As everyone knows by now, the Kansas City Chiefs locked up their Super Bowl winning quarterback Patrick Mahomes with the largest professional sports contract in history on Monday. Mahomes is set to make a half billion, after reaching a deal that exceeds the 12 year contract that MLB star Mike Trout signed with the Angels. Whenever a contract this large is signed, it has effects for teams other than the one who signed it. That includes the New York Giants.
The Giants have their own young quarterback in Daniel Jones, after all. Market prices for different positions are usually set by recent big contracts at said positions, and quarterback is no exception. Therefore, it’s reasonable to argue that Jones’ next contract may just be affected by the one that Mahomes signed – assuming Jones is considered worthy of high tier quarterback pay once it comes time to renew his contract.
With Mahomes securing the largest pro sports contract ever while playing at quarterback, it looks like the market is favorable to QBs right now. Others around the league will point to this deal to justify getting paid more on their own new contracts.
If the next two seasons make Jones a star for the Giants and not just a stepping stone to another post-Eli Manning quarterback, the team can expect to pay more at the negotiating table. Jones is currently in the second year of his rookie contract, however, so there’s some time before that will happen. He still has two more years after this one and an option for another year.
However, with the market price for top quarterbacks increasing, the Giants have a limited window before they’ll have to pay up to keep Jones, if he does establish himself as a star worthy of being paid like the other top players in the league.
This leaves the Giants with a window of about two to three years to get it together and become a winning team again before they end up with a tough cap situation due to signing Jones to a new contract. They’ll certainly have to make concessions when that time comes and give up on chasing other players that could help the team, for cap reasons.
Especially if the Mahomes contract leads to increases in quarterback prices around the league, just as Christian McCaffrey’s new contract is expected to impact high level running back contracts.
But what state will the Giants be in by the time Jones is wrapping up his rookie deal? Will they be a playoff threat that can afford to enter a bad cap situation after taking advantage of their rebuilding years to stock up on talent? Or will they be in the same spot they are now, in a transition phase that never seems to turn into actual success?
That depends on how things go under a new regime led by Joe Judge, and it could be the difference between the Giants ending up as a regular playoff team and ending up stuck in a cycle of rebuilding.