Daniel Jones signs four-year, $160-million deal with Giants; Saquon Barkley receives franchise tag

Now we know, absolutely, for sure, that Daniel Jones is the Giants quarterback for the foreseeable future and has a new, four-year contract for a reported $160 million to show for it. 

Let the hard part really begin: turning the Giants into a consistent winner with a quarterback whose contract is reportedly worth an average of $40 million per year and still has plenty of holes around him. (Receivers, anyone?) Significantly, the first year of Jones' contract will carry a salary-cap number of about $19 million, according to a source, allowing for the Giants to address some other areas.

The Giants and Jones struck the deal shortly before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline. His contract includes a reported $82 million in guarantees and another possible $35 million in incentives.

"I said after the season I love this place," Jones told http://Giants.com. “I've really enjoyed my time here & I want to be here. I have great respect for this organization, the Maras, the Tisches, my coaches and teammates. I am happy we were able to come to an agreement."

If Jones and the Giants had been unable to reach a deal, the team would have used the franchise tag, a one-year proposition that would have paid Jones $32.4 million in 2023, and would have further hamstrung the Giants. 

With Jones secured, that enabled the Giants to use the non-exclusive franchise tag on running back Saquon Barkley. 

Those scenarios – Jones signed, Barkley franchised -- were always the most likely outcomes. 

And those scenarios also can be considered wins for Giants general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll. The two have plenty of other roster needs to address this offseason.

But quarterback always represents the biggest hurdle in the NFL. 

And Jones, whether he knew it or not, was essentially auditioning all season long for the new general manager and head coach. 

“It was an ongoing process,” Schoen said recently. “We evaluated every game that he played all the way up through the playoffs. We felt good at the end of the season that he’s a guy that we’d like to have back moving forward and be our guy.” 

It didn’t hurt that Jones was masterful in his first playoff game, at Minnesota, leading the Giants to a 31-24 win at U.S. Bank Stadium on Jan. 15. He threw for 301 yards on 24-for-35 passing with two touchdowns while adding 78 yards on 17 rushes. 

Jones improved in myriad ways under Daboll’s coaching, including under duress.  

According to Next Gen Stats, Jones completed +4.3% of his passes over expected when pressured (a ranking that was third in the NFL). And Jones has been pressured on 37.5% of his dropbacks since entering the NFL in 2019, the only quarterback over 35% . 

Hence the Giants need to get him more help. 

After playing out his four-year, $25.6 million rookie deal, Jones left CAA, his original agency, and hired Athletes First. Schoen said last week at the Combine that the change in agents did not affect the negotiations in any way. 

Jones is believed to have originally sought $45-48 million per year. 

But the sides were able to compromise, still making Jones a very wealthy 25-year-old.

For Barkley, the surprise of Tuesday was not that he was franchised – he anticipated that – but that he was designated with the non-exclusive tag. (He did not anticipate that.) The reason: It is less costly than the franchise tag and, while another team could offer two first-round draft picks and steal him away, the Giants believe that scenario is unlikely. 

Barkley’s camp and the Giants began negotiating in November and are expected to continue to do so. The sides have until July 15 to work out a long-term extension. 

Barkley and Jones are close friends; Barkley has said many times that he sees them essentially as a package deal.    

The Giants have long considered Barkley, a team captain, more than a running back, not only for his play on the field but for his leadership and example he sets.  

Barkley is coming off his most productive season since his rookie year with 1,312 rushing yards on 295 carries (both career highs) and 10 touchdowns in 2022, along with 57 receptions for 338 yards. 

Schoen recently said that among the attributes he “loves” about Barkley are the qualities that made the running back the team’s Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee. 

“In the negotiations you take all that all into account or you wouldn’t approach the player on a contract extension,” Schoen said. “You also got to look at production, durability, games played, production versus other comps throughout the league and that’s usually where they land from a financial standpoint.   We’ve got to draw a line in the sand, like we’re not going any further and if it goes past this, all right let’s shift to Plan B.  Hopefully we don’t get to that but we went through all those plans.” 

By Kimberly Jones

kimberly.jones@newsday.comkimjonessports

Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.