Long before Daniel Jones’ $23 million injury guarantee for the 2025 season could potentially become an issue, the New York Giants already were mulling their quarterback options.
Amid questions about Jones’ future in New York, the Giants will face a quarterback on Sunday that they strongly considered trading up to draft.
During the offseason edition of “Hard Knocks” on Cinemax, Giants general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll were sitting together when they began assessing one of the top quarterbacks in the 2024 draft class.
“Daniels,” Schoen said, referring to Heisman Trophy-winning LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels. “Have you guys seen enough that you would trade up for him?”
To which Daboll replied, “Daniels? I would.”
The Giants were unable to move up as high as No. 2 in the draft and instead, the Commanders stayed in that slot and drafted their quarterback of the future and the player that New York will face Sunday in Washington.
As the Giants prepare to face Daniels for the first time, they also will have to be prepared for the questions that are tracking to come up at some point this season — the same situations other teams have faced with their quarterbacks in recent seasons.
Jones has a $23 million injury guarantee for 2025 that becomes fully guaranteed if he gets injured and is unable to pass a physical in the offseason. In recent seasons, other NFL teams have benched quarterbacks to avoid triggering injury guarantees.
This happened last season in Denver when the Broncos benched Russell Wilson, who returns to Denver on Sunday with the Steelers, before he could potentially suffer an injury and trigger a $37 million guarantee for 2024.
Also last season, the Raiders benched Jimmy Garoppolo rather than risking the quarterback to injury, which could have guaranteed an additional $11.25 million that would have been due this season.
In 2022, the Colts benched Matt Ryan in October, decreasing the risk that they would have of having to pay the veteran quarterback a $7.5 million roster bonus in March 2023.
Later that year, the Raiders benched Derek Carr to avoid his $32.9 million salary for the 2023 season and $7.5 million of his 2024 salary becoming guaranteed if he suffered a significant injury.
The Giants are yet at that point with Jones, and it is early in the season. But these are decisions that other teams have faced in recent seasons, and if Jones doesn’t play better — he has just two touchdown passes in his last eight games — New York would be expected to be forced to consider a similar decision.
Jones struggled in last Sunday’s 28-6 home loss to the Vikings, throwing two interceptions and completing just 52.4% of his passes. The Giants are just 1-6 in the seven games Jones has started since signing his four-year, $160 million deal.
But despite the poor start to the season, Daboll backed Jones as the Giants’ starter earlier this week. Jones said Thursday that his “mental toughness is in a good spot” and added he is “confident in my ability to go out and execute, and look I forward to doing that on Sunday.”
ESPN’s Jordan Raanan contributed to this report.