New York Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones was brought in to be the heir apparent to Eli Manning. After two games of his inaugural NFL season, he has been handed the keys to the franchise.
Head coach Pat Shurmur announced Tuesday Jones will make his first career start when the 0-2 Giants face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium in Week 3.
“Eli and I spoke this morning,” Shurmur said. “I told him that we are making a change and going with Daniel as the starter. I also talked to Daniel. Eli was obviously disappointed, as you would expect, but he said he would be what he has always been, a good teammate, and continue to prepare to help this team win games. Daniel understands the challenge at hand, and he will be ready to play on Sunday.”
The Giants are 0-2 for the sixth time in seven seasons, with losses to the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills. Manning completed 56 of 89 passes for two touchdowns and two interceptions with a quarterback rating of 78.7. However, the Giants have only scored four touchdowns despite averaging more than 400 yards of offense thus far.
Shurmur wouldn’t commit to Manning being the Week 3 starter during a Monday press conference.
“Ultimately, this is a move that I felt was best for this team at this time,” Shurmur said. “I have said it since I got here. I am very fond of Eli, His work ethic, his preparation, his football intelligence. All of those attributes are as good as I have ever seen in a player. And Eli worked as hard as you could ask of anybody to get ready for this season. This move is more about Daniel moving forward than about Eli.”
Jones, selected with the sixth overall pick out of Duke, started in all in 36 games he played for the Blue Devils. He completed 764 of 1,275 passes for 8,201 yards, 52 touchdowns, and 26 interceptions. He also had 406 carries for 1,323 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Jones silenced critics of his draft position with an outstanding preseason. In four games, he completed 29-of-34 passes for 416 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions with a quarterback rating of 137.2.
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Manning was named the Giants’ starting quarterback nine games into his rookie season. He started 210 consecutive regular season games from Nov. 21, 2004 to Nov. 23, 2017, the second-longest consecutive start streak by a quarterback in NFL history. Only Brett Favre started more consecutive games than Manning (297). Manning did not play in a Dec. 3, 2017 game against the Oakland Raiders but returned to the starting lineup the following week and started the Giants’ next 22 games.
Manning is the Giants’ all-time leader in passing attempts (8,061—sixth in NFL history), completions (4,860—sixth in NFL history), passing yards (56,537—seventh in NFL history), and touchdowns (362—eighth in NFL history).
Sunday’s loss to the Bills dropped Manning to an even .500 for his career (116-116). He has a career mark of 8-4 in the postseason, including victories in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI. Manning was named Most Valuable Player of both games, becoming one of five players with multiple Super Bowl MVPs (Tom Brady has four, Joe Montana has three, and Terry Bradshaw and the late Bart Starr have two).
Manning will be the Giants’ No. 2 quarterback at Tampa Bay.
Jones will become the third of the 11 quarterbacks selected in the 2019 NFL Draft to both play and start a game. Kyler Murray, the first overall pick, started each of the Arizona Cardinals’ first two games. Gardner Minshew II, a sixth-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars, made his first career start in a Week 2 loss to the Houston Texans after Nick Foles was injured in the season opener.
– Curtis Rawls is a Managing Editor for Full Press Coverage and covers the NFL and the New York Giants. Please like and follow on Facebook and Twitter. Curtis can be followed on Twitter @CuRawls203.
