Daniel Jones said last week in Miami that he planned to continue one of Eli Manning’s traditions: Gathering Giants wide receivers for some throwing and route-running sessions in the offseason. Given that Manning often ran these sessions at Duke, it made sense that Jones would do the same, given that he actually played at Duke.
“We’ll figure it out, see what everyone’s thinking and try to do the best thing for everyone,’’ Jones said.
As it turns out, Jones acted on this quickly. On Tuesday, he was at his alma mater, leading a group of his targets that included Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton, as Jones looks to build on his promising rookie year.
Manning found these workouts to be beneficial and Duke was a logical spot for him, given that his college coach, David Cutcliffe is the head coach at the school in Durham, N.C. Cutcliffe recently told SiriusXM NFL Radio he planned on giving Jones some work on fundamentals that may include drills to help with improved ball-security for a quarterback in the pocket. Jones fumbled an NFL-high 18 times as a rookie, losing 11 of them.
What Jones and his teammates cannot do is get a jump-start on the playbook of new offensive coordinator Jason Garrett. That is not allowed at this juncture of the offseason.
“I’m just gonna work on the things I need to improve,’’ Jones said last week. “It’s tough to really install the offense and learn the offense and what the rules are. I can focus on stuff I need to work on, stuff I need to improve from last year and kinda go from there. I’m looking forward to it.’’