The Giants claim they don’t have buyer’s remorse on Daniel Jones. They nevertheless might be trying to buy another quarterback.
Via Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com, the Giants have explored trading up from the sixth overall pick in the draft. Raanan says the “belief” is that the Giants hope to land North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye.
Jones was the sixth overall pick five years ago, from Duke.
The Giants gave Jones a long-term deal after the 2022 season, after not picking up his fifth-year option for 2023.
Jones has a fully-guaranteed salary of $35.5 million in 2024. The Giants also have Drew Lock under contract; his $5 million base salary has another $3 million in incentives tied to playing time that weren’t mentioned when initial reports of the contract emerged.
If they make a move for Maye and get him, the next question becomes whether he’ll play right away. If he does, he wouldn’t have a lot of help at the skill positions. Which will make it harder for him to thrive.
Of all the teams thought to be looking for quarterbacks in round one, only the Giants have a former first-round quarterback who earned a second deal. And he’s entering the second guaranteed year of his second deal. In lieu of giving him a chance to play like he did in 2022, they’d be passing on a chance to give him a weapon and giving up extra assets to get a new quarterback.
The mere suggestion of this speaks to the chronic struggles the Giants have endured since winning their last Super Bowl, 13 years ago. And the struggles seem to flow, quite frankly, from an ownership group that has ripped through coach after coach and General Manager after General Manager as they ricochet around inside a revolving door of dysfunction.