Coach Pat Shurmur stated Monday that the Giants will proceed with the expectation that Jones (ankle) will be ready to start Week 16 in Washington, but a decision on the rookie's status will be made based on how he progresses as the week rolls along, Ralph Vacchiano of SportsNet New York reports. "We'll just have to see. We'll just push him along like we did last week. We started [last] week with the idea he might be ready to play. We'll do the same this week," Shurmur said.
In other words, the Giants aren't viewing Jones as a shutdown candidate, even with the team sitting at 3-11 and having little to gain by rushing the rookie first-round pick back into action. Jones never advanced beyond limited participation in practice last week before being ruled out two days ahead of Sunday's win over the Dolphins, so he'll probably need to put in a full workout or two during the current week for the Giants to sign off on his availability. Per Art Stapleton of The Bergen Record, Shurmur said Monday that it would be "overthinking it a little bit" for the Giants to give the third option on the depth chart, Alex Tanney, work under center for either of the final two games, so Eli Manning would be in position for a third straight start if Jones fails to gain clearance this week.