Daniel Jones will miss the remainder of the 2023 season after he suffered a knee injury on Sunday, and one NFL insider thinks there is a good chance the quarterback has played his last snap for the New York Giants.
Jones signed a 4-year, $160 million extension with the Giants back in March. He is still owed $35.5 million in guaranteed money from that deal. During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” Monday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter said that unpaid bill is not going to stop the Giants from looking elsewhere at the quarterback position after the season.
“In the grand scheme of things, if that’s the only commitment, that’s not that much compared to some of the quarterback contracts we’ve seen,” Schefter said. “I think this team right now goes right back into the quarterback market. On Saturday night, they had (general manager) Joe Schoen and two other front-office individuals at the Michael Penix-Caleb Williams showdown. That was even before Daniel Jones got hurt. The Giants had three reps at the game.
“Their season right now is a worst-case scenario. It’s time to start looking ahead. The people in the building would never admit this or acknowledge this, but the best thing they can do is lose games right now so they can have a high draft pick next year.”
As Schefter alluded to, the Giants can work around the salary cap issues associated with Jones’ contract. That would be even easier if they draft Jones’ replacement, since their new starting quarterback would be playing under a rookie contract.
Jones had just 2 touchdown passes compared to 6 interceptions before he missed several games with a neck injury. Now that he has to recover from a torn ACL, there will be even more question marks surrounding him. It would hardly be a shock if the Giants move on from their former first-round pick.
