The Giants said they believe in Daniel Jones, but their decision not to pick up his fifth-year option said something else: that they’re hedging their bets.

Jones is smart enough to understand that. As best the Daily News can gauge, he is not hanging his head. He is more determined than ever to embrace the challenge of proving his worth as the No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.

“Me personally, observing him and seeing Daniel, he’s the same Daniel,” Saquon Barkley said this week at a United Way charity event in Manhattan. “He’s coming in every single day and working because he wants to be great.”

Several league sources look at this team, though, and they don’t see an optimal situation for Jones to thrive and win immediately, even after the first-round pick of right tackle Evan Neal.

This is the first year of a long-term rebuild and salary cap cleanup. So is it even fair to expect Jones to blossom into a franchise QB when the team around him still doesn’t look ready?

Absolutely, said Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, who overcame much longer odds as an undrafted quarterback than a first-rounder like Jones.

“Everybody wants to get their big deal two years before the contract is up and wants teams to commit to them for next decade, but it doesn’t work that way,” Warner, 50, an NFL Network analyst, told the News on Friday. “Daniel has to be realistic and say ‘You know what? I haven’t played at that level to say I’m a franchise guy yet.’

“It doesn’t mean he can’t,” said Warner, a former Giant. “The lack of weapons around him could be a reason for why he hasn’t yet. And it doesn’t mean the Giants don’t believe in you. It doesn’t mean they don’t want you to be that franchise quarterback. But the money at that position is crazy.”

So Warner said the Giants’ decision to avoid picking up the $22.384 million fifth-year option made sense to him. He doesn’t think the Giants are talking out of both sides of their mouths. He believes Jones still has a real chance to lock down this job for the long term.

“I think it was the right thing to do by the organization and in accordance with how Daniel has played to this point,” Warner said. “But I don’t think it’s contradictory to what the Giants are saying. They’re saying we’re going to put a team around him and create an infrastructure so he has the chance to show us what he’s going to be. And if he does, we’re gonna sign him to that deal.

“But he hasn’t shown us yet.”

Jones, 24, knows he hasn’t done enough, even if a dearth of quality players around him and a revolving door of play-callers have contributed plenty to the disappointment.

“I take full responsibility for how I’ve played, and we haven’t won enough games,” Jones said in early April. “We haven’t scored enough points. We haven’t done things well enough. I take responsibility for that.”

Former Jets QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, asked this week about Jones’ long odds, viewed the situation optimistically for the Giants’ QB.

“I think opportunity is all you can ask for in this league, especially at the quarterback spot,” Fitzpatrick said at Willie Colon’s charity golf event in Summit, N.J. “There’s only 32 jobs. So to have the opportunity to go and play, that’s all you can ask for. And you’re either gonna prove it or not.”

One source also pointed out that the fifth-year option wouldn’t have provided more security for Jones as the Giants’ 2023 starter anyway. If he played poorly this year and they’d picked up the option, the team would still be looking to draft a quarterback next spring regardless.

If he plays well, they can retain his rights for 2023 with the franchise tag (around $31 million) or transition tag (about $28 million), or sign him long-term.

Giants GM Joe Schoen will be in a tricky spot next year if Jones falters, though.

Schoen wasn’t able to turn this year’s overflowing draft capital into an extra first rounder for next year. And he didn’t draft a mid-round quarterback for coach Brian Daboll to develop, either.

The Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans, Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins all have multiple 2023 first rounders, and all five have a chance to be in the QB sweepstakes.

So while the Giants have put Jones on notice, they have a lot riding on him turning the corner.

Still, what exactly would it mean for Jones to take the next step? Outside of winning more games, what does he need to show?

Warner said it’s important to “temper expectations” and not demand a Josh Allen-like “transcendent jump” just because Jones is running the same offense Daboll used in Buffalo. He called Allen a “unique and special” talent.

But he said “when you play the game, you’ve got to make second-level throws consistently when you’re not playing in a perfect world. And in this offense, Josh Allen was given the opportunity to make those second-level throws, and that’s what separated him — his ability to make those throws.”

“I’m not sure that’s Daniel’s game,” Warner added. “Is that because of the system and where he’s been, or because of who he is and how he has to play the game? That’s the biggest question about this offense and the fit. Are they gonna try to make him do the things Josh Allen did? And if they do, Daniel’s gonna get to show us if he can be that kinda guy.”

Giants head coach Brian Daboll said on WFAN this week that he wants Jones to “not be afraid of consequences and pull the trigger and attack.”

As conservatively as Jason Garrett ran the Giants’ plays in 2020, there was a reason for that strategy: to help Jones protect the ball and curb the bad decisions and turnovers.

Warner said the Giants will never get a good read on their quarterback, however — or compete in the modern game — if they don’t give Jones the freedom to show what he has.

“You’re never gonna be a great team or compete for a championship if you’re gonna keep a leash on your quarterback, if he doesn’t do what’s needed to compete with the best in the league,” Warner said. That’s the approach you have to take with Daniel is ‘show us. We want you to be that guy, now it’s time to do your part and be that guy.’ If you continue to keep handcuffs on him, then you’re just saying he’s not that guy.”

Barkley, 25, who is playing on his fifth-year option in 2022, can identify with Jones’ predicament and pressure. And he believes Jones is poised to lead a “special team.”

“DJ, he’s a heck of a guy, heck of a player,” Barkley said. “The best advice I can give to him is the same advice I give to myself: continue to work and the rest is gonna take care of itself. The pieces are gonna fall together.”

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