New York Giants News & Rumors

About a year and a half ago, the Giants gave quarterback Daniel Jones a four-year, $160MM extension. While $40MM per year doesn’t sound like top-end NFL passer money right now, at the time, Jones’ new deal tied him for the honor of sixth-highest paid quarterback in the league at that time, per annual average. A recent report from Ryan Dunleavy of the NY Post provided an explanation for why New York was so willing to give Jones his bag.

Per Jones, Giants general manager Joe Schoen claimed this week that part of Jones’ agent’s sales pitch on the contract extension was that, with all the soon-to-come quarterback extensions and free agent deals around the league, Jones’ $40MM per year wouldn’t seem nearly as top dollar as it did at the time. See, when Jones signed his extension, it paired him with playoff contending quarterbacks Dak Prescott and Matthew Stafford in contract length and overall value. The contract also came on the heels of a Derek Carr-signing for four years and $150MM.

At that point in time, Prescott was a Pro Bowler who had shown he was a threat to pass for 4,500 yards in a healthy season and nearly reached 5,000 in 2019. Stafford was pushing into his 15th season and, though he was aging, had just matched a career high with 41 touchdown passes in 2021. Carr didn’t quite have the winning pedigree or statistical production of Prescott or Stafford, but he still threatened for 4,000 passing yards every season, topping out at 4,804 in 2021, and was a three-time Pro Bowler.

Daniel Jones had accomplished none of the above feats. He hadn’t made a Pro Bowl or sniffed a 4,000-yard or 30-touchdown season. He held career highs of 3,205 passing yards and 24 touchdowns. Since his rookie season, he had failed to surpass 15 touchdowns. But timing is everything, and at the time of his contract negotiations, Jones had just led the Giants to their first winning season and playoff appearance with him under center. He had just thrown for his career high in passing yards and led the NFL in interceptions per pass attempt, throwing only five.

These accomplishments hardly seem worth signing Jones to a deal resembling the likes of Prescott and Stafford and surpassing that of Carr, put Jones’ agent pulled out the pitch mentioned above. He convinced Schoen that with the inevitable new contracts for players like Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, Jared Goff, Tua Tagovailoa, Jordan Love, Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow, and others, paying Jones $40MM per year would be a bargain, especially if he could maintain the level of play from his 2022 season.

Unfortunately, the Giants saw Jones only start six games under his new contract before succumbing to a season-ending injury, and those six games did nothing to instill much confidence in Jones making the contract seem like a bargain deal. In six contests, Jones averaged a career-low 152 passing yards per game, only throwing two touchdowns to six interceptions while going 1-5 as a starter. There’s still time for Jones to make a strong comeback from injury and prove he’s at least worth the bargain deal he signed. For now, though, Giants fans find themselves easily getting excited over underdog successes like Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito.