New York Giants restructure Daniel Jones' contract, opening up $6M in cap space
The New York Giants and quarterback Daniel Jones agreed to a contract restructure on Monday, which will open up $6.315 million more in cap space for the organization this year.
This summer, the two parties came together to come up with a four-year, $160 million extension for Jones with $82 million in guarantees and another $35 million available in incentives. Now, he’s paying the team back by restructuring $8.42 million of his base salary into a signing bonus.
In most categories, Jones had the best season of his career in 2022. He had his highest-ever completion percentage of 67.2%, set a new passing yards high with 3,205, and brought his interceptions down to a career-low of just five over 16 games.
Adding to that, Jones also rushed for 708 yards and seven touchdowns. The Giants opted to nearly double his scrambling attempts from his previous high of 65 to 120.
Jones’ production hasn’t come without some cost. He did take 44 sacks, bringing his total since his rookie season up to 149, which is the third-most among quarterbacks over that span.
Jones ready to bring Giants back to playoffs
Jones’ teammates see the now-veteran quarterback settling into himself, including his right guard Mark Glowinski.
The offensive lineman described what he’s seen from his starting signal-caller on the Ross Tucker Football Podcast.
“I think it’s going to be even a better season now that he has . . . that little bit of sense of relief in the sense that he doesn’t have to prove [anything] to anybody and now he can just go out there and have fun and kick ass,” Glowinski said. “And I think that’s what was showing last year.”
On top of putting a successful season down on paper, Jones is also benefitting from some continuity in New York.
Since the draft, during which he went sixth overall, he has played for three head coaches and rotated through four offensive coordinators.
“He did a great job, especially coming off of the, you know, past couple of years where he’s had a different coach,” Glowinski said. “And even with last year, he had a new coach. So he is, you can tell early on in the season, that he had a little bit of tightness in him, where he wanted to make sure he was being right all the time.
“And I think, you know, for something simple for me, I would just tell him to try to stay loose and have as much fun out there. I felt like every game that we were winning, he was opening up a little bit more and you would see a little bit more fire in him and more and more and that swagger was coming out. And there was a lot of fun that was being played last season.”