Judge: Daniel Jones’ injury last season “more serious” than reported

New York Giants coach Joe Judge admitted Monday that Daniel Jones’ hamstring injury was “more serious” than the team let anyone know at the time.

“Daniel’s the last guy that’s gonna use anything as an excuse,” Judge said on Michael Kay’s radio show on Monday. “What I would say about the injury last year -- it was much more serious than maybe people thought on the outside. I would say … that 90% of the players in the league who would’ve had that injury, including quarterbacks, would have been on IR for the remainder of the year. That’s just the reality of it. It was much more severe than maybe he allowed people to know, or the information that was put out there.”

Jones missed a Week 12 game against the Seattle Seahawks after suffering the injury Week 11 vs. the Cincinnati Bengals. He returned in Week 13, but couldn’t move, completed only 11 of 21 passes and suffered 6 sacks. Judge had said at the time that Jones wouldn’t play if he couldn’t protect himself. Well, in that game he couldn’t do that.

Jones missed the Week 14 game, a loss to the Cleveland Browns, after adding an ankle injury to his woes.

Jonnes, with upgraded offensive firepower around him and a co-owner in John Mara who has been blunt that he “tired of losing,” will be under pressure to win games in 2021.

“I’m very pleased in the progress Daniel made last year,” Judge said. “I really am. Let’s be honest about this guy: There’s no excuses, but he didn’t have a spring to work in the new system. He didn’t have preseason games to get a feel for it and build chemistry with his teammates. We did the best we could in training camp. Ultimately, it took a little bit more time to acclimate an entire team to a new offense. But I’m very, very encouraged. I was very pleased. But he’s fun to work with a daily basis.”