Offerings from Seahawks GM John Schneider and NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah this offseason have pointed to Drew Lock being part of an actual quarterback competition in New York. The organization’s stance has remained in the Daniel Jones camp, but the five-year starter submitted a poor showing in his abbreviated 2023 season.
Some pushback has emerged regarding the possibility Lock will be part of a true competition with Jones. Barring a spectacular development from Lock during the offseason program, ESPN.com’s Jordan Raanan views this as Jones’ job. The expectation remains that Jones will return to starter duties once he is cleared, The Athletic’s Charlotte Carroll adds.
[RELATED: Giants Deny Buyer’s Remorse On Daniel Jones]
Lock, who has entered just one of his five NFL seasons as a starter (2020), said the Giants did convey to him upon signing he would be Jones’ backup. Viewed at one point as the Seahawks’ most likely post-Russell Wilson starter, Lock lost a summer competition to Geno Smith in 2022. With Smith re-signing on a three-year, $75MM deal and Lock returning to Seattle on a one-year, $4MM accord, no competition occurred in 2023. Jones has never exactly competed for the New York QB1 gig, as his draft status and Eli Manning‘s age led to a September 2019 change. Jones’ career has been rocky, though, and his contract points to pressure being justifiably applied — even after the Giants passed on drafting a QB at No. 6.
Big Blue, of course, went through an exhaustive research project on this draft’s QB crop. And the team did make an aggressive offer — Nos. 6 and 47 and a 2025 first-rounder — for the Patriots’ No. 3 pick, with Drake Maye as the target in that proposed swap. The Giants did not view the Michael Penix Jr.–J.J. McCarthy–Bo Nix contingent as a sufficient upgrade on Jones or Lock to pass on filling its wide receiver need in Round 1. Malik Nabers is now poised to help Jones (or Lock, potentially) this season.
Jones’ four-year, $160MM contract features language that could prompt the Giants to be careful with an injury-prone player, opening the door for Lock to see time down the stretch — certainly if the team is out of contention. A $12MM injury guarantee would kick in if Jones is unable to pass a physical by the start of the 2025 league year. Jones entered the 2022 and ’24 league years on the mend; his injury history affected the Giants’ pursuit of QBs in this draft class and influenced Lock to sign with the team. Even if Jones recovers from his ACL rehab in time for training camp — all parties’ long-held expectation — his 2025 guarantee offers a variable here. If Jones can pass a physical next March, the Giants can designate him a post-June 1 cut and incur less than $12MM in dead money.
The Giants and Jones engaged in a negotiation that went down to the wire in March 2023. The QB used the franchise tag deadline, which impacted Saquon Barkley‘s future with the team, as leverage en route to the $40MM-per-year deal that included $81MM guaranteed. During a process that featured Jones changing agents, his asking price was believed to have reached $47MM per year at one point. The Giants were not exactly thrilled their starter aimed to squeeze the team in negotiations, with SNY’s Connor Hughes noting the QB’s hardline stance rubbed some in the organization the wrong way.
It is obviously not uncommon for players to maximize leverage during talks; the most accomplished QB in the Giants’ division, Dak Prescott, did this three years ago to secure $40MM per year on a player-friendly structure. Prescott also used a franchise tag deadline as leverage, and while the Giants hoped Jones’ asking price would come in around $35MM per year, the QB knew the team prioritized him over Barkley. After a playoff win, Jones took full advantage.
A year later, Barkley — after turning down a Giants extension offer in July 2023 — is elsewhere and Jones faces another “prove it” year. Jones’ New York future certainly appears to hinge on how he performs this season — should he indeed be the starter and Lock the backup.
$40M … BWAHAHAHAHAHA
The Giants might as well hang a “Come Watch Us Tank” banner at the stadium entrance if they decide to make Lock their starter. Unfortunately the other available options look rather gloomy as well.
Haven’t watched alot of Giants games, but is Jones that bad? They stumbled into the playoffs 2 years ago with a team that didn’t have alot of talent. Last year they had tons of injuries so what do you expect?
