New York Giants make awful decision, give Daniel Jones $160m

Right before the deadline to apply the team tags on players, the New York Giants extended quarterback Daniel Jones, which was a huge mistake.

This was a shockingly bad mistake from General Manager Joe Schoen, and it seems unlike someone with Schoen’s background to do this.

They also put the franchise tag on running back Saquon Barkley, which was probably the right decision.

Daniel Jones was a bad quarterback for the first three seasons of his NFL career, and did enjoy a career year in 2022.  However, his “career year” included him throwing for 15 touchdowns, five interceptions, which earned him a passer rating in the low 90s.

He also did rush for seven touchdowns and the Giants did win a playoff game, but if we’re being honest with ourselves, Daniel Jones is not a $40m/year quarterback.

The contract itself is a four year, $160m deal.  To be fair to the New York Giants, if this does blow up, it’s truly only a two year pact.

If the Giants wanted to, they could get out of the deal after the 2024 season.  They could save $30.5 million against their cap and would only have $9 million in dead money.

So, if Daniel Jones is not markedly better in the next two seasons, the New York Giants could get out of the deal.

What I’ve maintained for a while is that the Giants should take a similar path to their quarterback situation like the Kansas Chiefs and Buffalo Bills did.  The Chiefs and Bills started Alex Smith and Tyrod Taylor for a bit.  Both QBs helped the teams get back into some form of relevancy before their respective clubs decided to swing for the fences on another QB.

That worked out well for both teams, and I’d think that the Giants could easily take that path with Daniel Jones.

I could be totally wrong on the QB, and he could turn into an MVP candidate next year, but I’m not a huge fan of the contract extension at this moment in time.