The NFL world was thrown for a loop on Monday when the New York Giants beat the franchise tag deadline, signing quarterback Daniel Jones to a whopping four-year, $160 million contract extension.
For someone who has put up one good season in the NFL, this seemed to be a massive overpay. Jones had struggled through his first three years in the league, only to turn it around under first-year head coach Brian Daboll.
The question here was New York’s financial commitment and whether it made sense. But as we have seen in previous free-agent cycles, initial contract information doesn’t tell the entire story of every deal.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio was the first to receive full details of Daniel Jones contract with the Giants. They paint a vastly different picture than the original reports.
The contract calls for a mere $82 million in fully guaranteed cash with a practical guarantee of $94 million. New York could move on from Jones after two years with $82 million having been doled out to the still-young signal caller. Even if the $12 million in offset language were guaranteed, it’d be a $94 million payout over those two seasons.
Essentially, Jones signed a three-year deal worth $112.5 million deal that could end up being more valuable if the quarterback can meet various incentives.
There’s other contractual mumbo jumbo involved here, but we’re not going to bore you with that information.
What we do know is that Jones is guaranteed $82 million over the next two years. That’s a nice little windfall for a quarterback who was seen as nothing more than a bottom-end starter heading into the 2022 season.
- Daniel Jones stats (2019-21): 63% completion, 8,398 passing yards, 50 total TD, 29 INT, 84.3 QB rating
- Daniel Jones stats (2022): 67.2% completion, 3,205 passing yards, 22 total TD, 5 INT, 92.5 QB rating
Generally speaking, Jones’ new deal makes him the seventh-highest paid quarterback in the NFL on a per-year basis. But most of that is fluff. A total of $23 million of Jones’ base salary for 2025 is guaranteed. His entire base salary for 2026 is non-guaranteed.
When it comes to fully guaranteed cash, Jones now ranks eighth among NFL quarterbacks. This will undoubtedly decrease with Jalen Hurts, Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert all due contract extensions this offseason.
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