Schwartz: New York Giants Were Six Minutes from ‘Danny Dimes’ Disaster
The negotiation between Daniel Jones and the New York Giants went right down to the wire, literally.
In case you missed it, the New York Giants signed QB Daniel Jones to a contract extension on Tuesday, one that will pay him $160 million over four seasons. There are performance and signing bonus details, as well as non-guaranteed money, that make the deal easier to stomach for the team, but in general, this was a massive commitment by the Giants to their young quarterback.
What makes it even more remarkable, is that the entire deal with six minutes from imploding.
NY Post's Schwartz: Jones Deal with Giants was Six Minutes from Not Happening
Wednesday on The Drive with Charlie and Dan, Charlie Voelker and I welcomed Paul Schwartz of The New York Post to the show to discuss all things New York Giants, but specifically, the contract given to Daniel Jones by the team.
Check out Part 1 of our conversation with Paul here:
As part of our conversation, we talked about the negotiations between Jones and the Giants that eventually led to a deal, and I asked Paul if he knew just how "down-to-the-wire" he believes the negotiations went.
His answer: 3:54PM, six minutes before the deadline for a deal to be struck.
The deadline, in this case, was the NFL's franchise-tag deadline. Teams had until 4PM on Tuesday to declare whether or not they would be applying their one franchise tag to a player on their roster. Once the tag was applied, the player cannot become an unrestricted free agent, and the team that used the tag holds their rights.
At best, the franchise tag allows the team and player to negotiate a long-term contract. At worst, the player must accept a set salary, and must remain with the team for another season.
The Giants had two options to choose from by 4PM, and because of this, the team had two pre-drafted emails ready to send to the NFL at 3:59PM. They could sign Daniel Jones to a contract, and apply the franchise tag to running back, Saquon Barkley. If no deal was signed with Jones, however, the team would've had to apply the franchise tag to Jones, and let Barkley walk to free agency.
Their internal deadline to end negotiations was 12PM on Tuesday, but they blew right past that, and instead, took it right up until the deadline before the contract was signed.
Luckily for the team, the player, and the fans, the contract was signed, and the franchise tag was quickly applied to Barkley, keeping both players with Big Blue. Now, New York and Saquon Barkley are reportedly working toward a long-term contract extension of his own.
It's amazing to think that, in another six minutes, none of this would've happened.