Daniel Jones will be overwhelmed, but not like you think

New York Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones will be overwhelmed as he adjusts to life in the NFL, but probably not in the way you think.

The New York Giants surprised a lot of people by actually going through with taking Duke quarterback Daniel Jones sixth overall in the 2019 NFL Draft.

With local product Dwayne Haskins — a Heisman finalist — and Drew Lock still on the board, Dave Gettleman went with the Duke product instead of the far more productive ones.

At this point, that doesn’t matter. Those guys are all on an even playing field until their play says otherwise, but Jones is under the most pressure as the highest drafted among those three guys. He is also under the intense scrutiny of the New York media, which will have him thinking, “This isn’t Durham anymore,” throughout the offseason.

Jones is not immune to rookie struggles, but I think he’s going to be overwhelmed in the NFL in a way most people probably don’t expect.

I think Jones is going to be overwhelmed by how good he has it with the New York Giants.

Not that the Giants — a team that has finished sixth-worst and second-worst in the NFL the past two seasons, respectively — are the ideal situation for Jones to step into from a roster perspective.

Heck, they just traded away Odell Beckham Jr., one of the best receivers in the league.

But Jones is going from being protected by the motley crew of Duke linemen, which allowed 30 sacks and who knows how many other hits and pressures to the Giants, who employ Nate Solder, Will Hernandez, and Kevin Zeitler.

Jones will still face pressure in the NFL, but he might not know what to do with himself if he has a consistently clean pocket. What a luxury that would have been at Duke.

In addition to having an NFL offensive line in front of him, Jones is going to have some very talented receivers at his disposal. Namely, he’ll be working with Sterling Shepard, Golden Tate, Evan Engram, and offensive rookie Saquon Barkley out of the backfield.

You think Duke had anyone who could even touch the level of talent of even one of those guys?

No offense to the Duke program, but their lack of talent and general help for Jones was put on blast by Brian Baldinger, and this is an eye-opening video.

This is such a great breakdown, not to show what Jones couldn’t do but to show what could have been had he played elsewhere in college. Then again, who knows if not playing at Duke would have changed his fortunes completely. Playing for David Cutcliffe connected Jones to the Manning family, and it’s believed that was a major reason he was so high on the Giants’ board.

Jones is not a hack. He’s not a bad prospect. I have liked him throughout the process and loved what he did in Duke’s bowl game. He’s not the most fiery competitor out there but he seems to consistently see the field well, he uses good mechanics, and you can count on this reel alone a number of big plays that should be on his resumé but aren’t because of incompetent talent around him.

It’s clear that Jones is going to be overwhelmed — in a good way — when he gets into his first NFL camp and starts throwing to these studs.