Daniel Jones must make good on Giants' huge investment

The Giants gambled when they declined the fifth-year option on Daniel Jones' contract last offseason, and they lost when he went out and had the best season of his career. So Daniel Jones drew his line in the sand. He demanded to be paid like one of the NFL's best quarterbacks.

So the Giants paid him.

Now he really has to go out and play like one.

The pressure now will be enormous on the 25-year-old Jones after he agreed to terms on a four-year, $160 million contract extension on Tuesday afternoon, according to an NFL source. He had asked for more — a lot more — and then held strong at his demands for a deal worth at least $40 million per season. He also gets $82 million guaranteed over the first two seasons. The deal includes another $35 million in incentives too.

The average annual value ranks seventh among NFL quarterbacks. And for a payout like that, the Giants will rightfully expect a heck of a lot more than the 3,205 passing yards and 15 touchdown passes the Giants got from Jones last year.

To be fair, Jones was the best thing about the Giants' offense last season, and he basically carried them to their first playoff game in six years and won them their first playoff game since Super Bowl XLVI. He did that while saddled with one of the NFL's worst receiving corps and playing behind an offensive line that was mediocre at best. He also ran for 708 yards and seven touchdowns, showing he had the skills to be one of the best mobile quarterbacks in the league.

All that is good — very good — but not $40 million per year good. It certainly wasn't good enough for the $45 million-plus per year Jones initially wanted. And even though his first agent told him as much, according to a league source, he wanted it so much that he switched agents and engaged in a dangerous game of chicken with Giants general manager Joe Schoen. He practically dared Schoen to use the $32.4 million franchise tag on him, which would have killed the Giants' offseason plans.

Had the Giants done that, they would've given their quarterback about 70% of their available salary cap space. That would've meant the end of running back Saquon Barkley's Giants stint, because they wouldn't have been able to afford the $10.1 million franchise tag which they used on him right after they officially signed Jones. And forget about bolstering the offensive line or adding receivers. With the cap space they had left, they would've had trouble plugging all of their holes.

The only reasonable thing the Giants could do was up their ante and pay him. And Jones knew it. That's fine, of course. In fact, it's fair payback considering the Giants could have had him for $22.4 million this season if they hadn't declined his fifth-year option last year. They challenged him to prove he was worth an investment, and he absolutely did.

But because of the size of this investment — and the fact that so many viewed his demands as so unreasonable — he'll absolutely be judged on what comes next, and how far he can lead the Giants. The quarterbacks currently above him on the pay scale are Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray, Deshaun Watson, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. He's tied in a group that includes Matthew Stafford and Dak Prescott. And Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts will be up there soon. Maybe even Lamar Jackson, too.

That's rarified air where quarterbacks are expected to do much better than 3,205 yards and 15 touchdown passes over a 17-game season.

So there can be no setbacks, only steps forward. It doesn't even matter if he's surrounded by a weak cast again. It's no longer a good excuse if he has to throw all season to the likes of Isaiah Hodgins and Richie James. No one will care if he spends another season running for his life and is lucky enough to only be sacked 44 times.

What's expected now is greatness. If he's being paid like a top-10 quarterback, he has to play like one. Think of what his predecessor, Eli Manning, did back in 2011, just a few years after he signed his first big contract extension that made him one of the highest-paid players in the game. He went out and had his "elite" season, throwing for 4,933 yards and 29 touchdowns while carrying a flawed Giants team all the way to a second Super Bowl championship.

Maybe that's unreasonable to expect, but some will surely expect it. And Jones brought that on himself by demanding to be paid what he was sure he was worth. The Giants reluctantly agreed, upping their initial offer from what a source said was the $35 million-per-year range, because they were willing to bank on Jones' potential.

It's up to Jones now to make sure they don't regret it, to make it clear that they didn't make an expensive mistake. He has to be the kind of quarterback that can carry a team now, that can light up the scoreboard, that can drag a team deep into the playoffs no matter what's going on around him.

He forced the Giants to pay him. Now he has to make sure their investment pays off.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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