When Daniel Jones agreed to a four-year, $160 million contract with the NY Giants, it cemented his status as the face of the Giants franchise for the long haul. The Giants declined Jones’ fifth-year option last offseason, which seemed like an indication that Big Blue would move on from the quarterback after the 2022 season.
Jones put up career-highs across the board, showcasing his cannon for a right arm and his impressive wheels. On top of that, Jones led the Giants to the playoffs and won the NFC Wild Card game at Minnesota.
In that game, Jones became the first player in NFL history to throw for 300 yards, two-plus passing touchdowns, and run for 75 yards in the same postseason contest. Now that Jones is back, he’s over the moon and so is the NY front offce. However, his deal had a negative impact on others. In this piece, we take a look at five winners/losers from the extension.
Winner 1: Daniel Jones
How could anybody be a bigger winner than the guy who is now set for life financially? It might be time to rename Danny Dimes to Danny Dollars, because he certainly got the bag. Jones’ four-year, $160 million contract with the Giants includes $82 million guaranteed, which is a large sum of money for a quarterback who just last year was on track to become an NFL backup.
Multiple reports throughout the lengthy and public contract negotiations stated Jones wanted at least $45 million a year, which plenty of people laughed at. However, Schoen and DJ’s agents were able to work non-stop to meet somewhere in the middle, as the G-Men were hoping to keep things around $35-39 million.
Jones’ cap hit in 2023 is going to be around $21 million (based on incentives he’ll probably hit). That low number gives the front office extra resources to improve the group of weapons around Jones, which could allow the quarterback to take his game to another level. After his promising 2022, more good things are on the way for the newly-paid signal-caller.
Winner: Joe Schoen
It’s rare for both a quarterback and general manager to win contract negotiations, but that happened in this case. Despite Jones’ breakout 2022 season, he is still relatively unproven and has a lengthy injury history. Schoen mitigated some of the risks surrounding Jones by structuring his contract in a unique way.
Only $82 million of the $160 million in Jones’ contract is guaranteed, and all of the guarantees are in the first two years. If Jones has rough 2023 and 2024 seasons, the Giants can get out of Jones’ contract in the spring of 2025, and endure a relatively modest dead cap hit of $18 million, with no more guaranteed money due to the quarterback.
Jones’ cap hit in 2023 is only $21 million, which is significantly less than the $32.4 million cap hit he would have had if franchised tagged. By locking his quarterback, Schoen has additional flexibility to build up the roster.
All signs are pointing to the Giants being quite aggressive in free agency, as they’ll need to go after wide receivers, linebackers and more. With the way Schoen was able to get things done with Jones, he can now go after the other kinds of players he likes on both sides of the ball.
Winner: Brian Daboll
A head coach’s best friend is a franchise quarterback, and Brian Daboll finally has his. Daboll tapped into Jones’ potential in 2022, allowing Jones to display his immense athletic ability and show enough promise to both the head coach and front office to make them want to commit long-term.
Daboll speaks to the media more frequently than any employee of the New York Giants, and he will no longer be forced to answer multitudes of questions from the rowdy New York media about the Giants quarterback situation.
Daboll famously turned Josh Allen into an NFL superstar, and with a similar build and playing style, the hope is he can do that with Jones. Jones was a lot better in his first season with Daboll than Allen was in his first season with Coach Dabes, despite being surrounded by a worse supporting cast.
Daboll saw the way Jones led the Giants both on and off the field last season, and decided he wanted Danny Dollars to be the guy moving forward. Mike Kafka is surely quite happy about this news as well.
Loser: Free agent and rookie quarterbacks
In NFL circles, Daboll is regarded as a QB whisperer. In the last decade alone, Daboll has coached and helped develop Tua Tagovailoa, Mac Jones, Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, Tom Brady, and now Danny Dimes. All six of those quarterbacks are tremendously talented, and all have led their NFL teams to the playoffs in the last two seasons.
So what free agent or rookie quarterback would not want to work with a coach that has Daboll’s pedigree? After one season of working with Daboll, both Allen and Jones looked like completely different quarterbacks.
Anthony Richardson is a very raw prospect, with crazy athleticism and ability, similar to Jones and Allen before Daboll got to work with them. He would thrive playing for Daboll with that skill set. Imagine had the Giants traded up to try and bring him to East Rutherford? Heck you could think about that for any QB in the 2023 NFL Draft.
As for free agents QBs, they’ve seen the change in East Rutherford. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that? However, Jones is locked in as the Giants quarterback for at least the next two years, so there is one less starting quarterback job available.
Loser: Saquon Barkley
When the Giants and Jones came to an agreement on the mega-deal shortly before the franchise tag deadline, the Giants quickly pivoted and put the tag on Saquon Barkley. With this, for now, Barkley is set to make $10.1 million next season – unless he and Schoen can come to terms on a multi-year deal.
The franchise tag means Barkley will not get to hit free agency. Barkley would have gotten to test the market and see how much other franchises were willing to offer, which he could’ve used as leverage in negotiations with the Giants, or taken their offer and made more money to play elsewhere.
Barkley played the best football of his career with in 2022, and with his lengthy injury history, he wants a long-term deal as quickly as possible. This offseason is the highest his value will be in his career.
The Giants and Barkley first started discussing a long-term contract extension during NY’s bye week in November, but have been unable to come to an agreement. It is still possible and in fact likely, that the Giants and Barkley agree on a long-term contract extension this offseason. But for now, he is the big loser of the Jones extension.
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