Duke Football Starter Profile: Quarterback Daniel Jones

Entering his third season under center for the Duke football team, Daniel Jones is trying to bounce back from a sophomore year that was not as efficient as when he was a freshman.

Many two-star prospects in high school are no longer playing competitive football during their fourth season after receiving a diploma. As for the ones that are, they are typically at the bottom of the depth chart or a starter for a school that is not a member of one of the five power conferences.

There is a former two-star quarterback prospect in Durham, NC, though, who is about to begin his third season directing an ACC offense. But if redshirt junior Daniel Jones has any plans to finish his collegiate career on the short list of the best quarterbacks in the history of Duke football, he will have to start performing more like his freshman version and less like his second year starting behind center.

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Although Jones’ sophomore campaign included the Blue Devils bouncing back from a bowl-less 2016 season by posting wins in the final two weekends of the regular season to sneak into the Quick Lane Bowl, Jones slid backward statistically after performing well above expectations as a freshman.

Jones had impressed coaches and fans when he was thrust into the starting role as a freshman after it was determined that expected starter Thomas Sirk would miss the entire 2016 season due to an Achilles injury.

As a sophomore, though, Jones’ completion percentage dropped to 56.7 after he completed 62.8 percent of his passes as a freshman. The 6-5, 220-pound Charlotte native also saw drops in his total passing yards and his touchdown-to-interception ratio.

This season, the 21-year-old will serve as a team captain for the second year in a row. His three top targets from last season’s squad (T.J. Rahming, Johnathan Lloyd, and Chris Taylor) are all back as seniors. Jones is also one of only two returning quarterbacks in the country to have already accumulated more than 5,500 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards.

However, the third-year starter will be protected by an offensive line that lost three starters from last season and could be the weak link in the offense. If Jones wants to continue proving wrong the scouts who gave him a two-star rating in high school, he will need help from his linemen.

But he will also need to figure out what led him to make frequent poor decisions as a sophomore.