The New York Giants need to bench Daniel Jones. On top of his bad performance this season holding his team back, the Giants need to think ahead to the 2025 offseason and protect their future. Playing Jones out of the bye week would be taking a massive and unnecessary risk; an excessive mistake highlighting organizational dysfunction.
Daniel Jones does not have a future with the Giants
The Giants are 2-8 entering their Week 11 bye week following an embarrassing international loss to the Carolina Panthers. Jones has struggled throughout the season and seems to be standing on his last leg, likely to be benched by the season’s end. But how long should the Giants wait to move their $40 million quarterback to the sideline?
Jones will not be the team’s starting quarterback in the 2025 regular season. They attempted to draft his replacement to no avail this past offseason and will attempt to do so again next offseason. Jones does not have a future in New York. Continuing to start him is counterproductive and produces an extreme risk to the team’s future.
The Giants need to bench Jones to avoid the injury clause in his contract
The Giants could cut Jones in the 2025 offseason to free up $19.4 million in salary cap space with a $22.21 million dead cap penalty (per Over The Cap). That is unless Jones gets injured this season.
Jones has a $23 million injury guarantee in his contract for the 2025 season. If he were to suffer a season-ending injury this season, causing him to fail his physical in March, the Giants would owe him an additional $23 million, negating the potential cap savings they would receive if they cut him in the offseason. Cutting him would then free up nothing on the cap.
If history is any indicator, Jones will likely get injured at some point this season. He has missed time due to an injury in all but one season in his career (2022) and has suffered two season-ending injuries in six seasons (2021 and 2023). Jones has been sacked 29 times in 10 games and is constantly taking big hits while on the run. His risk of injury is higher than that of an average quarterback. The chances of the Giants having to pay him that injury clause in March are too great.
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Consequently, the Giants need to bench Jones sooner rather than later. It would be a massive risk for Jones to take a single snap under center coming out of the bye week in a lost season. At 2-8, barrelling toward a top draft pick, the Giants have no incentive to keep playing Jones — who has an 8-7 TD-INT ratio through 10 games this season.
He is not helping the team win. One could argue he is holding them back from winning. Why should the Giants risk letting Jones hold them back in 2025, too? The obvious move would be to bench him, see if another quarterback on the roster can produce, and plan ahead to the offseason.
