Pockets of unhappy New York Giants fans rained boos down toward quarterback Daniel Jones and the rest of the offense as the team endured a brutal season-opening 28-6 home loss to the Minnesota Vikings this past Sunday.
During a Tuesday appearance on Minneapolis/St. Paul sports radio station KFAN, Vikings pass-rusher Jonathan Greenard revealed he and some of his teammates began to feel sympathy for Jones during the blowout.
"We kind of started to feel a little bit bad for him as we're still just completely taking away everything he wants to do," Greenard said about Jones, as shared by Grant Gordon of the NFL's website. "Hey, it's good to be on the other side of it, and it's our job to not be on that side."
Jones' return to meaningful action coming off the torn ACL he suffered on Nov. 5 of last year couldn't have gone much worse. He tossed two ugly interceptions, one of which became a pick-six, and ultimately completed 22-of-42 passes for 186 yards with no touchdowns. According to ESPN stats, Jones finished Week 1 ranked 30th out of 32 eligible passers with a 16.2 adjusted QBR.
"I've been a part of those boos when you're walking on the field and your offense doesn't make anything happen and there's just, you would think it's an away game at this point," Greenard continued during the segment. "But at that time, you know how, how we were attacking him and understanding like where he's at in his career based on, you know, obviously the scheme that he has, you know, whatever the contract things going on."
"The contract things" Greenard referred to relate to the fact that the Giants could bench a healthy Jones at any point to ensure his salary for the 2025 campaign doesn't become guaranteed against injury. Big Blue can escape the four-year deal Jones signed in March 2023 next offseason.
"We understand he's dealing with a lot, and if we can add another aspect of, you know, pressure onto the guy to make him speed up his reads a little bit more, make sure that he's not gonna get confident and comfortable back in the pocket," Greenard added about Jones. "Man, it was a great feeling to see it on the first couple of drives."
Despite his struggles against Minnesota, Jones is on track to start New York's Week 2 matchup at the 0-1 Washington Commanders this coming Sunday. As of Wednesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Giants as 1.5-point underdogs for that contest.
