Boomer Esiason Believes Giants Feel “Stuck” with QB Daniel Jones

Esiason believes Jones's contract structure has handcuffed the team for the upcoming season.

East Rutherford, NJ -- June 11, 2024 -- Daniel Jones and head coach Brian Daboll at the NY Giants Mandatory Minicamp at their practice facility in East Rutherford, NJ. / Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA

Former NFL quarterback turned sports radio talk show host Boomer Esiason has made a recent living offering his opinions about the goings-on in the sports world. And most recently, the co-host of WFAN’s Boomer and Gio program weighed in on the New York Giants and their quarterback, Daniel Jones.

Through two episodes of Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants, Esiason has concluded that the Giants feel “stuck” with Jones.

“The moment that (Giants general manager) Joe Schoen goes over to New England and says what he says, and the moment they’re interviewing quarterbacks, they’re not really talking about Daniel Jones, but they really are talking about Daniel Jones because they don’t know what to expect from Daniel Jones,” Esiason said.

“You look at the injuries…you then take what Joe Buck said during one of their games when Brian Daboll was lamenting to Joe Buck that he has to be the energy and needs his quarterback to be the energy, and then you take what Rich Eisen said about the Giants being done with Daniel Jones, essentially, they’re stuck with Daniel Jones,” he concluded.

Schoen has been frank about Jones’s injury history being a factor. The quarterback has missed 21 games in five NFL seasons and is currently in the latter stages of his rehab from a torn ACL. He has set his sights on being ready for training camp on July 23.

And based on how Jones’s contract is structured–he’s owed $36 million in guaranteed money this season–it’s hard to see why someone wouldn’t think the team was “stuck” with the quarterback from a financial perspective.

Had the Giants dumped Jones’s contract before June 1 this year, they would have had to pay $69.315 million in dead money and take a loss of $21.46 million. 

Those sums would have destroyed the Giants' cap space, and a post-June 1 designation wouldn’t have been any better, as the Giants would have saved $750,000 but would have had to eat $47.105 million this year).

Perhaps the most telling thing from the two Hard Knocks episodes aired thus far is that the Giants initiated trade talks with the Patriots, who held the third spot in the draft. It’s likely safe to believe that if the Giants felt more certain about Jones, they might not have inquired.

The counterargument is that Schoen was merely doing due diligence like any good general manager would. A counterargument to that is that if the Giants were wholly committed to Jones beyond this year, then why even explore giving up premium assets for a player who you were planning to sit on the bench and bring out only if Jones couldn’t play?

To be fair to Jones, he hasn’t had much chance during his stint with the Giants. The injuries haven’t helped, but neither has the fact that he hasn’t had a consistent offensive line or a No. 1 receiver to throw to.

But at some point, the quarterback needs to start playing above the Xs and Os, and that’s where questions continue to swirl around Jones. 

Former Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson, in his All Things Covered podcast, said that while Jones has good size and strength, he hasn’t shown “crazy arm talent” or an ability “to read defenses quickly, to get the ball out quickly.” 

Jones, for his part, has been hard at work in his rehab. With head coach Brian Daboll expected to take over the offensive play calling this year, the team is hoping that Jones mounts a “Comeback Player of the Year” campaign and looks more like the quarterback he was in 2022 when he stayed healthy and led the team to its first playoff berth since 2016 and its first postseason win since 2011.

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