It's safe to say Jevón Holland's first year with the New York Giants didn't exactly go well.
The 26-year-old safety was handed a three-year, $45.3 million contract last offseason to essentially be Xavier McKinney's replacement. General manager Joe Schoen infamously let McKinney walk back in 2024 after failing to reach an agreement on an extension.
McKinney ended up signing a four-year, $67 million deal with the Packers, and all he's done since is become a superstar in Green Bay, making the All-Pro first team in 2024 and the All-Pro second team last season.
It's obviously impossible to say that he would have done that with the Giants, but at least he didn't earn a big contract and then follow it up with arguably the worst season of his career, like Holland did. Not being able to budge on an extra $1.65 million per season looks laughably ridiculous in hindsight.
What might make the Holland signing look even worse is the three-year, $48 million deal Grant Delpit signed with the Cleveland Browns on Wednesday.
Grant Delpit's extension puts Jevón Holland's contract in the crosshairs
Delpit's deal puts him at $16 million annually for a good, not great safety. The 27-year-old has never made the Pro Bowl or ranked higher than 34th at his position according to Pro Football Focus, but he hasn't been ranked lower than 56th throughout his six-year career, either. Last season, Delpit finished with a 66.6 overall grade from PFF (41st out of 98 eligible safeties).
That makes it an even tougher pill to swallow knowing that Holland is making just $900,000 less than him yearly, yet finished 2025 with a dismal 58.4 overall grade, ranking 73rd.
Big Blue did its best to avoid paying McKinney $16.75 million annually, only to turn around and hand Holland $15.1 million per year one offseason later. Now Delpit's making $16 million annually. In the grand scheme of things, the difference in value is barely noticeable. But the difference in production hasn’t been.
The Holland contract is starting to look like New York paid for the player he used to be instead of the one he actually became.
It highlights a brutal, incredibly frustrating cycle for Giants fans to watch. The front office lets a homegrown star like McKinney walk, realizes a year too late that they desperately need to fill that void, and then feels forced to throw money at the top name available on the market.
Instead of just paying to keep their own talent in the first place, they ended up spending a near-identical annual salary on a replacement who completely fell flat on his face in his first year in East Rutherford.
Seeing the Browns willingly lock up Delpit -- right after giving star cornerback Denzel Ward a two-year, $62.2 million extension, no less -- for just a hair more than what Holland just twists the knife that much more.
Surprisingly, Cleveland did what smart teams do -- they took care of their own guy and didn't overthink keeping him. Meanwhile, the G-Men are stuck writing checks for a guy who just played the worst football of his career. It’s a brutal reminder that letting your own talent walk and trying to fix it later in free agency usually just means you overpay for a worse product.
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