How the Giants Have Maximized Daniel Jones' Abilities

Daniel Jones continued his resurgent 2022 season in Week 17 against the Colts with a 4-touchdown performance that helped clinch the Giants’ first playoff appearance since 2016.

Jones, of course, deserves credit for his noticeable improvement this season. However, head coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka have done a great job of putting him in position to be successful. They’ve helped him become a more precise decision-maker and passer. And they’ve tapped into his running ability, turning him into a dangerous weapon with his legs. Each of those qualities were on full display all afternoon against Indianapolis.

Play Action

The Giants don’t have a ton of premier weapons at the skill positions on offense. So they’ve had to gain advantages in other ways. They’ve done so with the creative use of personnel alignment, route combinations, and play action.

On the below example, the Giants would break down the Colts’ coverage with a post-wheel route combination. However, they used several tactics to throw Indianapolis off the scent.

First, they didn’t run the route combination in the conventional way. Instead, they had tight end Daniel Bellinger align in the backfield as a fullback and sneak out into the secondary to run the wheel route:

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To set up the route combination, the Giants would use a run fake involving two potential ball carriers; wide receiver Darius Slayton off of orbit motion, and running back Saquon Barkley:

The timing here was key. Because this was under-center play-action, and because there were two potential ball carriers, Colts second-level defenders had to keep their eyes in the backfield for just a split second longer than usual:

That allowed Bellinger to sneak past them:

And since Bellinger was coming from the backfield, it took the cornerback to that side (Stephon Gilmore) longer to realize that there was another route threatening his deep zone:

With Gilmore removed and the underneath coverage sucked up towards the line of scrimmage, Bellinger was open for an easy 24-yard completion that set up the Giants’ second touchdown:

34% of Daniel Jones’ dropbacks this season have utilized play-action (5th among all QBs). That’s a slight uptick from a year ago (31.4%). However the play design itself has been much more impactful, and that’s helped create more completions for Jones.

Coverage Indicators

Another way the Giants have put Jones in position to succeed is with the more frequent use of indicators to help anticipate coverage pre-snap.

On this 2nd-and-9 for instance, the Giants motioned a tight end (Bellinger) across the formation to the outside: