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It has been a long and lonely road back to his huddle, a long and lonely road across nine months on which only a man on a mission could scoff at the potholes and beat the odds and fully expect to complete the journey ahead of everyone else’s schedule.
And Saturday in Houston, when Daniel Jones returns to his dream job as New York Giants quarterback, he will return with more admiration and respect from his teammates than perhaps he has ever known … teammates who were there when his right knee crumpled to the ground Nov. 5 at Las Vegas, and teammates who had only watched him from afar.
“It’s not easy. A lot of people don’t think about how many months he’s spent here in the offseason when guys are going on vacation and guys are back home and whatnot,” Micah McFadden told The Post. “He’s been up here grinding and getting healthy. Just admire the way he’s attacked it. Tons of respect for him, and excited to see him get back out there this weekend.”
No one will be more excited than Jones — free of doubts about his knee, free of concern about his neck, free to play quarterback again, and better than he did in his six games of running for his life last season.
“I’m ready to go. I’m ready to play as much as Dabs wants me to play,” he said, referring to head coach Brian Daboll.
Jones has moved effortlessly, and his deep-ball accuracy has improved following the predictable early training-camp rust.
“No surprise to us,” Andrew Thomas said. “If it was anything that he can control, I had no doubt.”
Jones does not have the mesmerizing trance on his Giants teammates that Aaron Rodgers has on his Jets teammates, and a torn 26-year-old ACL is not the hurdle that a torn 40-year-old Achilles is. It doesn’t mean Jones isn’t being viewed by teammates as a source of inspiration, too.
“Really proud that he’s my quarterback,” McFadden said.
Devin Singletary was on a Texans team that beat the Buccaneers, 39-37, in Houston that day when C.J. Stroud threw five touchdown passes. Now he replaces Saquon Barkley behind his new quarterback.
“You’ve gotta admire just everything he’s been through, the injuries and stuff, and to keep fighting,” Singletary told The Post. “It’s a tough league, and to be in New York and doing this, yeah, that’s tough. You gotta be mentally tough to do that.”
Jones is more like Eli Manning than Phil Simms in his leadership style, but until he wins, he won’t get anywhere near the same level of respect for it from outside 1925 Giants Drive.
“He’s a general,” Singletary told The Post. “He demands your attention. He demands that juice to come out and start fast, and then on the back end to finish strong. You feel that energy when he comes into the huddle every time.”
McFadden: “When he gets up and talks in front of the team, he has that demanding voice, ’cause he’s not always gonna do it, but when he does, everybody knows you gotta listen and you want to hear what that guy has to say.”
Eric Gray in the fieldhouse: “He’s a great leader. He’s a type of guy that’s probably in the locker room right now looking at the practice we just had.”
McFadden remembers the day Jones’ world turned upside down.
“I remember something kind of funky happened the play before, and he was kind of getting up hobbling and he stayed in there,” McFadden said, “and then he comes over to the sideline after he went down, and he’s like running and cutting on the sideline. We’re like, ‘He doesn’t look bad,’ and it turns out he had a torn ACL. That’s just kind of how weird the injury can be, you don’t really know it’s fully torn until some people get their hands on it and feel it. It’s such a strange injury, and obviously the recovery time’s a long time usually for that type of injury.”
Thomas remembers, as well.
“It was a tough day,” he said. “Obviously when you see a non-contact injury like that, it’s not a good feeling. Definitely a tough blow, but he’s worked hard to come back, so I’m excited to see him play this year.”
Behind a more experienced offensive line. With his first No. 1 receiver in Malik Nabers.
“It’s his third year in this offense, and I think he’s really commanding the huddle just with his play, especially with some young receivers, so he’s helping them come along, and I think he’s doing a good job of that,” Thomas said.
One pressing issue is whether he will remain Bearded Daniel Jones.
“I told him to keep it,” Singletary said, “but he’s like, he don’t know. It was me and a couple of other guys who was messing with him about it. Give him like a more rugged look, like he’s coming, he means business, he’s got his hard hat. ‘It don’t matter. Ain’t no clean cut. I’m getting ready to get down and dirty.’ ”
Gray was a rookie last season.
“I think it’s gonna be special for him to just get back out there and just play football in a live setting,” Gray said.
You bet it is.
“I’ll be excited to be out there again and just going through the game routine, the pregame, getting out there, playing in front of a crowd,” Jones said.
Welcome back, Daniel Jones.
