This Giants regime is suddenly in a difficult spot at quarterback. Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll gave a starter they did not draft a $40MM-per-year extension that drew extensive criticism, and Daniel Jones subsequently suffered an ACL tear. Jones will spend the next several months rehabbing, creating uncertainty.
Following Jones’ knee injury, Schoen said the team would be in the market for a quarterback to at least round out the depth chart. While it is still not known if the Giants would legitimately consider adding competition for a player they worked to re-sign last year, they do have the No. 6 overall pick — Jones’ slot back in 2019. People close to the Giants have informed Sportskeeda’s Tony Pauline the team will make its QB move this offseason.
“Ultimately, we have to do something,” Schoen said this week. “Whether it’s the draft or a free agent, just because Tyrod [Taylor’s] contract is up. We have Tommy [DeVito], who’s under contract, and then Daniel’s injury — the return to play and the uncertainty there. When free agency starts, the draft. Whichever avenue we decide to take, we will address the position.”
Schoen hopes Jones can make it back by Week 1; the five-year veteran said recently he is aiming for a return by training camp. With training camp more than nine months from Jones’ early-November injury, that recovery timetable would be in range. Week 1 would be more realistic, but the bigger question for the Giants — who are tied to Jones due to guarantees through at least the 2024 season — is if they want to add a veteran backup type or make a push to draft a replacement. A report suggesting a true Jones replacement will be targeted emerged in the fall, though the Giants were then projected to hold a higher draft choice than No. 6.
Jones again faces questions about his long-term viability. Eli Manning‘s successor has run into multiple neck injuries and now the ACL tear, but he was not remotely viewed as a $40MM-AAV player when the Schoen-Daboll regime declined his fifth-year option. Jones is the first quarterback in the option era (2014-present) to see his option declined and then re-sign with that team. His $82MM guaranteed makes a 2024 cut untenable, but a 2025 release — especially if it is the post-June 1 variety — would cost the team only $11.1MM in dead money. Considering Dave Gettleman drafted Jones, this Giants offseason could become the point the Schoen-led regime makes plans to move on.
That would, of course, be a bit odd due to the $160MM contract to which Jones is attached. But the Duke product was not playing particularly well, albeit behind an injury-ravaged O-line, before his injury this season. Jones struggled from 2020-21 as well, though his 2022 ascent also came with the Giants fielding a bottom-tier pass-catching group. Variables exist here, and Jones will only be going into his age-27 season this year.
Pauline mocks Heisman-winning QB Jayden Daniels to New York at No. 6. Barring a trade-up maneuver, Caleb Williams and Drake Maye are almost definitely out of reach for Big Blue, and Daniels — given the QB supply-and-demand issue — may also require a trade-up come April. Field Yates’ ESPN.com big board places Daniels one spot in front of Maye, however, with no other QB in the top 25. The race for the second- and third-best 2024 arms could be fascinating, assuming the Bears take Williams first overall.
The Giants have a better in-house option, assuming Jones is recovered, than most of the other teams in the market for a passer. But if Daboll and Schoen become enamored with one of the prospects, it is certainly reasonable they will effectively put an expiration date on the Gettleman-era QB draftee.
