FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, September 23rd, 2019

DANIEL JONES SPEAKS WITH PETER KING IN THIS WEEK’S “FMIA” COLUMN; PLUS MORE FROM TIRICO, DUNGY, HARRISON, FLORIO & SIMMS EXCLUSIVELY ACROSS NBC SPORTS

“His biggest message to me was to keep it simple. Not try to be perfect…That was tremendous advice. I’m a first-year player. I need that.” – Jones on Eli Manning

“He gave them hope and a lot of times in the league when you have a young quarterback, that’s just what you’re looking for, some hope.” – Rodney Harrison on Daniel Jones on The Mike Tirico Podcast

“If Patrick Mahomes stays healthy, he’ll waltz away with his second straight MVP.” – King

 “The return of Cooper Kupp makes a good receiving corps superior. I’m buying Rams stock.” – King

STAMFORD, Conn. – September 23, 2019 – Peter King speaks with New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones after the rookie rallied the Giants to a 32-31come-from-behind win in Tampa Bay, in this week’s edition of Football Morning in America, available now exclusively on NBCSports.com. King also shares his thoughts from this weekend and hands out his Week 3 awards.

Additionally, across NBC Sports, on The Mike Tirico Podcast, Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison and Mike Florio recap Week 3 and discuss what’s ahead for the Giants, Colts and Ravens. Florio and Chris Simms break down all of the action across the NFL on PFT Live and Chris Simms Unbuttoned, while the Football Night in America crew share their Sunday Night 7 picks for next week’s Sunday Night Football matchup between the Cowboys and Saints.

The following are highlights from this week’s edition of Football Morning in America:

ON DANIEL JONES

King: “Giants fans didn’t have to wait long to see what the coaches had been seeing all camp and preseason…The sleepy franchise has life…Jones has made the Giants interesting now.”

Daniel Jones on whether the win was rewarding: “Yeah, I mean…fun to get a win, but at the end of the day it’s one game. We’ll look forward to building off it.”

Jones on the advice he received from Eli Manning: “His support is something I’m super grateful for. His biggest message to me was to keep it simple. Not try to be perfect. Not try to get the perfect call or the perfect check every time. Get on the same page, be clear in the huddle, and be confident, and go with it. That was tremendous advice. I’m a first-year player. I need that.”

Pat Shurmur on Jones: “He’s mature beyond all of our years.”

KING’S WEEK 3 THOUGHTS

King: “If Patrick Mahomes stays healthy, he’ll waltz away with his second straight MVP…Mahomes now has advanced to the point on the [Andy] Reid Trustworthy Scale that Reid ran the play Mahomes chose to close out the game Sunday.”

King: “The Jalen Ramsey trade market seems to have cooled…Keep hearing Ramsey will honor his contract and play out the fifth-year option, but then he wants to be a free agent. We’ll see if a team like Philadelphia gets desperate.”

King: “The Lions are 2-0-1, and they’re not beating themselves…Very interesting matchup Sunday in Detroit: Chiefs-Lions, combined 5-0-1, in a surprisingly interesting game.”

King: “The Bills are 3-0, and they host the 3-0 Patriots on Sunday in Crazytown…This is probably a year or two early for the Bills’ rebuild to bear fruit, particularly against the Patriots. But this will be a good measuring stick game for the Bills and for quarterback Josh Allen.”

King: “The Rams really impressed me Sunday, and they didn’t even blow out the Browns…They haven’t played their best offensive football yet – which is slightly worrisome because the Cleveland secondary was so depleted Sunday. And the return of Cooper Kupp makes a good receiving corps superior. I’m buying Rams stock.”

ON GARDNER MINSHEW

King: “Sixth-round rookie quarterback Gardner Minshew II of Jacksonville might really be a heck of a football player…What a story he is, too.”

Washington State head coach Mike Leach on recruiting Minshew in college: “My quote to him was, ‘Do you want to go to Alabama and hold a clipboard, or do you want to come here and lead the nation in passing?’”

