Giants’ backup QB Mike Glennon “ready to go” if Daniel Jones is not

Mike Glennon is in his ninth NFL season. He has been a backup quarterback for eight of them, only being a team’s true starting quarterback as a rookie with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2013.

In all those years, Glennon that Sunday when he relieved an injured Daniel Jones was only the second time in his career he has been pressed into service mid-game due to injury.

“All those times, you kind of prepare to get ready for it and really, it’s rarely happened, particular for me. But I felt comfortable out there, I felt like I was prepared,” Glennon said. “So, it was good to see all the work I’ve put in throughout my career, throughout the duration of the week come to fruition.”

Glennon completed 16 of 25 passes (64 percent) for 196 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions as the Giants lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 44-20.

If Jones does not clear the NFL’s concussion protocol in time, Glennon will make the 28th start of his NFL career on Sunday when the Giants face the Los Angeles Rams.

If you believe ESPN’s backup quarterback rankings, that won’t be a good thing for the Giants. ESPN placed Glennon in its “You Don’t Want Him On The Field” category. ESPN writes:

“A strong arm and an accommodating personality can get a backup quarterback a long way. Glennon has changed teams every season for the past six years, and he could start in Week 6 given Jones’ concussion. But his teams have lost 10 of his past 12 starts, and his stark lack of mobility makes him relatively easy to game-plan against.”

The Giants brought in Glennon this past offseason to replace 2020 backup Colt McCoy, mostly because of that aforementioned arm strength and a willingness to throw the ball down the field.

“Mike does a great job every week of coming in, staying ready, preparing. I have a lot of confidence in Mike,” Giants head coach Joe Judge said on Wednesday. “He got in the game last week, did a lot of good things for us, so we’re just plowing forward.”

Glennon has only 51 career rushing yards in 35 career games. Jones has 899 in 32 games. So, the quarterback as runner is unlikely to be part of the Giants’ game plan vs. the Rams. Judge, though, didn’t want to say that the Giants would have to modify their plan for Glennon.

“Mike’s a smart quarterback. Mike did a good job last week. We didn’t change any of the game plan. He went in and we just went ahead and played, and that’s what he’s here for,” Judge said. “His job is to be prepared. He does a good job of being prepared. I’m very pleased in how this guy works. He uses every rep he gets to maximize and be prepared. In terms of is it game plan A or game plan B? No, it’s the game plan, then let’s go ahead and play.”

Glennon said Wednesday that he will simply “continue to prepare to get ready to play” regardless of what Jones’ status is currently.

Glennon took first-team reps on Wednesday, the first time he has worked in practice with many of the Giants’ starters.

“It was great to get out there today just to take snaps from (center) Billy (Price) and make the calls and do all that, versus kind of just standing in the background watching and getting mental reps,” Glennon said. “Doing the actual thing is obviously more beneficial.”

The Rams would be a daunting challenge for the Giants even if Jones, Saquon Barkley and Kenny Golladay were all going to play.

“I’m very confident in myself. I haven’t started per se a ton of games in this league, but I’ve started enough, I started five games last year. Including as much as I played the other day, that’s a good bit of games in the past year,” Glennon said. “I’m extremely confident in myself, confident in the guys around me. We threw the ball around well when we got out there, so I feel ready to go.”

We might get to see on Sunday if Giants fans end up agreeing with ESPN’s analysis.