Jarrett Stidham has effectively owned a specific corner in the NFL, at least in recent years. Both the Raiders and Broncos inserted him as a starter in Week 17, doing so for the purpose of ensuring the previous starters — Derek Carr and Russell Wilson, respectively — would not suffer an injury. Tommy DeVito is now part of this chapter, as the Giants have parked Daniel Jones.
The Jones benching has not gone over too well in the locker room, as it is a thinly veiled effort to ensure a $23MM injury guarantee does not come into play for 2025 — when the Giants will release Jones. Although Jones is under contract through 2026, the Giants will drop him after six seasons as their starter. When informing Jones he will be benched, Brian Daboll spoke with the supplanted passer about his future with the organization.
Jones, 27, has lasted longer than many expected in this role. The Duke alum is the only QB to date to see a team decline his fifth-year option and then circle back and re-sign him. Jones is also the first quarterback in the rookie-scale era (2011-present) to average less than seven yards per attempt in each of his first five seasons only to be kept as a starter by the same team for a sixth. The Eli Manning successor has endured constant scrutiny, but his Big Apple tenure will end soon. A topic of discussion this week: will Jones take the Carr or Wilson route out of town?
Carr left the Raiders once the team benched him for Stidham. While this was themed around not being a distraction, Carr later said he was “very upset” once he learned of the benching. Wilson certainly expressed disappointment as well, but he both stuck around to back up Stidham last season and then — even as the writing appeared on the wall — publicly said he wanted to stay in Denver. Cuts commenced in both situations, with the Broncos’ decision bringing a record-smashing dead money sum.
When asked if he would stay with the Giants through season’s end, Jones said (via SNY) he was “processing” that call. With Daboll not confirming Jones would even be the team’s emergency QB in Week 12 — as recent signee Tim Boyle is under consideration for that role — it would stand to reason the 2019 No. 6 overall pick will give strong consideration to leaving the team. Jones would continue to collect his fully guaranteed salary ($35.5MM) if he goes the Carr route or stays with the team like Wilson did.
Embattled QBs certainly do not make a habit of receiving six-year opportunities, as Jones did well to sandwich a solid season (2022) between several unremarkable slates. His free agency status will be interesting to monitor. The league’s latest QB reclamation project, Sam Darnold looks like he will be the top free agent option. Jones may well be the second-most appealing name on a market that will include an underwhelming 2021 draft class and a host of backup-level options.
So is he, like, meditating?
He’s basically on a darkness retreat without the Aaron Rodgers theatrics.
They made him play scout team safety today. Classless organization and this won’t go over well with NFLPA or players in the locker room.
I don’t entirely agree, 16. The Giants ownership has typically been good, and it used to be one of the premier franchises in the league. But, I wholeheartedly agree that the GM and coach are a couple of classless clowns. They’ve already lost the locker room.
Case in point, Drew Lock has been the number two all season. Instead of elevating him, they start DeVito. Lock sounded completely blindsided, too. But Daboll seems to be painting it as everything is fine.
And making Jones play scout team safety is uncalled for. He deserves plenty of blame for his play, but the guy has handled everything with class. Be honest, say it’s about the money, then just send him home.
The Giants brass doesn’t want to own their mistakes. They’re trying their best to cover them. Players notice that. If this regime somehow stays, you can forget about free agents wanting to come to NY unless the Giants massively overpay AND heavily guarantee it.
Is this true – scout team safety?
Ive not seen that and it seems contradictory to the injury conditions they want to avoid.
Im not intentionally being snarky, Im genuinely asking.
It is true, Bills1. The NYTimes, SI and a bunch of other sources have picked it up. I do not know if the contract rules differ for being hurt in a game versus a role like that, but it is something I want to look into because it does seem to be the most nonsensical idea ever if they do not.
Yeah – that is pretty crazy – and really insulting.
I feel bad for the guy. I completely understand the benching, but I wonder if the union would step in here.
It is pretty classless. I hope potential free agents take note.
Supposedly it’s true, hence the article about him deciding if he’ll finish the season. Apparently the injury guarantee only applies to games, making this move by Daboll and Schoen complete dirty poker when teammates were already mad he was demoted.
