DETROIT — We are days away from Halloween, and the man who schooled Daniel Jones and knows what makes him tick isn’t worried about him seeing any ghosts on Sunday against the Lions.
Duke coach David Cutcliffe, asked if Jones is seeing ghosts — the way Sam Darnold was seeing ghosts against the Patriots, and most young quarterbacks at one time or another enter haunted houses — told The Post: “No. Absolutely not. Daniel sees the field extremely well, and I have not yet seen a ghost on a football field.
“I understand what he [Darnold] was trying to say. But no, there’s no magic cupboard. If you know what you want to do and why you’re doing it, you shouldn’t have that issue. I don’t think that’s the issue with Daniel. I think Daniel’s trying to make plays when you don’t always have to force a play. You learn patience. You learn when to do it, when not to do it.”
Cutcliffe firmly believes, and is here to assure Giants fans, that Jones is destined for greatness.
“I think, in the end, is what they’re seeing is what a great one looks like,” Cutcliffe said. “He’s not gonna back down from taking some risk. If you never take risk, you’re never gonna be great. That one will be great. It’s not gonna happen overnight, though. That league’s a tough place to do it quickly.
“The good part, it won’t ruin him. He won’t go away.
“Who he is and what he [is] both are pretty special.”
Jones has remained the same guy following the euphoria of his smashing debut and the error-prone disaster that has followed. It is critical for a quarterback, especially in the New York market.
Cutcliffe knows Jones well enough to guarantee that every time the kid is knocked down, he will get up, and get up with a vengeance.
“He’s tough physically, but you better be tough mentally to be a professional quarterback, period,” Cutcliffe said. “But to be a professional quarterback for the New York Giants, you have to be tough mentally. It will ignite him, he will embrace it rather than run from it, if that makes sense. It’ll be fuel to his fire.”
Golden Tate has observed that fire up-close and personal.
“You see what he’s gonna be once all this starts clicking to him and he figures it out,” Tate told The Post.
And what is Jones gonna be?
“I think he’s gonna be a dominant quarterback in this league,” Tate said. “He’s got all the tools, he’s definitely a smart kid. Obviously arm strength is very good. Throws a great ball. He’s gonna continue to work and he wants to be great. Some guys get frustrated and just kind of stop, stop working. He’s not that guy.”
Jones needs plenty of work for now on ball security (seven interceptions, five lost fumbles).
“That can be cured,” Cutcliffe said. “It has to be. He’s heard me say it here. The percentage of sacks that end up being fumbles are alarming. And so pocket movement requires a lot of work because here’s what happens to you — when you’re young, and all you’re doing is focusing on … and I love the fact that he keeps his eyes downfield. But your mechanics have to be so ingrained with two hands on the ball. You drill it, you drill it, you drill it. It’s not something you can think about, you just have to do it. I want their eyes and their brains downfield, but at the same time, your reflex, your default mechanism has to always be ball security.”
Then there is Jones’ gunslinger mentality that one day will be a blessing but can also be a curse as he endures the inevitable growing pains. It was Wayne Gretzky who reminded us that you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.
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“Never up, never in,” Cutcliffe said. “If you’re afraid to shoot it, you’re not gonna score. He believes in himself. He does the preparation, he does the work, he knows why he’s doing something, what he’s doing. So he’s not a guy that’s gonna easily be swayed. He’ll just become more determined.”
It was Bill Parcells who liked to say that, if they don’t bite as puppies, they won’t bite later on. Beware of Daniel Jones.
“He’s always been fierce,” Cutcliffe said. “He wants to make the play. And he made our defense miserable. He’s a guy that believes he can make the throws, and he can. And so he is going to try to put the ball in there and sometimes sting it in there, and when you’re young, people are gonna at times get their hands on it, and you gotta learn, only time can tell you in any league, when to take those risks and when not to. That’s gonna be a learning curve for him.
“The other part of it is that when you are a young quarterback in that league, and he has got a very aggressive nature — he’s gonna take shots and make shots now. But the receivers ultimately will learn to do the things he expects ’em to do. Get on the same page is what we call it. And when that starts occurring, you end up with a guy that’s got great playmaking ability.”
Jones will learn the benefit of throwing the ball away and of checking it down when the risk outweighs the reward.
“It goes back to where your eyes are,” Cutcliffe said. “What he would hear from me would be just two words — Drew Brees. I think Drew has done a great job of that through the years. He knows exactly what I’m talking about.”
Cutcliffe follows Jones’ rookie season whenever possible.
“The guys in the video room will give me the good plays and some of the bad plays and I’ll look at a few of ’em,” Cutcliffe said. “I keep up with it, i read about it when I can, when I don’t sleep at three o’clock in the morning, I’ll read a little bit.”’
He sometimes wonders whether his pupil sleeps.
“He’s in good spirits,” Cutcliffe said. “He’s not gonna hang his head. He’s gonna go to incredible efforts to work and prepare. He gets in early and he stays late. I’m just gonna have to remind him you gotta sleep too now. He will take great pride in making things get better in a hurry. But you can’t press, you just gotta let it happen.”
Cutcliffe spoke to Jones last week simply to encourage him.
“I just tell him don’t lose faith in what you know is right,” he said. “You have to have a belief system as a quarterback. And if you maintain that belief system, you’re gonna be fine. You gotta prepare, and you gotta believe, and the more you believe and the more you prepare, the better things are gonna go. The worm doesn’t turn overnight, and it’s not going to. But he’s gonna be fine.”
Now let’s see the kid spook the Lions.