According to Pro Football Talk, New York Giants QB Daniel Jones may be asking for $45 million per year on a new contract. Recently he switched agents from CAA to Athletes First. What does this mean for the Giants going forward? Will they agree to Jones’ demands?
The Giants have a lot of needs going into the offseason. They have to resign Saquon Barkley and Daniel Jones while adding talent in the wide receiver, and tight end positions, while also completely rebuilding the corner and linebacker positions.
The Giants are in a position of leverage here as they can make moves even if they have to tag Jones and sign Barkley to the most expensive running back contract (let’s say he gets signed to $16 million per year which is doubtful and the most he would be signed too).
Additionally, the Giants could tag him but that would make the $32 million cap hit in one year rather than structuring the deal where you can spread a $35 to 40 million cap hit over multiple years via putting in a signing bonus.
After making expected cuts (including Leonard Williams’s decision which for this example, I decided to an extra void year ) and signing Barkley to a new deal that would leave the Giants with cap space to make one big move. They could look to sign Jamal Dean at the price point of 16 million dollars per year.
At least for the present, the key here is for the Giants to keep Daniel Jones in a Giants uniform. They may have to pay a contract in the high $30s to low $40 million range but keeping him is better than the alternative of starting over.
It seems that Jones will drive a hard bargain and this may turn out to be longer than expected negotiation for the Giants. For the sake of the cap hits, it would be way better for New York if they were able to sign Daniel Jones sooner than later to make sure they are able to spread his cap hit this season over multiple seasons. This will allow New York to go after more than one big-time free agent while keeping key players.