@Appalachian: fair point, no beef with Mara other than he reminds me of Smithers. Daboll is a prick and Schoen just seems clueless. But to take your starting QB, demote him to 4th and then make him play safety on scout team is about as wild a professional move as I’ve ever heard. Hopefully Mars steps in and does something b/c that won’t go over well with the locker room.
“The Giants ownership has typically been good, and it used to be one of the premier franchises in the league.”
I’m a Giants fan and will push back on this a bit. Wellington Mara, as great as he was, had to be forced by the league to hire a competent front office because they were bad for so long in the 60s and 70s. And John Mara is a fool who meddles too much and appoints clueless family members (Tim McDonnell) to high profile positions (Director of Player Personnel). They also failed in hiring Gettleman and kept him around far too long. There are even little things like honoring Gettleman’s retirement after his abysmal tenure and the Free Medium Coke thing.
And this makes it ok to embarrass DJ?
I mean, its your team and you are entitled to your view. Im just curious if you think there is any chance you are being anything less than completely unbiased?
Where did I say it makes it OK to embarrass Jones? I’m genuinely curious about how you drew that conclusion from my bashing of John Mara.
Because you responded to a comment defending the action of making DJ play safety by defending the team?
I know you missed that point a few times, so I guess Ill cut you slack.
Why is it classless? Everyone, including Jones, knew this was a possibility when he signed that contract. Giants are merely adhering to the contract. It’s a business. You can’t risk that amount of money as a cap hit next year to appease Jones’s feelings. If Jones didn’t want this to happen, he needed to play better. He didn’t, so here we are.
It sucks because he’s a leader in the locker room. He’s tough and a solid teammate. But he signed a massive deal partly because it offered the Giants a chance to get out of it after year two. It’s not classless for the Giants to take that chance. If they kept playing him and he got hurt, everyone would be ripping them for being stupid.
I think its pretty classless to make him play safety – curious why you don’t? He is a QB.
As I noted, Im not against the benching. I get it. But they are going out if the way to insult him.
There are plenty of actual undrafted safeties, or even other DBs who are better suited for that.
What value do they actually get from that?
“There are plenty of actual undrafted safeties, or even other DBs who are better suited for that.”
Do you know what he was actually doing? The scouting team thing is a walk through. He literally just stands there and then walks to a different spot and stands there. RG3 has done this in the past. Players who are not playing that week will jump in and participate in a walkthrough. It’s literally nothing. You or I could do it. Undrafted safeties and DBs? Completely unnecessary. No team does that.
By the way, if I’m wrong and they’re forcing him to do this, then I agree with you. But I don’t see it that way. He’s not “playing safety”, he’s a guy who is not playing at all jumping in on something that is below even practice drills. He’s walking around with a pinny on. And I would bet that he would prefer to be around the team and his teammates over being sent completely home. Maybe I’m wrong but this is being blown way out of proportion.
Why are you defending this so hard?
Don’t you think it’s embarrassing?
So – you or I can do it you claim.
.
And yet you don’t think it’s embarrassing?
What actual value did this provide? Please. Answer this.
For the record, I believe every contract should be fully guaranteed. But those aren’t the rules we have, so I understand the Giants doing what they’re doing. It’s not what they’re doing, but how they’re doing it that makes the decision makers come off as classless and petty. They could be kinder and simply send him home instead of humiliating him. That’s what this is.
/\ this comment from app
Rct – this is it.
The issue as we have both pointed out isn’t the benching.
If I’m Daniel and I’m out there playing scout team safety, I magically get a righteous case of incurable turf toe. Maybe I compound it by breaking a nail on my throwing hand.
@App: I agree with what you’re saying, especially the guaranteed contracts part.
We just disagree with this being “classless” or “humiliating” Daniel Jones. I think telling him to get lost and sending him away from the team completely is far more classless and humiliating. I think Jones himself wants to be around this team. Like I said above, despite his lack of production, he’s a leader and a great teammate. Basically turning off his keycard and sending him home doesn’t strike me as “kinder” at all.
It’s not an easy situation to navigate. Are we forgetting how mad Russell Wilson was when the Broncos (essentially) kicked him off the team?
