How Daniel Jones can really stick it to Baker Mayfield
Baker Mayfield can use a reminder that there were people who couldn’t believe Browns GM John Dorsey made him the first overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft instead of Sam Darnold.
“I cannot believe the Giants took Daniel Jones,” Mayfield told GQ. “Blows my mind.”
OK, kid:
Shut him up.
Prove Baker Mayfield wrong.
Prove the world outside of East Rutherford wrong.
“I think I’m a winner,” Jones said.
Jones was as fazed by all this as much as Eli Manning was fazed by Odell Beckham Jr. defining himself as the Giants brand.
The Giants fell in love with Jones in large part because he has the right makeup for New York.
They also see a raging competitive fire inside him that one day, once he has a better handle on his craft, should manifest itself in this way:
Pat Shurmur: “The one thing about Dan is don’t confuse calm and composed for a guy that’s competitive and a winner. I’m fond of the phrase ‘Still waters run deep.’ ”
Mayfield on Tuesday tried clarifying his comments — something about being surprised he was the first-overall pick — but he never should have said a peep about Jones in the first place.
Shut him up.
“There’s a lot of things that motivate me before something like that would,” Jones said. “I don’t always show it but I think I’m am a very passionate person.”
Jones belongs to the Tom Coughlin School of Talk Is Cheap, Play the Game.
“I’m not sure that’s the best motivator, if the thing you’re looking forward to doing the most is proving him wrong, I’m not sure that’s the best way to improve every day or the best way to really get where you want to go,” Jones said.
There were plenty of people, yours truly included, whose mind was blown when Dave Gettleman used the sixth pick of the draft on Daniel Jones.
Opinions were all over the map on Jones, from those who had a second-round grade on him to Gil Brandt, who saw a combination of Peyton and Eli Manning in him.
Jones never blinked, never flinched, blocked out the noise.
One day, probably next season when the teams will meet at MetLife, he will get to duel Mayfield.
“I’d make sure we won the game, maybe,” he said and chuckled.
The force of Mayfield’s personality and rocket right arm has driven the hype to euphoric levels off Lake Erie.
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He has silenced critics who doubted he would ever remind anyone of Drew Brees and Russell Wilson. Some viewed him as a brash punk for planting the Oklahoma flag at Ohio State.
Daniel Jones never planted a Duke flag on enemy turf. That isn’t his style. He had every right to tell Mayfield to mind his own damn business, and passed.
“I try not to listen to much that’s said, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job of that,” Jones said. “I got a lot to worry about here and I’m focused on that.”
We love our athletes who speak their mind instead of giving us mealy-mouthed poppycock. But what was the point here?
“He deserves a lot more respect,” Jones’ roommate Dexter Lawrence said.
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In a not-so-roundabout way, Mayfield is piling on the pile atop Gettleman. Ingrate! It was Gettleman who gifted him Beckham, the mercurial, disgruntled talent he didn’t sign to a $90 million contract to trade him to a place Beckham foolishly believes was intended to be his burial ground.
“Some people overthink it,” Mayfield said. “That’s where people go wrong. They forget you’ve gotta win.”
Mayfield may have forgotten or never known that someone named John Unitas never had a winning season at Louisville; John Elway was 15-18 at Stanford; Patrick Mahomes was 13-16 at Texas Tech. Jones was 17-19 at Duke.
“I know he’s a winner,” Shurmur said, “and he helped his team win games.”
Daniel Jones has checked off a number of boxes this summer. The Giants are thrilled with him. They are convinced that when his time comes, he will be ready.
In the meantime, Daniel Jones has won the same number of playoff games as Baker Mayfield. Blows my mind.