“Is Jones that bad?” – well, no. But he’s a mid-tier at best QB making $40m a year on a mid-tier at best team. If he was making $20m and the Giants could solidify the rest of their team in FA, no worries. But this situation is a dumpster fire.
Well, his supporting cast has never been great and he’s probably not as bad as he looked last year, when his interception rate and sack rate soared to career highs. But he also got paid based on a year when his interception rate dropped to a career low and his rushing touchdowns spiked unsustainably. They also snuck into the playoffs in a year when they managed to score more than 27 points one time.
He’s definitely not a top tier QB, but it’s been difficult to assess him. He does tend to lock onto his targets. He sometimes holds on to the ball too long. But (sorry for the length of this):
A) he’s never had a healthy array of weapons. The healthiest Saquon has ever been for him was 2022, when they made the playoffs, but even then, he was not totally 100% for a good chunk of the season.
B) he has never had a good WR corps. In 2022, Jones’s best season, his WR corps was this preseason: WR1 – Kenny Golladay, WR2 – Sterling Shepard, WR3 – Toney, WR4 – Slayton, WR5 – Wan’Dale Robinson. Golladay was injured, horrible, a bad locker room presence, and was benched. Shepard tore his ACL in Week 3. Toney was injured, horrible, a bad locker room presence, and traded by Week 8. Slayton was injured for the first 1/4 of the season. Robinson was injured and missed 11 weeks. Jones was using Ricky James, Isaiah Hodgins, David Sills, etc. It’s been like this every year. Jones’s best receiving weapon to date has been Evan Engram.
C) he’s had a horrible OL for most of his career, and last year they were one of the worst in the league again. Anecdotally, they were one of the worst OLs I’ve ever seen in 30+ years of watching football. Better as the season progressed but absurdly bad for the first half of the season. PFF OL rankings for each of Jones’s years: 2019 – 17th, 2020 – 31st, 2021 – 30th, 2022 – 18th (based largely on Andrew Thomas). Can’t find their rankings for 2023 (only pre-season rankings) but it’s definitely in the 28-32 range.
D) he’s had bad coaching and he’s had a bunch of different coaches. Coaches – Pat Shurmer, Joe Judge, and Brian Daboll. Daboll is solid but Shurmer and Judge were disasters. OCs – Mike Shula, Jason Garrett, Freddie Kitchens, Mike Kafka. Kafka seems decent enough, but the others were horrible and bland.
In the right situation, Jones could be in the 10 to 15th best QBs rankings if you factor in his running ability. But he’s never had anything close to the right situation.
Well said. Thanks!
rct – Bravo, this is one of the most thoughtful, detailed analyses I’ve seen on the Giants’ board, thank you.
The key with “right situation” is that Jones is one (expensive) guy who can be replaced with a better option who can transcend some of the team’s faults or at least, lack of strengths. Eli, for one, overcame the worst OL in the league and the worst running game until Dec with a rookie undrafted FA as his top WR option, passed for almost 5000 yards and won the SB in 2011 (the defense didn’t wake up until the playoffs).
Meanwhile it is easier and much more of a difference maker to replace Jones than it is to fully upgrade the OL – it still needs help – and the receiving corps and the running game with limited cap space and viable options.
I agree that if you put Jones on the Cowboys or Eagles with their OL and various options, and he’s healthy running, he could effectively lead the offense to top half of the league.
BTW PFF rated the Giants’ OL 29th in 2023, I was actually surprised as I just quickly scrolled to the end of the article looking for them more quickly and had to scroll back up a little bit. No QB can do much taking the snap and trying to dump or screen the ball off quickly while he’s still taking his drop because the pass rush has already reached him – I saw this numerous times each game last year.
Devito has a better chance than lock. All
Of a sudden Lock is a good QB? Give me a break. Saw this from an analyst that sums up the situation “An injured Daniel jones is still a better option than a healthy Drew Lock”
If the Giants need to have a competition between Lock and Jones they will end up with no more than 6 wins again this year.
I doubt Lock would win a competition against any of the QBs the Steelers recently rejected.