Former NFL Executive Proposes Wild Trade Involving Giants QB Daniel Jones
Former NFL executive Mike Tannenbaum has an idea to help the New York Giants solve their quarterback situation.
Tannenbaum, who spent the bulk of his NFL executive career with the New York Jets from 1997 to 2012, where he worked his way up the ladder from director of player contracts to general manager and senior vice president of football operations from 2006 to 2012, proposed during an appearance on ESPN's Get Up program that the Giants trade quarterback Daniel Jones to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for quarterback DeShaun Watson and a second-round draft pick.
“If you’re the Cleveland Browns, you have Dorian Thompson-Robinson, you have Joe Flacco, and now, a 27-year-old Daniel Jones who has one year left of guaranteed money for $36 million and an enormous amount of flexibility moving forward," Tannenbaum said in explaining his logic.
“If you’re the Giants, you’re getting Deshaun Watson, who’s 29 — who’s making $46 million a year over the next three years — and a second-round pick. To me, [the Giants] need a frontline difference-making quarterback.”
Tannenbaum is correct in saying that the Giants need a difference-making quarterback, something Jones has yet to prove he can be.
But Tannenbaum's trade proposal makes no sense for the Giants to do so from a financial perspective.
Trading Jones before June 1 would result in $13.79 million in savings with a dead money acceleration of $33.315 million, representing what's left of Jones's signing bonus.
Meanwhile, obtaining Watson's fully guaranteed contract would cost the Giants a whopping $46 million for his 2024 base salary. While they could do so by converting a chunk of that base salary into a signing bonus that prorates over the remaining life of the contract, they'd probably have to do the same for the $46 million he's owed in both 2025 and 2026 in order to have enough operating capital to address other upcoming needs.
As of this writing, the Giants, per Over the Cap, have $11.629 million in effective cap space and $19.462 million in total cap space to address numerous needs in free agency and their 2024 draft class.
They're expected to open more cap space through contract terminations and restructures of their own, but that cap space is not only needed to sign their incoming 2024 rookie class but is also expected to be invested in veterans to help boot the interior offensive line depth, cornerback, pass rusher, and backup quarterback.
The best course of action for the Giants remains to stay with Jones for the coming year, let him start if healthy (and if not, plug in a veteran backup quarterback signed in free agency to a contract similar to that of Tyrod Taylor's recently expired two-year deal in which he received play-time incentives that increased the value of his earnings if he had to step in as a starter.
And add a young quarterback via the draft on a rookie contract that can sit for a few games while a new addition at receiver and a hopefully improved offensive line solidify the surroundings for a young quarterback to step in and have far better success than Jones found when he was rushed into the lineup two games into his rookie season.
Then, after the 2024 season ends, see where things are. If Jones is injured again or continues to regress, the Giants can get out of the deal with no further guaranteed money owed to the former Duke signal caller and pivot to the next man up. If Jones rebounds and looks like he did in 2022 and manages to stay healthy, maybe the Giants can even see about trading him after the season to a quarterback-needy team for additional draft assets the Giants can use to further build up a roster that needs a lot.