I would agree, RCT, if they were benching him with the possibility of playing him again at some point. But this is assuredly the end of his time in NY. So, I’m left asking the same question as Bills1 here: what is the value to either franchise or QB in keeping him around to play scout team safety?
You raise a good point about Jones being a leader, and I’d imagine he’d do just about anything to be a great teammate. The fact that he’s processing if he wants to stay with the team, to me, suggests he probably doesn’t want to be a scout team safety on a team he has no future with though.
I say it’d be kinder to send him home because, in that media market, at least he’s not having to answer questions every week or be the story.
The point about Russ is fair. But that’s a different media market, and Russ is a different dude. I’ll give you it isn’t an easy situation to navigate for either side, though; never is. IMO, the Giants are handling this about as poorly as possible.
This @rct. No problem demoting him when he hasn’t shown he’s worth continuing to start. But, do it with some grace as it was Daboll and Schoen that gave him this contract. Fair point on what he’s actually doing as scouts team stand in, but also no reason he couldn’t have been emergency QB and promote your actual #2 in Lock ( which you told him he would be when signing him).
So guys like Higgins who will be a free agent at the end of the year should take themselves out of the last few games because it’s a business decision and they don’t want to get hurt and ruin their contracts for the next year? Why is it okay for the owner to look out for his best interests and not the players
If you’re asking me, in the current climate, I have no issues with players doing that either. The street should run both ways; either a contract is a contract, or it isn’t. I do believe player contracts should be fully guaranteed.
That’s not the system the NFL has though. It is what it is. I can’t single out the Giants for trying to get out of Jones’ contract when other teams do it, too. My big issue is the way they have handled it. But, though I haven’t read the story yet, I see they let him go today. If you’re going to cut him anyway, that’s what I felt they should do to begin with.
Contracts should be guaranteed….that’s kinda what a contract is
He’s done. I can’t call it this early but he will find a team. Some staff somewhere will see some type of value in him. Maybe a bridge role with Panthers or a backup role in Miami
It seems there will always be a revolving door in Carolina for failed QBs. If Jones is willing to take a substantial haircut, that seems like a likely destination.
Haircut? Lmao
No haircut needed. He will sign for league minimum with his new team and the Giants will pay him $30 million in 2025 to play for somebody else. Russell Wilson’s hair is just as long as it was last year, only the Broncos are paying for the shampoo and conditioner!
Hahaha
While they will have a dead money cap hit, the whole point of sitting him is to avoid paying him the 23MM injury guarantee. I’m fairly certain that if they duck that, they pay him nothing.
Dead money is a cap hit tied to bonus money previously paid to the player, not current checks he’s cashing.
That’s correct. His guaranteed money is finished after this season. That 23m only if he can’t pass a physical. The 22m cap hit can be spread out over 2 seasons if they designate it as a post June 1 cut.
That was a pretty clever way to put it, larkraxm. You should copyright that before Cowherd steals it.
I can see GB bringing him in. Look at what they did when Willis was called upon. Granted he only won 2 games, however he looked confident.
You use the word “appealing” as though it should ever be used in the same sentence as this scrub
If he processes this as slow as he processes his reads, he may be out in the wild awhile.
I think this new trend of benching players over injury guarantees might cause new issues for teams. You already see it in other sports related to injuries, money, and contracts. I bet you’ll see guys in the same situation as Wilson and Jones start reporting injury issues that are for things hard to verify before the team gets a chance to bench them. If they set things up right they can then dispute and fight the team saying the injury guarantee should trigger since they are injured. Even if the teams win the chance of being tied up in arbitration for a length of time that ties up that cap room is costly.
Yep @Black Ace. More and more guys will start having phantom concussions. Good luck proving a guy playing a violent contact sport that allows guardian caps doesnt have a concussion.
As they should honestly. These team are so quick to skate contracts and throw players to the streets why not play the same game back.
Yeah, I think that everyone agrees about the benching, or at least sees why it happened. The issue is the degree of effort that’s going into this bubble wrapping. I know that it makes financial sense to not risk the injury, but the team has to understand how insulting and weasel-ly it is to have a guy on the team and give him zero chance to see the field at all-even as a backup. A normal benching or demotion gives a player at least some chance to contribute, and acknowledges that, even if things didn’t go as planned, he’s still part of the team. This doesn’t.
