Is Daniel Jones a reliable fantasy option in 2024?

Despite signing a massive contract extension in 2023, Daniel Jones has yet to play a full 17-game NFL season with injuries consistently limiting his effectiveness. The issues climaxed in Week 9 of his fifth year when the Giants quarterback suffered a torn ACL that ended his campaign after just six games.

After another grueling offseason, Jones was cleared to participate in a full training camp on July 24. But even with their quarterback hopefully back to full health, New York general manager Joe Schoen and the rest of the front office were seen on Hard Knocks clearly ready to move on from the Duke product.

However, Schoen also noted on the first episode of Hard Knocks that Jones was not dealt a fair hand in 2023 with the offensive line giving him virtually no time to allow plays to develop. In just six games, Jones was sacked 30 times, including an 11-sack game against Seattle in Week 4.

Through his five years with the team, Jones has shown flashes of his potential ceiling but has never been able to get over the hump to be a consistent starter with the same issues constantly hampering him. With his legs, Jones is always capable of putting together a sporadic big game. Still, injuries and poor decision-making have perpetually limited him from being a reliable fantasy asset behind a routinely faulty offensive line.

What to expect from Daniel Jones in 2024

It is worth noting that in the one full season Jones played under Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll, he had the best year of his career. It was still not an extremely productive season but without any reliable receivers, he managed to throw for a career-high 3,205 yards through 16 games, the most of his career. He added 708 yards on the ground with seven rushing touchdowns.

With just 15 passing touchdowns, his 2022 campaign was not going to win any MVP awards but brought the Giants to their first playoff berth since 2016 which was enough to allow him to sign a $160 million extension. Yet, with just 151.5 passing yards per game in 2023, Jones' previous season appeared to be a mirage.

Even with the Giants attempting to give Jones a consistent target by trading for Darren Waller, the combination of the tight end looking like a shell of himself and the dreadful offensive line gave him no support. At the time he would go down with a torn ACL, Jones was just the QB22, a far cry from his QB9 finish in 2022.

Leg injuries, while devastating for all quarterbacks, are even worse for players like Jones who build a considerable amount of their fantasy value off of rushing input. Removing even half of his rushing production from 2022 would have knocked Jones down from QB9 out of the top 30. Both the Giants and fantasy managers will need to hope their signal caller can recover from his injury similar to the way Kyler Murray bounced back from the same obstacle last season.

To identify the gaping holes in their offense, New York signed former Packers guard Jon Runyan in free agency and drafted Malik Nabers in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Nabers is almost expected to become Jones' No. 1 option off the bat but it will be hard to get excited without any evidence given the team's history of receivers failing to meet expectations.

Assuming Jones can return to full strength, his QB9 finish from 2022 figures to be his absolute ceiling. He has still not surpassed 20 passing touchdowns in a single season since his rookie year and has never topped 3,500 passing yards. Schoen, Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka have proven to maximize his talent with creative play-calling that positively influences winning but has not been very fantasy friendly.

In season-long formats, Jones is a mere low-risk high-reward late-round pick with his ceiling still relatively high but his floor being practically zero.