The final part of the Giants’ long-running Daniel Jones–Saquon Barkley retention plan is still going, with the team remaining in talks with the Pro Bowl running back ahead of the July 17 franchise tag deadline. But the earlier discussions were more complex in nature.
Not only did the Giants need to find a way to keep both Jones and Barkley off the 2023 market, but they were negotiating with a quarterback with an uncertain price tag. Injuries and inconsistency during Jones’ first three years led the Giants to pass on his fifth-year option in 2022. The former No. 6 overall pick ended up navigating his contract year well, piloting Big Blue to the playoffs and setting himself up for a big payday.
Jones became the first quarterback to sign an extension with the team that declined his fifth-year option, and while the final numbers checked in far higher than anyone would have expected at this point last year, the four-year Giants starter is believed to have asked for a monster contract. As negotiations commenced, Jones’ camp sought a $47MM-per-year extension, Dan Duggan of The Athletic notes (subscription required).
That number is higher than what we heard leading up to his deal. A February report indicated that Jones, after changing agents, was gunning for a $45MM-AAV extension. It turned out the Giants needed to move their quarterback down from a number that would have at the time made him the third-highest-paid QB — per average salary — in the NFL. Jones’ ask would have placed him in front of Kyler Murray and Deshaun Watson‘s AAVs. Subsequent extensions for Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts have raised the market to $52MM per year, but when the Giants hammered out their Jones deal, only Aaron Rodgers was past $50MM. And Rodgers’ 2022 deal turned out to be a uniquely structured pact that produced a trade.
The Giants ended up reaching a happy medium with Jones, giving him the same overall terms — four years, $160MM — Dak Prescott and Matthew Stafford reached with their respective teams in the previous two offseasons. Prescott also did better than Jones on the guarantee front, securing $95MM fully guaranteed at the same offseason juncture Jones ($81MM locked in) scored his payday. Prescott possessed leverage of a whopping cap number — from a second franchise tag — hitting the Cowboys’ books in 2021. Jones, however, enjoyed negotiating weapons of an imminent free agency trip and the prospect of the Giants losing Barkley. New York found a way to retain both players, but Barkley is less than two weeks from being tied to the $10.1MM running back tag this season. The Giants were planning to tag Jones — at $32.4MM — had no deal been struck in March.
Jones, 26, managing to parlay a 15-touchdown pass season into a $40MM-per-year windfall may go down as one of the better negotiating coups in recent memory, but the Duke product was targeting a bottom-tier pass-catching corps that had sustained injuries and lost Kadarius Toney via trade (after the 2021 first-rounder missed most of the Giants portion of his season with injury). Jones offered an efficient passing performance to lift the Giants past the Vikings in the wild-card round, adding 78 rushing yards in that game. This followed a career year on the ground for Jones as well; he finished with 708 rushing yards to further aid the Giants’ shorthanded offense.
While the Jones deal has been scrutinized, the Giants can also escape it with fairly minimal damage by 2025. Should Jones’ 2022 season prove fluky, the Giants can move on by making the QB a post-June 1 cut in 2025 and absorb an $18MM dead-money hit. All parties will hope this agreement ends better, as the Giants are committed to the Dave Gettleman-era draftee for at least two seasons.
Seems odd that some teams would still be making deals like the salary cap will continue to increase given that the league is in the first year of a 10 year TV deal.
The salary cap will continue to increase. The NFL continues to make more and more revenue each year. No reason to assume that it stop anytime soon.
bless the Giants hearts if they give that dude 47 million a year. he’s not worth 4.7 million a year.
I think everyone understands that the starting point in negotiations is usually unrealistic regardless of what side of the table you are sitting on. As a player, there is generally a small window of time when you can try to maximize on your value so it never makes sense to sell yourself short when that time arrives.
They gave him 40m so it wasn’t far off. But it’s the guaranteed money that counts.
No.
I really like Jones, but that asking price is overboard. He should consider himself lucky to get what he signed for.
It’s good business on his end (and other quarterbacks will certainly appreciate it), but I agree. I like certain aspects of Jones’ game very much and I undoubtedly believe that the team’s ineptitude and coaching dysfunction impacted his lack of development more than anything else. Even with said, he is still far from having shown a sustainable long term skillset, and it’s hard to justify that type of deal without one. It seems that Jones is a hard worker, and the Giants seem to have a better coaching situation and roster building at the moment, so hopefully for them Jones will take advantage and develop a more consistent passing game.
Lol
Hate or love Tom Brady when was with the Patriots who never busted the bank and understood he needed good player to protect him as well as to produce for him
Give Qb’s 30-35% of entire salary cap is a disaster in the making
The salary the QB’s r demanding is not justified nor prudent
Cleveland bc they were soooo desperate sold their souls and screwed the NFL
Incorrect. Are you familiar with Mahomes’ contract and the fact that the Chiefs have won two Super Bowls in the last few years? It CAN work.
Big ask for a dude worth $10m a year
Hate or love Tom Brady when was with the Patriots who never busted the bank and understood he needed good player to protect him as well as to produce for him
Give Qb’s 30-35% of entire salary cap is a disaster in the making
The salary the QB’s r demanding is not justified nor prudent
Cleveland bc they were so desperate sold their souls and screwed the NFL
$47 million for a QB who’s had one good season — which happened after his 5th-year option was declined. Just when you thought the Giants had banished the culture of entitlement, it comes around again!
BTW, thanks for double-posting that defense of a QB who couldn’t win without cheating.
In Goodell’s wacky world, cheating doesn’t threaten the “integrity of the game” but placing a bet does.
Yes I know he runs, but 3200 yards and 15 TD for $40 million is bad. No running QB runs forever.
If he puts up 4000 yards and 30 TD? That’s a lot easier to swallow.