Monday morning, the New York Giants made a franchise-altering decision at the most important position in the game.
It was announced that the team would indeed bench starting quarterback Daniel Jones. With Jones headed to the bench, Brian Daboll made a decision to start last year's undrafted sensation Tommy DeVito.
With the news of Jones' benching, there is more than mere speculation of the team moving on from him in the coming offseason. Not only is DeVito the starter, but Lock remains the backup. That's telling.
The decision for New York to hand Jones his 4-year contract extension worth $160 million was never one applauded by fans. Now, the team has an opportunity to get out of it.
Assuming the Giants indeed move on from Jones after the regular season, how does that impact their future cap situation?
What does the Daniel Jones contract look like in 2025 and beyond?
If the Giants decided to cut Jones in 2025, here are the nitty gritty financial details:
Dead Cap Incurred: $22.21 million
Cap Savings: $19.395 million
Had the Giants cut Jones this year, though, it would have been a remarkably different story. New York would have seen a dead cap number of $69.3 million when Jones' 2024 cap hit was $47.85 million.
Now, they have an opportunity to actually save some money against their cap next year by cutting Jones. Sure, they are going to incur more dead money than they'll see in savings. However, that's nearly an extra $20 million to work with during the offseason. And, with the cap continuing to rise, you can add a little more to that number and feel even better about the decision.
Without cutting Jones, the Giants are projected to have over $42 million in cap space for the 2025 offseason, per Over the Cap. With cutting Jones, that number rises to over $62 million.
If you put the savings into perspective, think of it this way: the additional $20 million saved could be partially used to sign a bridge quarterback that would come in alongside a first-round passer. The Giants have a realistic shot at landing a top-3 pick, which might end up being Shedeur Sanders.
Say what you want about he and his father, Deion Sanders, but that could be a monumental swing within this organization. The additional money could go toward signing someone like Sam Darnold who has proven to be the perfect bridge quarterback over in Minnesota, for example.