Arizona Cardinals had every right to single out Daniel Jones

The Arizona Cardinals may have finished 4-13 last season, but their new head coach made the Giants quarterback look foolish back in January.

Daniel Jones is quite familiar with the Arizona Cardinals, as the Redbirds spurned him in favor of Kyler Murray back in 2019. Jones also struggled to find his footing in East Rutherford, New Jersey until 2022. Meanwhile, Murray, awful as he was last season, still has a Rookie of the Year and a pair of Pro Bowls to his name. So you can argue that the Cards made the right decision in 2019 by taking Murray first overall when it comes to quarterbacks, even if I personally preferred defensive end Nick Bosa. 

Regardless of the fact Murray has yet to win a playoff game, he still has more career accolades than one can say for Jones, who was basically on his last chance of being ‘the guy’ in East Rutherford, and a mediocre encore performance will probably change things this season. Anyway, you may now know that the Cardinals had a bit of fun regarding Jones and their other 16 opponents when they announced their schedule. 

Giants receiver Darius Slayton didn’t take kindly to the gesture, so he responded to the Cards, citing the fact that the franchise had no Super Bowl rings. And while he’s right in that regard, it’s also somewhat curious, because unless I’m missing something, I don’t remember Darius Slayton playing for any of the Giants Super Bowl winning teams. So yeah, it’s a bit cute that he mentioned a lack of rings. 

Arizona Cardinals head coach crushed Daniel Jones last season

So why did the Cards single out Jones in the first place? Maybe it had to do with the fact Jones led his New York Giants to a 38-7 defeat at the hands of Gannon’s defense in Philadelphia. 

Gannon’s unit ravaged Jones for five sacks for 26 yards, and the Giants quarterback completed a meager 15 of 27 pass attempts for 135 yards, an interception, and a laughable 53.8 quarterback rating. So yeah, there’s reason to have a bit of fun regarding Jones if you ask me. 

That said, Jones can probably march into the desert and at least look respectable against what is a rebuilding Arizona Cardinals defense. But if he comes in and Gannon’s, or better yet, Nick Rallis’, unit embarrasses Jones again, perhaps the Giants will start to regret having signed the underachieving Jones to such a lucrative extension after one halfway decent season. 

Source: Darius Slayton shuts up the Cardinals with great tweet defending Daniel Jones by Braulio Perez, GMENHQ.com

(Statistics provided by Pro-Football-Reference)