Daniel Jones will see his first game action of the season on Sunday when he plays against the Patriots at MetLife Stadium.
After keeping the starting quarterback on the sideline for the first two preseason games, Joe Judge said on Monday that his plans to deploy Jones for the finale of the exhibition schedule remain unchanged. Jones and the rest of the healthy offensive starters are expected to play about one half of Sunday’s game, their final tuneup against another squad before facing the Broncos in the Sept. 12 opener.
“This week we’ll treat more as a dress rehearsal for the regular season,” Judge said. “We’ll decide on what we’re going to do in terms of coming out of halftime later in the week.”
That will likely depend on the quality and quantity of work Jones and the offense get in two joint practices against the Patriots in Foxborough that begin on Wednesday.
As for his decision to keep Jones out of the first two preseason games, Judge defended it by saying he was not wary of potential injuries but satisfied with the number of plays he had run in practices leading up to the contests, including two joint practices with the Browns last week. When it was noted that much more accomplished NFL quarterbacks have been making preseason cameos – including the last two Super Bowl winners, Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady – Judge said he would not compare Jones to anyone else in the league.
“This is our team,” he said. “[It’s] how we choose to prepare them the best, get the guys exposure to what we thought we needed with different units and different situations, and keep building our team going forward.”
NOTES & QUOTES: The Giants are shopping backup kicker Ryan Santoso after showcasing him in the first two preseason games. “This guy has had a tremendous camp for us,” Judge said Sunday. “If we didn’t have Graham [Gano], he would be our kicker. I have a lot of faith in him… This guy deserves to be on the field and he deserves to be one of the 32 [kickers in the league]. He has that kind of ability.” One kicker-needy team that will get an up-close look at Santoso this week is the Patriots, who sources tell Newsday have expressed interest in acquiring the second-year player.
