Daniel Jones just made it to the big leagues, and he deserves a healthy round of applause for that. Despite a career record of 21-31-1, he convinced the Giants to pay him $40 million a year.
In the history of dual-threat quarterbacking, there’s never been a pocket escape quite like this one.
When it comes to mega-money deals, football and baseball are entirely different animals. MLB contracts are 100 percent guaranteed. In the NFL, the only thing that is fully guaranteed is intense physical pain.
But when assessing Jones’ performance next season, fans will remember the $160 million figure over four years that he signed for, plus $35 million in incentives, and forget that “only” a reported $94 million was his (practically) promised pot of gold. To the paying public, Jones will now be known as a $40 million-per-year quarterback.
Just like Aaron Judge is now known as a $40 million-per-year slugger.
Truth is, Jones’s story might soon be a tale of two Aarons — his salary being linked to that of Judge, who is the Babe Ruth of his time; and his play being linked to that of Aaron Rodgers, who is looking more and more like the probable Jets starter on opening day.
In other words, if you want to be paid like a star in the big city, you had better perform like a star in the big city.
“Daniel’s got a lot of pressure on him,” conceded one Giants source. “But I think he’ll be up to it, because he always prepares himself and there will be better talent around him. His arrow is definitely pointed up, and with the coaching staff and system in place, I think he can easily become a top 10 quarterback.”
Top 10, top 15, top 5, whatever. Everything has changed for Jones overnight, because suddenly he’s being paid to win a championship. Team owner John Mara said two years ago that he saw Jones definitely winning one Super Bowl title, and maybe matching Eli Manning’s two.
The Giants just put their money where Mara’s mouth was. General manager Joe Schoen had been telling people over the past couple of days he was optimistic a multiyear agreement would be reached with Jones before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. franchise-tag deadline, and some were surprised the deal went down to the wire.
None of that matters anymore. The Giants have their quarterback of the future, same as their quarterback of the present, and they get to keep Saquon Barkley on the $10.1 million franchise tag after offering him a multiyear contract at $12 million-$13 million a year during their failed bye-week talks in November.
“We just got 75 percent of our offense back in those two players,” the source said. It was a good day at the office.
Barkley wanted no part of the franchise tag and yet he graciously tweeted “Congrats brudda !!!” to his good friend Jones for landing the kind of deal a running back could never land. As always, Barkley says and does the right thing. The Giants should continue working hard to get him off the tag and onto a contract that reflects his true value.
Meanwhile, by coming off his initial asking price ($47 million-$48 million per) and avoiding the tag, Jones helped the greater cause. His salary cap hit for 2023 is expected to be about $18.5 million, or about $14 million less than the hit the Giants would’ve absorbed if they couldn’t close the long-term deal with their quarterback.
So Schoen has more to spend on receivers and other available playmakers who can close the considerable gap between the Giants and the Eagles (and the Chiefs, of course). That’s a good thing.
But make no mistake: This transaction wasn’t about the holes around Jones as much as it was about Jones himself. The Giants aren’t paying him now to throw for 15 touchdowns and 3,205 yards, and to run around in what Barkley called “Vanilla Vick” form.
On top of the athleticism he used to rush for seven scores and 708 yards, Jones is now expected to put up some meaningful passing numbers. If Rodgers is going to deliver 35-40 touchdown throws for the Jets (or some other team), it shouldn’t be too much to ask Jones to deliver 25-30 touchdown throws for the Giants.
Can he do it with the upgraded roster that’s expected to be in place? Can Jones thrive in a second year under creative offensive coaches the likes of Brian Daboll and coordinator Mike Kafka?
Mara once famously said that the Giants had “done everything possible to screw this kid up since he’s been here.” Tuesday, they made it up to their quarterback 40 million different ways.
It’s a new day in the Meadowlands. It’s time for Daniel Jones to perform like a money player.