LAS VEGAS — Daniel Jones’ season is over.
A Monday MRI confirmed the Giants quarterback tore the ACL in his right knee, head coach Brian Daboll said.
“The first emotion is devastation,” wide receiver Darius Slayton said.
Daboll said the Giants (2-7) will continue to prepare backup QB Tommy DeVito ahead of Sunday’s game at the Dallas Cowboys (5-3) while they continue to get Matt Barkley “up to speed” on the practice squad.
The coach did not sound confident about Tyrod Taylor’s ability to recover from a “ribs” injury, come off injured reserve and play again this season.
“I can’t give you that answer,” Daboll said. “I can’t tell you how he’s going to heal or things like that.”
But Devito, 25, is not ready to handle games like Sunday’s visit to Dallas, where the Giants are 15.5-point underdogs to the Cowboys. And Barkley, 33, does not appear to be close to game speed from what he’s shown in individual practice work.
The head coach also planned to confer with GM Joe Schoen to further discuss the crisis.
It’s too little too late, though.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Vikings just traded a sixth-round pick for Arizona’s Josh Dobbs at the NFL’s deadline after Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles, and Dobbs came off the bench cold to beat the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, 31-28.
The Giants had Jones cleared from his neck injury by the deadline, but they knew Taylor was out long-term and they nothing reliable behind him, and they still stayed put.
This crushing injury for Jones, 26, has more long-term ramifications than short-term.
It puts the Giants (2-7) in the likely position of having a high pick in April’s NFL Draft with an opportunity to draft his successor.
It means Jones has now had a torn ACL and two neck injuries in the last years, entering a 2024 season with a fully-guaranteed $35.5 million salary on Schoen’s books.
Schoen and the Giants could have franchise tagged Jones in the spring on a one-year contract, but they signed him to a four-year, $160 million extension instead.
Now they’re left holding the bag likely until at least 2025, when there are ways to get out of the contract but they’ll still have to eat cap space to do it.
But if they draft USC’s Caleb Williams or North Carolina’s Drake Maye in April, would Jones even play if he got healthy? Or would he be a $35.5 million backup?
“It’s the last thing you want to see for a lot of reasons,” Slayton said.
Daboll, meanwhile, continued to say Jones told the coaches and training staff that he was OK after getting hurt on the final play of Sunday’s first quarter, so he stayed in and then collapsed.
But sometimes, professionals have to protect players from themselves. He was obviously hurt. It’s not clear if Jones fully tore the ACL on the first play or the second play.
Regardless, this is a terrible result for Jones the player and person, and for the Giants franchise. Who knows what Jones’ future looks like now, particularly in New York.
“He’s a resilient human being,” Slayton said. “He’s a good football player and at the end of the day, he’ll be back healthy again one day and he’ll be back playing pro football somewhere, hopefully here. And I look forward to that day.”
