Monday Night Observations

Ugly

The book on Daniel Jones is closed. It’s probably been closed for at least a year, but what I saw last night was quintessential Dimes. Basically, he’s a good athlete who can make all the throws when he steps into them. But his feel for the pocket is F-. And because he’s so tall, his speed doesn’t really kick in until he gets going — he has a slow first step when under pressure in the pocket. And maybe he’s even lost a step as they rarely call designed runs anymore, and when he scrambles it no longer goes anywhere.

I’m watching this from a hotel lobby, and it took herculean restraint not to scream, “Get rid of the fucking ball!” Just make a read and get rid of it. He thinks way too much, he doesn’t read and respond. He’s the opposite of Tua or Kurt Warner back in the day who just whip the ball out right away. The Giants can’t win with him, barring a perfect offensive line, and theirs is the opposite, though it played much better last night.

• The Steelers aren’t good. but they just show up.

• Russell Wilson throws a nice deep ball, but is not nearly as fast on his feet as he once was. He’s an upgrade over Justin Fields but might have less upside.

• Najee Harris is a load and wears down the defense. There’s still value in that.

• Jaylen Warren is back to last year’s role and is startable in a pinch.

• George Pickens had a better game than the box score indicates — had one TD called back due to a penalty and another overturned.

• Tyrone Tracy is a monster — fast, runs hard and can catch passes (though they rarely throw to him.) But apparently he left late with a head injury (I didn’t see it.) After Jayden Reed (who’s slipped into irrelevance) Tracy was my second biggest draft-day regret for not getting.

• Malik Nabers had a drop, but otherwise had a decent game, fighting like crazy for yardage after the catch. He should have drawn a PI on a deep throw too as far as I could tell.

• It looks like Darius Slayton has overtaken Wan’Dale Robinson as the WR2. Granted they have different roles, but Jones is looking down the field for Slayton more.

• The Giants offensive line blocked well against the run and did enough against a tough Steelers pass rush, but Dimes did them in with his awful pocket awareness. It’s tough to watch him freeze when no one is wide open. He’s not only the anti-Tua (not getting rid of it) but also the anti-Mahomes, not having any poise when things aren’t there. He needs to learn to throw his receivers open, throw to Nabers to make a play even if he’s covered, improvise, something.

• The Giants defense is good. It’s really too bad they get sold out by Dimes every game. Even someone like Derek Carr would make a huge difference.

• What a frustrating game. The Giants got the Wilson turnover late in the fourth quarter to give them a chance, and Dimes started doing Dimes things including delay of game. I even blame the false starts on him — if I knew my QB was gonna deer-in-headlights it every time, I’d be anxious to get blocking early too.