Giants reporter hits back at 'overstated' NFL Draft trade idea

Leading up to the start of the 2025 NFL Draft on Thursday night, numerous reporters and analysts suggested that at least one quarterback-needy team should trade a second-round pick and other assets to get back into the first round.

This would allow it to take a signal-caller and ensure that player's rookie contract would include a fifth-year option. 

For a piece published Thursday, New York Giants insider Dan Duggan of The Athletic shared why he feels "the value of the fifth-year option is overstated" as it pertains to the sport's most important position. 

"Part of that is the changes in the 2020 [collective bargaining agreement] that made the fifth-year option fully guaranteed when exercised before a player’s fourth season and increased pay for players on their fifth-year option based on their performance in their first three seasons," Duggan wrote. "The other factor is that quarterbacks picked in the first round rarely play out their entire rookie contract, including the fifth-year option, before getting an extension."

While Cleveland Browns reporter Tony Grossi of ESPN Cleveland/The Land on Demand agrees that "the fifth-year option is overrated and not worth using an extra draft pick to make it available," recent history shows how potentially having that extra year on a contract could alter the state of a franchise. 

Back in the spring of 2022, the Giants declined the fifth-year option attached to Daniel Jones' rookie deal. He subsequently guided the club to a playoff berth and a road postseason victory, and the New York front office ultimately rewarded him with a deserved contract that allowed Big Blue to retain running back Saquon Barkley via the franchise tag. 

Jones is now with the Indianapolis Colts, and Barkley is the reigning Offensive Player of the Year who helped the Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl this past February. 

Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers will reportedly soon lock Brock Purdy down via a multiyear extension that some feel he doesn't deserve. The Niners probably wish they could have another season to evaluate Purdy before making such a decision, but his rookie contract has no fifth-year option because he was the final pick of the 2022 draft. 

"By the start of their fourth season," Duggan continued, "most quarterbacks have either flamed out or secured a lucrative extension. Having the fifth-year option can help a team manage the structure of the extension, but it doesn’t change the timeline for paying a quarterback."

A majority of the quarterbacks who will be drafted this spring are viewed as projects for the future who should sit for at least one entire season. Nevertheless, it's practically a guarantee that some club will play a first-year signal-caller before he's ready this coming fall because of the current structure of rookie contracts.