Eli Manning 'excited' for Daniel Jones in new offense
Daniel Jones and Eli Manning were teammates in the Giants' QB room during the 2019 season, which served as the former's first and the latter's final seasons in the NFL.
Jones threw a career-best 24 touchdowns that season and is looking for a bounce-back campaign in 2022 under head coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka.
Manning recently spoke to NFL Network's Rhett Lewis from the Manning Passing Academy to discuss his former teammate.
"With Coach Daboll and what they're doing with that staff and Joe Schoen, having been around the facility some, the atmosphere has changed," said Manning. "I'm excited for him, excited for Daniel. I know he's worked extremely hard. He's been through a lot of offenses, a lot of coaching changes. Hopefully this will be the right one."
Daboll will represent the third head coach Jones has played for since joining the Giants in the 2019 draft, which means it is also the third new offense the young QB has had to learn since entering the NFL.
The new head coach, along with Kafka at offensive coordinator, bring aspects of the Bills' and Chiefs' offenses from the last few years, both of which were among the best in the NFL.
While he believes Jones will benefit from the arrival of the new coaching staff, Manning did note how the fourth-year QB has been dealt some difficult hands after being forced to constantly learn new playbooks.
"By my fifth year, I had been in the same offense the whole time," said the legendary Giants QB. "I knew it, I could coach it up. New guys were coming in, I was speaking the same language as my offensive coordinator and as Coach (Tom) Coughlin and kind of preaching the same stuff. With him, it's all new and he's learning. He's consistently trying to learn and learn and learn. Eventually, it just takes some time before it all sinks in."
Receivers relish pre-snap motion, freedom in new offense
Like a duck moving across the pond, what you will see from the Giants' new-look offense after the snap is only part of the picture. Below the surface is a lot of pre-snap commotion.
"Moving parts all day long," Sterling Shepard said on a receiver-themed episode of the Giants Huddle podcast. "It kind of gets overwhelming whenever you look at the motion list too. They have it broken down on our [tablets], so when you look at the motion list, it's so many different motions that you can do. It'll be good getting a lot of our playmakers moving around. It's going to be tough on defenses."
As evidenced by the success of Buffalo and Kansas City, the juggernaut offenses from which coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka hailed, the trademark is more than just window dressing. They are designed to get a jump on the defense, which the Bills and Chiefs executed to perfection.
"It's good because you get a man-zone read," Shepard said. "[That's] the number one thing, and this offense is all about playing fast, so anything that you can catch an inch on with what the defense is about to do is good. That's what the motions are really for, getting those man-zone reads."
That way, they get in motion when it really counts – after the snap and with the ball in their hands.
"It just allows you to get a lot more one-on-ones and get a lot of space," rookie Wan'Dale Robinson said on the podcast. "Create mismatches for the defense. They have to communicate and things like that. Whenever you're moving and playing fast, defenses can't communicate, and you get a lot of big plays out of that."
