Hard Knocks reveals just how doomed Giants really are with Daniel Jones

The NFL is a year-round sport with free agency and the NFL draft. Despite games not being played on the field, there is competition in the front offices with roster building. That was the idea with the first-ever season of Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants.

The stars of the show are not employers but the front office staff and the coaches who helped build NFL teams. In just the first episode of the season, the Giants have issues maintaining the contract of running back Saquon Barkley and building the defense.

One area that has been a clear problem is the capabilities, injury concerns and handicap that quarterback Daniel Jones brings to the team. Jones has shown flashes of greatness in several portions of his limited career, but there have been more signs to show that the Giants have a serious problem on their hands with Jones being at the center of it.

The Giants may have chosen wrong when it came to the star to pay 

The Giants front office made a difficult decision to let Barkley go as he was expected to get a big contract after a six-win season. The idea for the Giants' handling of Barkley, as revealed in Hard Knocks, was to franchise tag him and then trade him, sign him to an expensive contract as a last resort or let him walk. Ultimately, the Giants let Barkley walk. He later signed a three-year contract with the rival team in the Philadelphia Eagles for $37.7 million with $26 million guaranteed.

It is no secret that the Giants overpaid Jones based on his breakout season in year four. He followed that season up with an incredibly disappointing and injury-plagued season. Many of the faults of the Giants' offense this past season and for the past several seasons stem from the offensive line. That unit has played poorly, despite several attempts through the draft of free agency to get better. This is why general manager Joe Schoen made it a huge issue to address the offensive line this offseason.

Ultimately, the Giants could not have another season paying the starting backfield a combined $52 million between Jones and Barkley. 

"You're paying the guy $40 million. It's not to hand the ball off to a $12 million back," Shoen said.

These words are going to be phrased throughout the offseason and the regular season as Giants fans and New York media analyze the quote. The Giants are stuck with Jones as their quarterback unless the team decides to release him at the end of the season, causing a $22 million dead cap cut. If not, he is under contract until the 2027 offseason.

Giants have to give Daniel Jones as much help as possible

The toughest part of Hard Knocks is that the team openly admitted how much it would hurt to change offensive identities from Barclay. Schoen made it clear that the Giants’ offensive identity is to keep Jones healthy from injuries. There were several steps to get this done. The first was solidifying the offensive line, an area that critically needed to be improved. The second was to find potential key weapons for Jones moving forward.

This offseason, the Giants made key moves on the offensive line to acquire Jermaine Eluemunor and Jon Runyan. Both are projected to start on the interior offensive line this season. The other key area for the Giants is to get Jones as much help as possible. It doesn’t help that tight end Darren Wallen is retiring.

The Giants could’ve decided to draft one of the top quarterbacks in the 2024 NFL draft as rumors would indicate. The smart choice, however, was for the Giants to give their quarterback some serious help in the receiver core. New York has a new legitimate number one receiver in Malik Nabors, the sixth overall pick.

The process of how the Giants evaluated these players and made the decision to pick up Nabors will be coming up throughout the remainder of the series. Either way, it's clear the Giants decided they should help their quarterback succeed in every way possible because the second that Jones fails, it will be on the front office and the coaching staff.

Having your future decided by a high-level quarterback is not a bad option, but having your future decided by Jones is not great.