday just over two weeks after being signed off the Buffalo Bills' practice squad -- or Mike Glennon for their Week 16 game in Philadelphia (1 p.m. ET, Fox).

It shouldn't be much of a decision after Sunday. Glennon struggled again in his third straight start in place of Jones before Fromm came in for the final drive, which stalled at the Dallas 9-yard line.

"We got to a point in the game where I wanted to see what Jake could do," coach Joe Judge said. "We weren't doing enough moving the ball otherwise, so I wanted to make sure I had the chance to see Jake, and that will obviously open up a conversation about what we're going to do this week. We'll talk about it as a staff and we'll make the best decision for the team."

The conversation shouldn't take long unless the Giants are convinced that Fromm can't absorb enough of the playbook. There have been no indications that is the case.

Forget that Fromm hasn't exactly blown the Giants away with how he has performed or thrown the ball at practice. In fact, he has struggled, according to multiple sources. But on Sunday Fromm looked competent two-plus weeks into his Giants career, finishing 6-of-12 passing for 82 yards.

Even Glennon seems to be somewhat impressed by Fromm's performance.

"He did a good job," said Glennon, who finished 13-of-24 passing for 99 yards with three interceptions against the Cowboys. "I mean, I believe it's the first time he's played in an NFL game, moved the ball down the field. Did some good things."

With Glennon admittedly making a couple "kind of dumb decisions" on Sunday and the Giants putting only 36 points on the board since he became the starter, this seems easy. Start Fromm against the Eagles.

^ Back to Top ^