Daniel Jones Struggles in Preseason Debut Against Texans

The New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones struggled April 17 in his preseason debut at NRG Stadium against the Houston TEXANS. The game did underline a few trouble areas, with some costly blunders from Jones but it also is meant to remind that the function of preseason games serve as an opportunity for teams to identify issues and begin polishing up strategies.

Jones, a player on the hot seat in fantasy football circles and for Giants fans alike, did not have much of an encore. In the first quarter, he added to his own difficulties — throwing an interception from out of his end zone immediately returned for a pick-six by Jalen Pitre. The icing on the cake only a few plays later was an interception by Derek Stingley – his 2nd of the season, and it put down another nail in Giants offensive struggle.

That said, this is the preseason and from a more general perspective what Jones had to do should be taken into account. The results of the games are largely a moot point, as preseason is all about calibration. A proving ground of sorts for locating holes in the playss heets and a trial by fire to hammer out potential new strategies under game-time conditions.

For a quarterback trying to establish his identity as a leader — Jones is still doing plenty of growing up on and off the field — these early games serve another purpose. Disappointing as they are, the interceptions give Jones and his coaching staff some stuff on film to work with when back in practice. This game film is a potential big resource to fine tune his decision making and get better at responding under duress the next time around.

Additionally, the Giants coaching staff should be able to learn from this experience in how best their offensive strategies are suited to Jones. It may be a critical development to help him feel more comfortable with his decision making if they fine tune their protections and play calls as the preseason continues.

Assuming he ever does, Jones has a chance to use it as such. He is going to need to show the Vikings that he can bounce back and get better in their next preseason games. How he responds to this adversity will be very telling for fans and critics of the Giants, regarding what promise Jones shows in guiding New York through a regular season?.

With the Giants in mid-preseason mode, everyone will be watching to see just how Daniel Jones conquers these tests. That shapes the rest of his season -- and quite possibly, his future with this team.