Giants quarterback Daniel Jones expects to have surgery to repair his torn ACL when the swelling goes down in the next couple of weeks and he discussed the injury with reporters for the first time from the team’s facility on Wednesday.
Jones’ season came to an end early last Sunday’s road game against the Raiders. Jones said he felt his right knee “kind of buckle in a different way” on the final play of the first quarter, but felt he was well enough to remain in the game. He felt the same thing happen on the next play, which will be his last until the 2024 season.
The contract Jones signed with the Giants this offseason all but guarantees he’ll be back with the team and Jones said “a lot of guys have gone through [torn ACL rehab] and come back really well.”
“It’s tough for sure,” Jones said, via Darryl Slater of NJ.com. “You put a lot into preparing to play. And to get it taken from you through an injury is definitely tough. That’s real, and that’s something that you deal with as a player. But I can’t afford to feel sorry for myself or sulk. And I’ll be fine. I’ll bounce back, attack the rehab process like I have anything else, and come back stronger.”
The Giants are 2-7 and reasons to hope for a lot of wins in the second half are very hard to find, so the team may be picking very early in the first round in April. That choice could impact Jones’ future with the club beyond next season, but any NFL future will be contingent on making a full return from the ACL injury so the prospect of a rookie quarterback joining the Giants shouldn’t be of prime importance to Jones right now.