We’ve all heard the saying: White people catch a cold; Black people catch pneumonia. Or even more commonly, Black people have to work twice as hard. That has always been our harsh reality: Black people have to be twice as good just to be afforded the same opportunities as our counterparts. It doesn’t matter what you do; you could be a doctor, lawyer or even a professional athlete. White privilege is the reason for this, and nobody in NFL history has gotten further with their white privilege than Daniel Jones.
If we’re being completely honest, Jones should have never even been a Giant, let alone a first-round pick — which is the first thing his white privilege earned him. Jones was an average quarterback during his time at Duke, and average is being nice. In three seasons as the starter for Duke, Jones threw for 52 touchdowns. It doesn’t sound bad until you compare it to Kyler Murray, who went first overall in the same draft and accounted for 51 touchdowns in the 2018 collegiate season alone. OK, Murray won the Heisman; maybe that’s not a fair comparison. The second-highest-rated QB in the 2019 draft was Dwayne Haskins, who accounted for 50 touchdowns that season. Jones shouldn’t have been the second QB taken in the draft, and there are arguments for other QBs ahead of him as well. His white privilege got him overdrafted, and by a lot.
His white privilege also got Danny Dimes paid a contract he had no business getting. Once Eli Manning retired, the franchise was given to Jones, undeservedly so. He was made the starter, he was made a captain, and he got all the perks handed to him that Manning had to win multiple Super Bowls for. The worst of all these perks was the $160 million contract extension that the Giants gave him in 2023. At the time, this deal made Jones the 10th-highest-paid QB in the league, a distinction he did not earn. There was absolutely no reason for Jones to be making the same amount as Matt Stafford or Dak Prescott (before he signed his record-breaking 2024 deal). The New York Giants made a mistake drafting him and then doubled down by paying him a fortune, which he can thank his white privilege for as well.
But privilege can only take you so far; eventually you have to put up or shut up, and that’s what happened with Jones and the Giants this season. It took them six seasons, but this year Jones was just too bad to ignore. In 10 starts prior to his benching this season, Jones threw only eight touchdowns to seven interceptions, going without a touchdown pass in six straight games. He threw for 2,070 yards on just 6.1 yards per attempt and posted a 79.4 passer rating. He made Giants history by becoming the first quarterback in franchise history to not score a touchdown at home in over 650 days. He was historically bad with an extremely long leash for some reason. In just the last two seasons, we’ve seen Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson benched without getting half of the runway Jones received. I wonder why.
But all good things come to an end, and yes, even white privilege. The Giants are finally done with Jones, and he has probably played his last snap in New York, even with seven games to go. The Giants are smartly looking toward the future, and that future will be determined by what happens in these seven games. For the ideal scenario, the Giants need to lose every game and secure the No. 1 overall draft pick, which I believe they are tanking for since announcing Tommy DeVito will be their starter. Funny enough, if the Giants wanted to lose out, the best bet would probably be to keep Jones in. But Jones is so bad he probably couldn’t even lose right, and somehow he would probably find a way to win and mess up their opportunity for the first pick.
But rejoice, Giants fans, the Daniel Jones era is officially over, and it’s looking like the Shedeur era will soon begin. I just hope we afford the same grace and “privilege” to Shedeur Sanders that the Giants extended to Jones.
