Before Russell Wilson agreed to terms with the Giants, Jets quarterback (and former Wilson teammate) Justin Fields was the lowest paid starting quarterback on a non-rookie contract, at $20 million per year. Wilson now owns that distinction, with only $10.5 million guaranteed for 2025.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, another $10.5 million comes from a “complicated” incentive package that can pay up to $7.5 million based on playing-time, performance incentives, and playoff incentives. Also, another $3 million can be earned — at $176,500 per game — based on wins and taking at least 50 percent of the snaps.
This means that Wilson cannot, and will not, reach the maximum value of $21 million for 2025 unless the Giants go 17-0. (If the Giants go 17-0, I will get a tattoo of John Mara’s face on my arm.)
Who knows how much Wilson will make this year? He’s guaranteed to get $10.5 million. He’ll earn the rest.
Or, as the case may be, he won’t.
In the last week, the Giants have gone from Tommy DeVito as the only quarterback on their depth chart to adding Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston. The Giants also haven’t ruled out drafting a quarterback.
In 2024, the Steelers acquired Justin Fields in a trade with the Bears a day after signing Wilson. Wilson won the job over Fields, though a calf injury kept him out until Week 7.
Now, Wilson finds himself competing for the starting job for another team.
“Yeah, I expect to be the starter and come in here and be ready to rock and roll every day,” Wilson said in his introductory news conference, via video from SNYGiants. “To be able to lead. I think this team is looking for someone to lead them in every way in terms of the process in the offseason, during the season, our habits and our thought process and how we create a great winning culture and how to continue to establish that and really build on the things we do well and the things that we continue to need to do.
“I think the big part of me is this will be my 14th year to be able to lead an amazing group of men that really have big hopes and goals and dreams and desires, and we all share the same goal. So, I think that’s the best part about it is I get to be around a lot of extremely, extremely talented guys.”
In the past four seasons, Wilson is 23-32 as a starter with three different teams. He has 83 touchdowns and 30 interceptions in that time.
The Giants signing quarterback Russell Wilson has resulted in a shift in the betting odds on the third overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft.
Colorado wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter is now the betting favorite to go with the third overall pick, which is owned by the Giants. Hunter’s odds to go third overall are -150 at DraftKings.
Previously, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders was favored to go third overall. Now Sanders’ odds of going No. 3 have fallen to +170. The signings of Wilson and Jameis Winston don’t preclude the Giants from drafting Sanders (or another quarterback), but they leave more room for the Giants to decide that they should build their roster by focusing on a talented player at another position. Or, in the case of Hunter, two other positions.
Miami quarterback Cam Ward is the overwhelming favorite to go No. 1 overall, with -1600 odds. Penn State defensive end Abdul Carter is the favorite to go No. 2, at -130. If those two players are gone and the Giants pick neither Hunter nor Sanders at No. 3, other possibilities include Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart (+1600), Michigan defensive lineman Mason Graham (+2500), Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty (+2500), Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan (+3000) or Missouri offensive tackle Armand Membou (+3000).
Russell Wilson’s delayed stint as Pittsburgh’s starting quarterback started well, with a 6-1 record.
It did not end well. And, at the end of the day, the Steelers didn’t want to bring him back.
Look at the final five starts. All losses. The average margin of defeat in those five games was 13.2 points. (Remove the two-point loss in Week 18 to the Bengals, and the average margin was 16 points.)
By the time the season was over, there was a sense from some the building that Wilson is “physically done.” And the team’s ensuing actions backed up those words, completely.
Remember when the official word was that the team’s preference was to re-sign Wilson OR Justin Fields? Once Fields agreed to sign with the Jets, Wilson’s name NEVER came up.
Given that Wilson is getting only $10.5 million guaranteed from the Giants on a deal worth up to $21 million (it’s surely no coincidence that Wilson’s maximum package beats Fields’s average salary by $1 million), the Steelers could have gotten him for something close to that. Which is peanuts as far as starting veteran quarterbacks go.
But the Steelers never really tried to re-sign Wilson. By all appearances, they never really wanted him back.
Which makes the Giants’ interest even more surprising. Given the close ties between the two franchises (Rooney family member Kathleen Mara owns 10 Super Bowl rings; six from the Steelers and four from the Giants), was there not a candid conversation about the Steelers’ experience with Wilson in 2025? If there was — and if the Steelers shared information consistent with their ultimate lack of interest in bringing him back — what made things different for the Giants?
We’ll see how it goes for the Giants and Wilson. We’ll see how he’s received by the fans, by the locker room. We’ll see whether a sense emerges from the other players that Jameis Winston would be a better option. And, if so, whether the Giants go with Winston instead.
Regardless, the fact that Wilson once won a Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium means jack diddly squat as to whether, some 12 years later, he’ll perform well enough to win enough games at MetLife Stadium and elsewhere to get the Giants to the postseason.
However it plays out, chances are that Kathleen Mara won’t be adding an 11th Super Bowl ring to her collection in 2025. At least not from the Mara side of the family.
The Giants have added a pair of veteran quarterbacks in recent days, if you haven’t heard. While the acquisition of Jameis Winston and Russell Wilson doesn’t remove the Giants from the conversation regarding the drafting of a quarterback in round one or two, it gives the Giants something they needed almost as badly as they needed an answer at quarterback.
They now have the ability to fully and properly assess the options in the draft at quarterback, untainted by their needs.
Teams constantly say they’re hoping to draft the best available player, and that they won’t be drafting for need. But need necessarily influences the assessment of the best available player.
Need also can create bias in the assessment of a player. If a team needs a quarterback, the team is more likely to find a reason to like a given quarterback.
In contrast, if a team doesn’t need a quarterback, it can make a totally unbiased assessment of the various options. And it can make the best selection possible when the time comes to make the pick.
With the draft 29 days away, the Giants can now focus on the options with the third overall pick (and the 34th) without regard to the urgency to add a quarterback. And if they decide that their best path entails taking Shedeur Sanders at No. 3 or some other quarterback at No. 34 or trading back into the first round for a quarterback, they can do it without the nagging sense that they need to do something at quarterback.
