Daniel Jones responds to Giants fans’ heckling outside MetLife Stadium after Week 1 disaster
Daniel Jones has certainly heard all of it.
He knows what would make it go away, too. Just don’t expect him to change his demeanor or stoicism, though. It’s not happening.
Jones has heard the harsh criticism directed at him, which has increased exponentially in recent days. He’s heard all the booing and yelling.
And he’s heard the jeering that extends beyond normal booing into deplorable fan behavior that follows him even off the field.
Following the Giants’ embarrassing, 28-6 loss to the Vikings in their season opener Sunday, fans waited at the players entrance/exit for Jones to leave MetLife Stadium and began heckling as he walked by.
Video of the incident — in which fans could be heard calling Jones “Danny Pennies” as a dig on his “Danny Dimes” nickname — subsequently went viral on social media.
But Jones kept to his same old script. No, he was not going to respond to the incident with a fiery response.
He even laughed it off.
“They’re upset and frustrated, and we’re frustrated, too,” Jones said after practice Wednesday. “I understand that. I’m not easily offended. I understand how it works. I gotta play better, we all gotta play better.”
Despite his unwavering assurance he doesn’t let any of it get to him, there are serious questions about Jones’ confidence after his Week 1 performance.
He was jittery in the pocket, unsure of his reads and all over the place with his footwork, completing just 22-of-42 passes for 186 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions — one of which was returned for a pick-six.
The ensuing discourse and vitriol surrounding Jones won’t help his psyche.
How can he pick himself back up mentally?
“Doing the things that you need to do each and every week to prepare for a game, which he’ll do,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “And then handling things with the right mindset. Be able to persevere through things, let your passion show, have competitive stamina. Mental toughness is a real thing. Focus on the things that’s important, which is what his coaches are teaching him to do, how he goes out and practices with the right mindset.”
Though Jones didn’t think much of the fan incident, others felt differently.
Right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor, who is in his first season with the team, responded to the video on X and denounced it, calling it “inhumane.” If Jones did not want to sound off about it, one of his blockers sure did.
“There has to be a line with fans where it’s OK to boo, it’s OK to be frustrated, but to find a guy after a game and hassle him as he’s trying to get to his car, obviously he already feels bad, I don’t like that, at all,” Eluemunor told The Post. “I think that somebody had to say something about that. That’s my quarterback, I’m supposed to protect him, on and off the field. I don’t respect that at all.”
Edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux, who faced criticism himself for failing to record a tackle in Sunday’s loss, lauded Jones for ignoring the fans and walking past them.
“That’s all you can do, because [if it were] me, it could have been a different story,” Thibodeaux told The Post. “I’d have still been in the media [talking about it], you know? I’m from L.A., so at the end of the day, I just hope everybody be safe and just remember that people are human, because you just never know how people can react.
“Hopefully it was a safe situation. Obviously people following you to your car, doing all that kind of thing, is unsafe but from what I heard, it was kids, just knuckleheads. People getting carried away, people following you to your car, anything can happen in this world.”
The ridicule isn’t just coming from fans.
Vikings edge rusher Jonathan Greenard said his team “started to feel a little bad” for Jones given how badly he was playing.
But again, at this point, Jones knows the deal. This isn’t exactly foreign terrain for him.
“I feel like I’ve been doubted plenty for a long time and dealt with that time and time again and done a good job with it,” Jones said. “I think my mental toughness is in a good spot, and I’m not concerned about that.”
