Giants QB Daniel Jones and Vikings QB Sam Darnold are under pressure after the heartfelt message surfaced
Sunday’s season-opening game between the New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings has a variety of interesting subplots. None, though, is as fascinating as the matchup of two quarterbacks highly drafted by New York teams who will be fighting for their NFL lives as starters this season.
Both Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold began as the second quarterback off the board in their draft years. Both have been under the microscope as starters on mostly unsuccessful teams right from the start of their careers (though not until Game 3 for Jones). Both have had more failure than success up to this point. The biggest difference between the two is that Jones has to this point lasted with the team that drafted him, curtailed only by a series of injuries. Darnold has been healthier but lost his starting job and has been itinerant, traveling to four different teams in his career and becoming a career backup until an injury this summer thrust him into a starting role again.
To say that the pressure is on both quarterbacks to perform this season is an understatement. This Sunday, though, the pressure will be on literally as well. Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores blitzes more than anyone in the NFL and has good edge defenders in Andrew Van Ginkel, Jonathan Greenard, and rookie Dallas Turner to put the heat on even when they play defense straight up. New Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen doesn’t blitz much but his defense is predicated on pressure from his front four winning their battles with offensive linemen or finding openings with stunts.
It’s not unreasonable to guess that whichever team’s pass rush gets to or at least near the quarterback the most will emerge victorious. Here’s how the two QBs fared last season in a clean pocket vs. under pressure, courtesy of Pro Football Focus:
The sample size for Jones is limited because of his two injuries (the first one at least the direct result of being hit by pass rusher Andrew Van Ginkel, with whom he will renew acquaintances on Sunday). Clearly, though, pressure was a big part of Jones’ poor play in 2023.
That makes sense because there is pressure, and then there is relentless pressure, and the Giants’ all-time worst (in Pro Football Focus history) 2023 offensive line led to Jones being pressured on 45.5% of his dropbacks. As bad as fans think Jones was last season, he was actually an above average passer when kept clean.
Darnold was also pressured on 45.5% of dropbacks last season, but his sample size is even smaller because he was a backup who only started one meaningless Week 18 game and only saw significant action in one other game last season. For what it’s worth, Darnold was above average in a clean pocket as well but was only slightly below average under pressure. Both Jones and Darnold threw their only TD passes when getting good protection.
