Giants’ QB Daniel Jones ‘didn’t think a whole lot about the neck’ on Thursday

Daniel Jones played in a football game Thursday night for the first time since missing the final six games of the 2021 season with a neck injury. The best news? Jones said after a 23-21 victory over the New England Patriots that “I didn’t think a whole lot about the neck.”

Jones went 6 of 10 for 69 yards. He might have had a touchdown pass if not for a drop near the goal line by Kenny Golladay. He ran up the middle for 6 yards on his first dropback of the game, diving forward, He was sacked once and took a couple of other hits in one quarter of work.

“It felt good to get out there and it was just like it used to be. That’s football right? That’s football and I felt good out there,” Jones said. “I didn’t think a whole lot about the neck or anything like that. I felt good and it was just football.”

This was Jones’ first time operating the new Brian Daboll/Mike Kafka offense.

“I thought it was good and I thought it was clean. We moved the ball and converted some third downs,” Jones said. “The second drive we got in a tough situation with third and long, but I thought it was clean just from an operational standpoint. There were certainly some plays we can look at and do better and clean up, but overall I thought it was good.”

Jones and his teammates will be off Friday and Saturday, returning for the final training camp practice in front of fans on Sunday at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. What will the focus be?

“I think it’s continuing what we have been working on. It’s sharpening up the details and obviously in the pre- season, you are pretty basic with your game plan and with what you are calling,” Jones said. “We need to continue to evolve and progress the offense as we roll out more stuff and detail it out. Like I said, I thought it was a good start.”