Daniel Jones release offers yet more proof that the Giants are a team without a plan

The Daniel Jones era in New York had already basically run its course, but the team decided to make it official on Friday, placing Jones on waivers rather than carrying him on its practice squad for the remainder of the season. Or should we say, Jones decided: According to Ian Rapaport, the former No. 8 overall pick was the one to approach ownership requesting his release, a request that the Giants obliged.

The decision to put Jones on waivers comes after several straight days of bad PR, in which it became clear that the team hadn't fully thought through what it would mean to bench its best quarterback for the sake of getting out from under his contract come next offseason. The Giants locker room privately and publicly went to bat for Jones, and the optics of having a $160 million QB playing safety on the scout team were ... let's just say suboptimal. By the time Jones addressed the media with an emotional statement after practice on Thursday, it became clear that the current situation was untenable.

None of which should have been a surprise to Giants leadership. And yet ownership, the front office and the coaching staff all appear to have been blindsided by it, left to scramble to react to a controversy entirely of their own making. But that's just par for the course for a regime that's been incapable of formulating a long-term vision for years now.

Giants' handling of Daniel Jones situation is a huge indictment of Brian Daboll, Joe Schoen and John Mara

It's that same lack of foresight that got New York in this position in the first place. Everyone knew that the 2022 season was much more sizzle than steak. Sure, Daboll had done an admirable job getting the most out of Giants and navigating his team through a series of close wins, but it was clear that the team and its quarterback had a hard ceiling — despite everything going New York's way, it was still only good enough for a Wild Card win over the Minnesota Vikings before getting thoroughly outclassed in the Divisional Round against the Philadelphia Eagles.

And yet that was apparently enough to convince Schoen to double down. Rather than slapping Jones with the franchise tag (and maybe using some of the savings to re-sign Saquon Barkley), Schoen handed his quarterback a four-year, $160 million deal that looked like a mistake as soon as the ink was dry. It also betrayed a lack of vision: If one halfway decent year is enough to get you to about-face and tie yourself to a quarterback you were previously thinking of ditching, then how confident can you really be in your own self-evaluation?

Throughout the past two seasons, the Giants have been unable to clearly articulate just what they think they have, where they think they're going and how fast they think they can get there. They'll make one move for the future, then turn around and sign a 31-year-old tight end or trade for an expensive pass rusher. It's clear that they don't feel comfortable going all-in, and rightly so, but it's also clear that no one has the stomach or the werewithal for a rebuild.

And it cost the Giants again this week. Everyone knew that the team was set to move on from Jones next spring, when it could cut him and eat a relatively modest cap hit of $22.21 million. And everyone knew that the only thing that could thwart that plan was an injury, which would trigger a $23 million guarantee in Jones' contract. New York no doubt knew what it had to do as the losses piled up and 2024 became yet another lost season; and yet despite plenty of runway, they failed to put a plan in place, letting Jones twist in the wind before finally caving under internal and external pressure.

Moving on from Jones was always going to be an awkward process, but it didn't have to be this ugly. If this team were capable of putting a plan in place and sticking to it, they'd be a lot better off than they are right now.