Judging a player’s talent is usually easy for me. If the eye test fails, looking into the data is usually a fail safe way to truly quantify whether a player is truly good or not. But when it comes to Daniel Jones I have flipped back and forth more times than a pancake.
On draft night in April of 2015, I was disheartened when the Giants took the 6 foot 5 quarterback out of Duke with the 6th overall pick. Top 6 seemed like a huge reach considering Jones record was 17-19 in college and wasn’t well known. Giants fans were confused and it seemed like Big Blue had missed again.
However his rookie season Daniel Jones impressed Giants Nation. He finished with 24 TDs and 12 interceptions in just 12 games as a starter. What he really proved was that when a play broke down he could take the ball down and run for positive yardage. Although the Giants went just 3-9 when Jones started under center, there was some hope that if he could get an average offensive line things would change.
The Giants offensive line continued to disappoint the next two seasons and Big Blue was a laughing stock of the NFL. The Giants had a 12-25 record with Jones under center. They declined to extend Jones rookie contract for a fifth year and at the time no one could blame them. The Giants fired General Manager Dave Gettleman and Joe Judge at the end of the 2021 season thankfully and a new leaf was turned over.
Everything changed in 2022. Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll were now in charge of making the decisions for the organization. They were living in cap hell but said all the right things during the offseason and showed promise drafting Kayvon Thibodeaux and Evan Neal with their two top 10 picks in the NFL Draft. The expectations for the season were at an all time low. The roster from top to bottom was mediocre at best and Vegas pegged them at just 6.5 wins.
But the thing about organizational competence is that when everyone is swimming in the same direction, things can change quickly. The Giants were one of the biggest surprised in the 2022 season. They went 9-7-1 and beat the Vikings in the Wild Card Round. Daniel Jones threw for over 3,200 yards with a remarkable 708 yards on the ground. Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka seemed to know how to get the best out of the 25 year old quarterback. Jones stepped up and showed he was deserving of a new contract. The question was how much?
On Tuesday the 4 PM franchise tag was rapidly approaching. Finally, about 10 minutes before the deadline the Giants and Daniel Jones agreed on a 4 year deal. The initial reports had me nervous because the numbers seemed insane.
4 years, $160 million sounds like a ton of money for Danny Dimes. But the NFL contracts are super confusing and we have to remember these are not guaranteed contracts. In 2023, Jones will earn a base salary of $9.5 million dollars and a signing bonus of 36 million dollars while carrying a cap hit of $19 million. Those numbers ensure that the Giants will have some room to operate this season.
The Daniel Jones contract is basically a three-year, $112.5 million contract, given that the $47.5 million due in 2026 is not guaranteed. That’s an average of $37.5 million. Considering that AAV will look like the league average in 2 years, as a fan you have to accept it and move on. Quarterbacks are the most important position by a landslide and that is the going rate.
If Jones goes backwards the next 2 years the Giants also could escape the deal after two years, with $82 million paid. Overall I’m happy that the deal got done because they were able to franchise tag Saquon Barkley. The Giants will be able to run it back with their offensive core and no real future risk of being in cap hell.
We are on to free agency and the NFL Draft!
-Jimmy
The Sports Chill 