Doug Marrone on Minshew’s demeanor: “If he does something well, you’ll see him pump his fists on the field, but by the time he comes over to the sideline, he’s moved on. ‘Hey, I have to do this better. Hey, this happened on the fourth play of that series. Hey, did you guys see this the way I saw it?’ He’s really good at communicating, and he has a maniacal work ethic.”

King: “We’ll see what the future holds, but Minshew has probably another month or so to stake his claim for playing time, until Nick Foles returns from his broken clavicle. He could give the Jaguars a ridiculously pleasant problem trying to figure out whether to play the kid with the mustache and the drive, or the Super Bowl champion who slayed the Patriots.”

Flint Minshew, Gardner’s father, on his success: “When you’ve had to kick down the door your whole life to get recognized and get a shot, this is pretty satisfying for Gardner. He was never Johnny Five Star, so I guarantee you he appreciates everything he has and will continue to appreciate it and work at it.”

ON ANTONIO BROWN

King: “No player in my 36 seasons covering the NFL has dug himself so many holes in such a short period of time.”

King: “If I’m a club owner or president, I tell my GM and coach, ‘We are not signing Antonio Brown. We are not even discussing signing Antonio Brown. The only way we’d reconsider is if he is totally innocent in the Britney Taylor case, guiltless in the case with the second woman, and goes though some counseling that can prove to us that he’s capable of being a teammate in a team sport.’”

KING’S WEEK 3 AWARDS

Offensive Players of the Week: Alvin Kamara, New Orleans, Daniel Jones, New York Giants, Jacoby Brissett, Indianapolis & Gardner Minshew, Jacksonville.

King on Kamara: “With no Drew Brees in the house of noise in Seattle, coach Sean Payton did what any sensible coach would do: He put the ball in the hands of his most dangerous player…The 33-27 win against the previously 2-0 Seahawks wasn’t that close, and Kamara was a huge reason why.”

King on Brissett: “The Colts are an Oakland home win next Sunday from being 3-1 in the first quarter of the season, with a quarterback playing every bit as well as Andrew Luck did last season – if not quite as explosively.”

Defensive Players of the Week: Calais Campbell, Jacksonville, Preston Smith and Za’Darius Smith, Green Bay & Eric Wilson, Minnesota.

King on Campbell: “In 2017, the Cardinals let Campbell, then 30, walk in free agency, figuring his best days were over. Man, were the Cardinals wrong. Campbell played one of the best games of his vastly underrated career for Jacksonville on Thursday night.”

Read the rest of the FMIA column here and catch the weekly Peter King Podcast here.

 

The following are highlights from this week’s edition of The Mike Tirico Podcast:

THE MIKE TIRICO PODCAST

Mike Tirico on the Giants: “I don’t think the Giants are going to do a heck of a lot here this year, but the Daniel Jones thing gave them some energy, some passion.”

Rodney Harrison on Daniel Jones: “Once he got in there, everyone else kind of upped their game…He gave them hope and a lot of times in the league when you have a young quarterback, that’s just what you’re looking for, some hope.”

Mike Florio on the Colts: “It’s hard not to think how good the Colts would be if Andrew Luck was playing. They’d be in Super Bowl contention this year and maybe they will be with Jacoby Brissett.”

Tony Dungy on the Ravens: “I think they’ve got a lot of elements. They’re still young, they’re finding they’re way. The defense isn’t as dominant as they’ve been and I still want to see this offense get better and better.”

 

The following are clips from last night’s edition of Football Night in America:

 

The following are additional highlights of NBC Sports’ NFL coverage heading into Week 4:

    • Mike Florio and Chris Simms, with guest Peter King, discuss all things NFL on PFT Live, including handing out their Week 3 superlatives, sharing updated power rankings and making their Week 4 game picks.
    • On Chris Simms Unbuttoned, Simms deep dives into Week 3 film and provides reasons why certain fanbases should feel better about the status of their team.

 

A new “Football Morning in America” posts every Monday morning exclusively on NBCSports.com through the NFL season. It was announced in May that King signed an exclusive agreement with NBC Sports Group that included writing a weekly Monday morning NFL column for NBCSports.com; making regular appearances on NBCSN’s and NBC Sports Radio’s PFT Live with Mike Florio; and continuing to contribute to Football Night in America, the most-watched studio show in sports.

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