Fantasy Football Breakout Candidate: Daniel Jones

QB Daniel Jones (New York Giants) | 2nd Year

2019 Stats: 3,027 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, 12 INT; 279 rushing yards, 2 TD

The Giants took Jones No. 6 overall in the 2019 draft with an eye on Eli Manning being gone, and in Week 3 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the Duke product made his first start. 336 passing yards, 28 rushing yards and four total touchdowns later, and you have fantasy QB2 for that week.

Jones missed two games (Week 14 and 15) with an ankle injury. Looking at his 12 starts, here are his weekly fantasy finishes among quarterbacks.

Week 3: QB2
Week 4: QB17 (tied)
Week 5: QB21
Week 6: QB24
Week 7: QB20
Week 8: QB1
Week 9: QB23
Week 10: QB2
Week 12: QB15
Week 13: QB28
Week 16: QB1
Week 17: QB17

So as expected with a rookie quarterback, there was good (five 300-yard games), bad (seven games with one or fewer touchdown pass) and ugly (18 fumbles-11 lost, 38 sacks).

Giants general manager Dave Gettleman upgraded Jones’ pass protection by taking Georgia offensive tackle Andrew Thomas fourth overall in the draft. The talent around him is very good-Saquon Barkley, Evan Engram, Sterling Shepard, Golden Tate, Darius Slayton. But that group played zero snaps together last year (h/t to ESPN’s Matthew Berry). Even with that depleted group around him, Jones’ four games in 2019 with 28 or more fantasy points was tied for third-most among quarterbacks (h/t also to Berry).

With Jason Garrett coming in as the new offensive coordinator, Giants head coach Joe Judge has said the offense will resemble the offense Garrett ran in Dallas. The punch line is too easy there, but the Cowboys were No. 1 in the league in total yardage last year and Dak Prescott was the No. 2 scoring quarterback in fantasy.

The Giants’ defense is probably not going to be very good again, so a repeat of a top-five pass percentage in the league is in line to happen. Pro Football Focus also has the Giants (and Jones) in the top-10 for favorable quarterback fantasy schedules for 2020.

A full complement of skill position talent. Better pass protection. Further development, which should lead to better care for the ball after all the fumbles and 23 turnovers last year.

Jones has top-12 fantasy quarterback upside this year, plain and simple, with an ADP that is trending up in May (QB14, pick 10.03 right now in 12-team standard leagues). Those that wait to draft a quarterback should have him firmly on their radar.

2020 Projection: 3,925 passing yards, 28 touchdowns, 15 INT; 330 rushing yards, 3 TD

Breakout Confidence Level: 73%

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