Darren Waller confident Daniel Jones can get back to ‘2022 form’ with Giants

Darren Waller will no longer be catching passes from Daniel Jones this season after announcing his retirement last month, but the Pro Bowl tight end believes that Jones can return to the form that earned the signal-caller a four-year, $160 million contract after a successful 2022 campaign.

"I'm just excited for him to get another opportunity," Waller said on SiriusXM NFL Radio. "I feel like he gets a bad rep. [In] 2022, man, [he] played such good football. Last year was his first opportunity to get out there and play on the new bag. … It was tough for us as an offense to protect him, and you can't put any quarterback back there and not have any protection and expect them to really, truly thrive in the pocket.

"[I'm] hoping that they can get those things shored up and allow him to have an opportunity to show that he is a talented dude … [and] to play the football that he was playing in 2022. He's very athletic. … I feel like that's definitely still in him."

Jones was stellar in 2022, throwing for 3,205 yards and rushing for another 708 yards. He threw 15 touchdowns and ran for seven more. His follow-up campaign, though, was terrible in comparison. It was a season marred by injury: Jones missed Weeks 6-8 with a neck injury before suffering a season-ending ACL tear in Week 9.

In the games Jones did play, he was abysmal, mustering just 909 yards and two scores against six interceptions. That was more in six games than he gave up in 16 starts during 2022 (five), and Jones unsurprisingly went 1-5 in those outings. 

Which, unsurprisingly to many, prompted Brian Daboll's willingness to seek out a new headman to lead his offense. Daboll told Giants general manager Joe Schoen before the 2024 NFL Draft that he'd be open to trading