Answering 8 questions raised by the Vikings signing Daniel Jones

What does Jones coming to Minnesota mean for this year? For next year? Let's break it all down.

Sep 8, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) carries the ball while being defended by Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith (22) during the first half at MetLife Stadium. / John Jones-Imagn Images

Major news broke on Wednesday that the Vikings are signing recently-released former Giants starting quarterback Daniel Jones to their practice squad. It's a fascinating move that leads to lots of questions. Here at Vikings On SI, we have answers to all of them (eight, to be exact). Let's dive into it.

How did Jones become available?

The No. 6 overall pick out of Duke in 2019, Jones didn't really pan out with the Giants. He struggled for his first few years before a breakout 2022 season where he racked up nearly 4,000 total yards, 22 total touchdowns, and just 5 interceptions. The Giants went 9-6-1 that season and beat the Vikings in a wild card playoff game behind a big performance from Jones against a defense whose coordinator would be fired four days later.

He earned a four-year, $160 million extension that offseason, but played poorly in 2023 before tearing his ACL. He was struggling again through ten games this season when he was benched for Tommy DeVito. Last week, Jones asked to be released, and the Giants granted his request, despite eating plenty of dead money in doing so. That freed up Jones to choose his next team.

Why did the Vikings want him?

For the Vikings, signing Jones is a low-risk move with some potential upside both this season and beyond. They're adding a 27-year-old quarterback who is a former top-ten pick with 71 games of NFL starting experience. As soon as he arrives in Minnesota, they'll begin teaching him their offense and coaching him up, with the possibility that he could provide a higher floor and ceiling than Nick Mullens as their backup down the stretch of this season — just in case something happens to starter Sam Darnold. They also get to evaluate Jones as a potential backup or bridge option for 2025, when currently-injured rookie J.J. McCarthy is their only quarterback currently under contract.

Why did Jones choose the Vikings?

It almost certainly has a lot to do with Kevin O'Connell's reputation as a coach who elevates quarterbacks. Just look at what KOC has done with Darnold — another former top-ten pick who flamed out with a New York franchise — this year. Last season, he had Kirk Cousins playing the best football of his career before his injury, then won a couple games on the fly after trading for Josh Dobbs. O'Connell's resume speaks for itself, and he's had a relationship with Jones that dates back to the pre-draft process in 2019.

Jones could've gone to a bad team like the Raiders, where he would've had a chance to play right away in the wake of Gardner Minshew's injury. But he reportedly wanted to sign with a contender, learn in a quality football environment, and have a chance to be a backup. The Vikings check all of those boxes. They're 9-2 and they have everything a quarterback could ask for in terms of coaching staff, offensive talent, and organizational stability. In the short-term, Jones likely sees a path to supplanting Mullens in the backup role. And we'll get into this in more detail shortly, but he may also see a path to sticking around in Minnesota next year and possibly even starting games.

How much do the Vikings have to pay him?

Not much at all. It'll be around $100K if he's on the practice squad for the rest of the year, or up to $375K if (or when) he ends up on Minnesota's active roster. But he'll still be cashing large checks from the Giants in the meantime.

Can't others teams poach players off of the practice squad?

They can, but the player has to agree to sign with that new team's active roster. Jones choosing the Vikings means he wants to be there. With that said, for as long as he's on the practice squad, he will have the flexibility to sign with another team. The only scenario where that could become relevant would be if an injury opened up a great opportunity for him to take on a starting role on a winning team. But even then, it's not totally clear if Jones would want to be thrown back into the fire soon. He chose to attend O'Connell's quarterback school, so it would be surprising if he doesn't spend the remainder of this season in Minnesota.

Does this put extra pressure on Sam Darnold?

It shouldn't. Darnold, who is coming off of a fantastic two-game stretch against the Titans and Bears, is the Vikings' unquestioned starter moving forward. He's been a top-ten QB in the league this year in passer rating, passing touchdowns, yards per attempt, and PFF grade, among other stats. Even when he turned the ball over six times in a two-game span against the Colts and Jaguars at the start of this month, the Vikings' confidence in him never wavered. Unless he completely and utterly falls apart for three or four weeks in a row — which would be very surprising, given how he's played through 11 games — there's no situation where Darnold loses his job to Jones without getting hurt.

Is there a chance Jones re-signs with the Vikings next year?

Definitely. The implications this has for the 2025 season shouldn't be overlooked. Darnold, barring a late-season collapse, has played well enough to get a sizable multi-year contract from another team in the spring. The Vikings were never planning on being the ones to give him that deal after this season, no matter how well he played (the possibility of Darnold coming back can't be 100 percent ruled out, though it remains highly unlikely). But they'll still need a high-quality backup or insurance option to pair with McCarthy, especially with this year's No. 10 overall pick out of Michigan coming off a major knee injury.

That's why Jones could make sense for the Vikings beyond this year. He isn't going to command starter money as a free agent, so he could be in play for Minnesota at a relatively cheap price. The Vikings are hoping that a fully-healthy, 22-year-old McCarthy takes their QB1 job next offseason and runs with it for the next decade. But they also need a fallback plan if his knee issue lingers or he simply needs more development before being ready to take the reins. By bringing in Jones now, they can evaluate him as a candidate to fill that role next year. Whether he'd be a bridge QB or a true backup would all depend on how McCarthy looks.

Will they be eligible for a comp pick if he signs elsewhere?

If Jones finishes the season on the Vikings' active roster, which seems likely, then yes, he'll be eligible to factor into the compensatory draft pick formula next year. The Vikings will have the cap space to sign a bunch of free agents next spring, but they also have enough pending free agents of their own (Darnold, Aaron Jones, Camryn Bynum, Byron Murphy Jr., Cam Robinson, Stephon Gilmore, Shaq Griffin, Dalton Risner, etc.) that could sign elsewhere and cancel out the additions, perhaps putting Minnesota in line for a comp pick or two. All they'd need to do to add Daniel Jones to that mix would be to sign him to their active roster before Week 18, if not earlier. That's just another reason why this move made all kinds of sense for the Vikings.