Demoting Jones to second string? Not a huge issue, and defensible. Demoting him to third string when he’s probably better than the players ahead of him? More problematic but still defensible in what caused it. Demoting him to never touch the field at all to protect the money? Cowardly. Doing all that, and on top of it, bypassing the original backup in Lock, and then making your demoted player that you’ve made sure will never suit up in an actual game play scout safety? Insulting, cowardly, and disrespectful.
I know that the Giants are trying to play it safe financially, but they can’t have it both ways. At some point, there’s a line here that says, “Look, you gave out this contract in the first place. You can mitigate risk, but you can’t just undo it. It happened, and you can’t escape all of your responsibilities.” What, did they think that it was impossible that Jones could play badly for their poorly constructed team? Why agree to the injury guarantee in the first place? We know why-it was to get Jones to sign instead of wanting more in actual guarantees. And now, they’re ducking it. That’s why players don’t like it-a common demotion to second string at least acknowledges Jones is a player, and only his play got him to where he is now.
This, the sidestepping of Lock for DeVito, and the scout team insult are just wildly disrespectful, and nobody will honor management for making those decisions. We know that these might be bad choices, but you did commit to them. They’re not untouchable, but they need to be handled with some acknowledgement of the supposed commitments made in some way. Bad quarterback or not, bad signing or not, Jones still stepped out onto that field every game he could to risk himself for his teammates and to honor his contract. The team might not be happy with his performance, but he certainly was far from the only reason that they’ve been bad, and they’re punishing him now for their own failures. I cannot see how Daboll and/or Schoen could think that this was the right way to handle this. Have some respect for your players, even the disappointments. I couldn’t imagine respected team management like the Ravens or the Bills or many others doing this in this way.
“You’re not breaking up w/me cause I’m breaking up w/u.”
If anybody ever says that Daboll is a players coach I would just refer them back to how HE is taking care of his players…you don’t treat your one time starting QB like that…that is a no class move but then again…Daboll has no class and will be gone.
100% agree. Maybe he was as an OC, but I don’t even see that. Guy just seems like a prick that walks around thinking he’s smarter than everyone.
from watching Hard Knocks Daboll seems like a douchebag
This is a strictly business move….Giants don’t want to either expose themselves to payment due to injury, and structured his contract to give themselves a back door to get out of his contract if this year went into the tank……has nothing to do with no class….except how the conversation actually went between Daboll, Schoen, Mara, and Jones and that we may never know…..
I’ll take him as a back up next year. He’s such a frustrating player because you see flashes here and there. He can back up Josh any day so far as I’m concerned. Way better than Trubisky!
Not only has Daboll apparently lost the locker room, I’m not sure he could find again even with a compass and GPS at this point. He’s cooked.
You could see that after game one this season. Minnesota dominated. Daboll was a flash in the pan. By Brian!!!
We all saw this coming the first day of the 2021 draft.
Whoa wait a sec. Scout Team Safety??
It’s one thing to break ties but, considering his neck history, it’s another entirely putting his well being at risk because “why pay him to sit around and do nothing”.
Definite douchebaggery afoot
You’re under contract for a ridiculous amount of money. You will finish the season regardless of your position on the depth chart. Just because your feelings got hurt and because you suck at your job does not mean you can contemplate leaving the team. What a punk.
Not a punk….just a modern day ballplayer and team business in the year 2024….ever think that he could get hurt at practice and that would kick in the money forward also? This way, the team is probably indemnified from injury away from the teams facilities, practice or games….better all the way around for everyone……especially the locker room which Daboll and Schoen are probably concerned about with the remaining season left to play…..
Drew Lock should have been given the opportunity now.. This guy played great for Seattle when given a chance last year.. Crazy if he’s not atleast an option
Yeah, that’s the other side of this, too. The Giants didn’t just disrespect Jones here, they did it to Lock, too.
Look… some guys shouldn’t be GM.
4th string QB was bit#h slap to Jones’ face in front of whole team. And yet Giants say theyre worried about his incurring injury so then have em play on scout team in new position on DEFENSE. For real, who’s making these calls ? Say what u want bout his performance, think Jones handled it graciously n w/class. He’ll find work. Punk’d Lock too. When is #2 not #2 ?