Giants undecided on QB Daniel Jones for preseason opener

New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones is expected to participate in combined practices with the Detroit Lions this week as he continues to work his way back from a knee injury that cut his 2023 season short.

Still unknown is whether Jones will play in Thursday's preseason opener at home against the Lions.

"Yeah, we're just going to focus on these two days (of practices)," Giants head coach Brian Dabioll said Monday. "We'll go through all that later in the week. But expect him to go out there and practice well."

Daboll said last week that Jones was "ready to go." But he immediately followed that by saying "we'll take it as we go." Jones played just six games last season before he came away with an ACL tear in a Week 9 game against the Las Vegas Raiders.

"He'll practice like he normally has," Daboll said. "Again, it's practice. It's a competitive practice against two teams. We'll try to do it the right way. (Lions head coach) Dan (Campbell) and I have talked about it. We talked about it last year. We thought we got a lot out of it. But again, it's practice. It's just a higher-tempo practice because you're practicing against somebody else."

Free agent signee Drew Lock enters preseason as the No. 2 quarterback for the Giants with Tommy DeVito No. 3.

Jones had a rough 2023 season behind New York's injury-riddled offensive line. He was sacked 30 times in 190 dropbacks.

Jones, 27, finished with two touchdown passes and six interceptions in six games in 2023. He also missed three games with a neck injury.

Jones is 22-36-1 as a starter with 62 touchdown passes and 40 picks in 60 games (59 starts) since being selected by the Giants with the No. 6 overall pick in 2019 NFL Draft.

--Field Level Media