Rather than dragging out what was a broken relationship, the Giants have agreed to release Daniel Jones, just 27 games into a four year, $160 million contract that Jones signed with the Giants in March of 2023. Jones had been benched by the Giants in large part because of $23 million of 2025 salary that was injury guaranteed and was relegated to scout team defense in practice this week to do their best to ensure he did not get hurt to trigger next year’s guarantee from kicking in.
Jones’ contract will be subject to waivers but it is doubtful that anyone will claim Jones’ contract as it still has $13.805 million in salary that has to be paid this year along with the injury guarantees for 2025. If he goes unclaimed the Giants will still owe Jones the $13.805 million as the salary is guaranteed. Jones will be allowed to double dip if he signs with another team if he winds up claiming termination pay with the Giants to recover any offset salary. Assuming he goes unclaimed, the Giants salary cap charge for Jones following the release should be $47.105 million for 2024 and $22.21 million for 2025.
The decision to sign Jones to the $40 million contract will go down as one of the great blunders in NFL history. In 2022, the Giants declined Jones’ $22.384 million option for the 2023 league year following three years of below average play and a 12-25 record as a starter. The Giants rebounded to make the playoffs in 2023 under the direction of a new head coach and general manager and Jones had his best season as a pro and helped the team upset the Vikings in the first round of the playoffs. Jones was now set to be a free agent in 2023.
The Giants had the option of franchise tagging Jones for $32.416 million in 2023 which would have been the optimal play for a player who potentially fit into the category of one season wonder. If Jones struggled the Giants would have been free and clear from Jones’ contract in 2024. Had he played well the Giants would have had the option to tag him a second time for $38.899 million in 2024 while working on a long term contract extension.
Seemingly the Giants were concerned with the optics of losing running back Saquon Barkley who was also a free agent in 2023. They seemed further away from doing a long term deal with him and instead turned their focus to signing Jones at the last minute to a four year, $160 million contract with over $100 million in guarantees paving the way for the Giants to tag Barkley for about $10 million. The Giants imploded in 2023 and wound up losing Barkley as a free agent anyway in 2024 to the Eagles who signed him to a contract that averaged just under $12.6 million a season.
The numbers for the Jones contract really made little sense. The first year salary was $46 million, a massive premium over the $32.4 million tag. Through two years Jones’ earnings were $82 million, nearly $11 million higher that the cost of two franchise tags. The salary was all guaranteed at signing. Those numbers indicated that for this to have any chance of being a good contract for the Giants, Jones had to be on the team in 2025. Given how much risk the Giants were taking on it would have made far more sense to overpay for Barkley on a long term deal and tag Jones to minimize the risks of either player falling apart.
Overall, Jones will have earned $82 million from the Giants for 16 starts and a 3-13 record in those games. This will rank alongside the Russell Wilson extension with the Broncos and Deshaun Watson contract with the Browns as the most expensive mistakes in NFL history. The release of Jones will free up over $19 million in cap room for 2025 putting the Giants around $60 million in cap space for next year, putting them around the NFL average. That is about the only minor positive thing about this entire scenario.