Daniel Jones was within the Giants’ facility on Tuesday, and might need really been within the room, when the 2 sides hammered out their eleventh hour contract extension.
GM Joe Schoen and Jones mentioned Wednesday on Zoom that they acquired a deal carried out at both 3:53 or 3:54 p.m., simply minutes earlier than the 4 p.m. franchise tag deadline. They each described a tense remaining hour when neither aspect was positive they’d discover a compromise.
“It got a little dicey yesterday,” Schoen mentioned. “As it was getting closer to 3:30, 3:40, there was a part of me [that felt], like, we may not get to the finish line. And in the last four or five minutes we tied a bow on it, luckily.”
Jones admitted he had some doubt at instances, too, together with a Monday evening session that acquired testy.
“I think there were probably some points where you had more confidence and some points in time where you had less confidence,” the quarterback mentioned, sporting a sweatshirt on the crew facility in the future after securing the bag. “But I wanted to find a way to work it out, and that was the goal. It was very much my mindset, and I’m glad we did. I’m thrilled to be back.”
Jones mentioned “I was in the building” in that remaining hour. He mentioned his Athletes First brokers instructed him in individual “where it was” with beneath 10 minutes to go, and “I accepted it.”
The quarterback then had dinner with some pals and his brokers to have a good time.
“Yeah, I picked up the tab,” the quarterback deadpanned.
Schoen mentioned the negotiations with Jones’ brokers went for precisely three weeks and concluded with “nine straight days” of in-person conferences, shifting from the NFL Combine in Indianapolis on Sunday to the Giants’ East Rutherford facility on Monday.
Then Monday evening went “late,” they usually have been “back in early Tuesday morning” to grind it out.
Schoen wouldn’t disclose how concerned co-owner John Mara was in finalizing the contract. He merely pressured that he stored possession apprised the entire time.
“John Mara, Chris Mara, Steve Tisch, I’ve got a text chain with them, I called them, I talked to them,” Schoen mentioned. “I kept them abreast since the beginning of the process we started three weeks ago. So phone calls or text chains, just keeping them abreast on what was going on.”
Interestingly, whereas groups usually use the franchise tag leverage in opposition to gamers in negotiations, it appears on this case Jones’ brokers used that tag deadline and the concurrent Saquon Barkley dilemma to pressure the Giants’ fingers in attending to $40 million per 12 months by Tuesday.
“I wanted to know we had our quarterback here and it wasn’t a franchise tag type deal,” Schoen mentioned. “So to me that was a worst-case scenario, putting that franchise tag on him. But I also knew I had that as a tool. So the deal had to make sense for the franchise both short term and long term. And that was what was important to me.”
Schoen added that “the fact we didn’t have to put the franchise tag on him and the way the deal was structured and the years, I think both parties were happy at the end.”
On the flip aspect, Jones’ brokers didn’t have to make use of Tuesday’s tag deadline as a deadline to get their very own deal carried out. They might need benefitted, really, by pushing the negotiations previous that time.
That would have pressured the Giants to make use of the tag on Jones, eliminating one of many franchise tags that groups are allowed to make use of on the participant in his profession, even when he had then agreed to a long-term contract in the future later.
For the Giants’ half, Schoen admitted he clearly didn’t suppose he could be paying Jones at this level a 12 months in the past, when he declined a fifth-year choice that may have locked Jones in for $22.384 million in 2023.
“If I thought I was going to be here a year ago, I would’ve done the fifth-year option,” the GM mentioned with a smile.” But being round Daniel for the final 13 months and seeing him play and the fourth-quarter comebacks and profitable a playoff sport on the street, there’s loads of positives {that a} 25-year-old younger man simply displayed all through the season.”
Interestingly, Schoen additionally implied the Giants have been paying Jones for the even higher participant they consider he’ll grow to be.
“The upside, I’ve got a lot of belief in our staff and Daniel’s work ethic and their relationship that will continue to grow, and Daniel will continue to get better,” Schoen mentioned. “If he’s just at his floor right now, I’m really excited about what his ceiling is going to be.”
Jones additionally demonstrated the identical humility that helped him grind out his greatest season in 2022 in opposition to adversity to earn this deal. He described the emotion of signing this contract as “similar to being drafted.”
“It’s an opportunity to play, but also an opportunity to go earn it and to prove it and continue to improve as a player and win a lot of football games,” Jones mentioned. “That’s my goal, and I’m tremendously excited about the opportunity. But there’s certainly a lot of work to do going forward, and I’m excited for that part of it, too.”
Both sides acquired one thing they needed: Jones acquired cash, the Giants prevented a long-term dedication with a good construction, they usually each acquired to place a contentious scenario behind them.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com