SI.com's Matt Verderame recently ranked the 32 head coach/starting quarterback tandems in the NFL, and it's probably safe to say that where the New York Giants' duo of head coach Brian Daboll and quarterback Daniel Jones ranked will leave more than a few Giants fans feeling blue.
The Daboll-Jones tandem ranked 25th on Verderame's list, rounding out the NFC East's duos. And to little surprise, the reason for the low ranking had more to do with Jones than it did with Daboll.
"Daboll won Coach of the Year and guided New York to a wild-card win in 2022, but everything fell apart in a six-win campaign last year," Verderame said, hinting that Jones' progress--or lack thereof--could alter Daboll's future.
"To rally, Daboll must figure out how to prop up Jones without running back Saquon Barkley. As of the end of the ’23 season, Jones’s four-year, $160 million contract looks like one of the worst in sports."
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Enough has been said about the Giants' fall from grace last season, going from a team that in 2022 posted a 9-7-1 record that was good enough for a postseason berth and which also saw the team win its first postseason game since its 2011 Super Bowl season.
That 2022 season has looked like the exception for Jones, the team's first-round pick in 2019, who managed to make it through the 2022 season unscathed by injury.
One year into his four-year, $160 million contract extension signed after that season wrapped, Jones only appeared in six games due to an early year burner in his neck and a season-ending torn ACL.
Daboll, known for his offensive prowess with the Buffalo Bills and, in particular, their quarterback, Josh Allen, guided Jones to the best numbers of his career during his Garden State debut in 2022. However, that, of course, came with the contingency plan of having Barkley behind him.
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But the Giants' problems in 2023 ran deeper than the quarterback position. As injuries hit the team hard, the offensive line made history for all the wrong reasons, allowing the second most sacks (85) in league history since sacks became a tracked stat. There were also reports of tension between Daboll and then-defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.
With 2023 safely in the books, the Giants have begun looking ahead. Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen have repeatedly said that the starting job belongs to Jones once he's medically cleared to return. The team's brass, who upgraded the offensive line talent, also gifted Jones with a legitimate No. 1 receiver candidate in LSU's Malik Nabers with their premier pick in this year's draft.
That said, Jones undoubtedly has a much shorter leash than Daboll this time, as the results of the duo's collaboration in 2024 could well set the pace for the rest of their NFL careers.
Jones has an injury guarantee in his contract that kicks in next year if he cannot pass a physical. The way it works is that $23 million of Jones’ $30 million base salary in 2025 was guaranteed for injury at signing. Separately, $12 million of that $30 million base salary becomes fully guaranteed if Jones is on the roster on the fifth day of the 2025 league year.
If Jones is healthy and the Giants move on from him before the fifth day of the 2025 league year, they will not owe him any guaranteed money. If, however, if Jones cannot pass a phyical but still ends up being cut before the fifth day of the 2025 league year, the team will owe him the $23 million injury guarantee.
Two-time defending Super Bowl champions Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid of Kansas City were ranked No. 1 on Verderame's list. Philadelphia's pairing of Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni placed 13th, the highest among the NFC East quartet.
