NFL rumors: Daniel Jones isn’t worth what the Giants are about to give him

The New York Giants and quarterback Daniel Jones are reportedly getting close to an agreement on a new contract, and it’s going to cost a lot.

The New York Giants had one of their best seasons in quite some time. When they were expected to be one of the worst teams in the league, they made the playoffs and advanced to the Divisional Round. With the season done, the Giants had to focus on building their roster. For them, they had to negotiate with quarterback Daniel Jones, who is an impending free agent and coming off of a good year. There were reports about Jones asking for an annual salary of $45 million on his next deal, and the potential of the team placing the franchise tag on him if they were unable to reach an agreement.

It appears they are making progress, but it will come at a huge cost.

According to ESPN’s Jordan Raanan, he has heard there has been progress between the Giants and Jones in contract negotiations, and saying that there could be “something done by Tuesday,” the franchise and transition tag deadline. As for the cost, Raanan says that there “will be a four in front of the annual salary.”

Daniel Jones and Giants reportedly making progress on contract, and it could be costly

That’s right, from Raanan’s tweet, it sounds as though that Jones will be earning an annual salary at or over $40 million a year. As ESPN’s Field Yates tweets out, Jones would be the ninth quarterback ever to be paid at least $40 million a year.

Yes, this is a huge price for one good year of Jones. But, this is where the quarterback market is heading. Soon enough, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ annual salary will seem like a bargain.

Ever since Jones was selected with the sixth-overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, he never had the resources necessary to succeed. Jones started off his Giants career with Pat Shurmur as head coach, where he did show flashes of being a good quarterback, but had massive turnover issues. Then, after firing Shurmur, the Giants bring in Joe Judge, a special teams coordinator from the New England Patriots, to be his next head coach. In those two years, Jones’ numbers dipped, where he threw just 21 touchdowns in that span. That’s three years without quality coaching, not to mention an ineffective offensive line.

Then, things changed in 2022 with the hiring of Joe Schoen as general manager and Brian Daboll as head coach. Daboll brought along Mike Kafka to be offensive coordinator, and Jones had his best year. He threw for 3,205 yards, 15 touchdowns, and five interceptions while completing 67.2-percent of his passes. That, and he ran for 708 yards and seven touchdowns on 120 carries. Then, Jones had a star-making performance in the Wild Card Round against the Minnesota Vikings, where he made history in becoming the first quarterback to record 300 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, and 70 rushing yards in a playoff game.

The Giants are in this situation because Schoen opted against exercising his fifth-year option. In hindsight, it was a bad decision. But, based off his first three years with the Giants, it seemed like an obvious move. Now, the Giants are going to be paying the price.