69 starts later, Daniel Jones did not even win half of the games for the Giants. Yet, when his rookie contract ended after the 2022 season, the front office was keen on securing their franchise quarterback on the back of what eventually turned out to be fool’s gold. And by that, we mean his only winning season, when the Giants ended a 5-year playoff drought with nine wins from 16 starts the same year. Giants GM Joe Schoen and Jones’ representatives were able to beat the deadline with just a few seconds left before securing a massive 4-year, $160 million contract.

Be it the 1-5 start or his ACL injury during the 2023 season, Jones’ Giants career never picked up again. Last season’s 2-8 slump proved to be the breaking point, effectively closing the book on his time with the Giants, joining forces with the Vikings last season as a backup before finally signing a modest one-year, $14 million contract with the Indiana Colts. Nevertheless, Jones’ $160 million negotiation remains the most memorable for his agent.

The architect of that Jones deal, AJ Stevens of Athletes First, pulled back the curtain on the ‘absurd‘ process that sealed Big Blue’s fate. Stevens, mid-swing on a serene Saturday golf course, gets a phone call, and it’s CEO Brian Murphy. “Hey. I have this master plan. We’re gonna send a proposal to the Giants on Monday. It will be a whole history of the quarterback market, and where Daniel fits into it.” What followed was a 72-hour marathon of developing a strong case with thorough research and impassioned rhetoric. 

The ’42-page manifesto,’ as the Giants liked to call it.

Giants executives, who may have been expecting a standard offer sheet, found themselves wading through decades of QB market analysis, salary cap evolution, and positional value arguments. The actual numbers were buried deep on the last page, No. 42. “You had to read through 41 pages to actually see our first proposal to the Giants,” Stevens chuckled at the memory with host Ari Meirov. “It was absurd at the time. Looking back, it’s still absurd.

“It inevitably got us to the point where we did a buzzer-beater deal where there were seconds left before the deadline when we got his contract done. That one was super memorable for me.” 

Inside the Giants’ war room, the tension was palpable. Co-owner John Mara admitted, “I’m still happy we gave him that contract because I thought he played really well for us in 2022… Let’s give him a chance.” Yet, he acknowledged the internal friction over letting Saquon Barkley walk. “No, I wasn’t crazy about it at the time. I didn’t want to lose [Barkley].” Schoen publicly tried to maintain neutrality at the 2023 Combine – “I would love to have them both back. [But] There’s not priority on one or the other”—but his actions hinted otherwise.

The contract’s structure screamed “prove-it”: heavily front-loaded guarantees, but it backfired spectacularly. Jones regressed, injuries mounted, and by 2024, he was benched and cut. The financial fallout is still felt: a $47.1 million dead-cap hit this year and a lingering $22.2 million phantom charge for 2025—the cost of reading 41 pages before seeing the number.

Meanwhile, as Jones seeks redemption in Indianapolis, he’s taking first-team reps while Anthony Richardson heals. HC Shane Steichen praises his “grasp of the playbook, leadership, and intelligence.” As for the Giants, sure, cutting him freed up $19.4 M in cap space for 2025, offering a flicker of relief next year. But it remains a stark reminder of how quickly ‘franchise QB’ dreams, who once earned “MVP!” chants in New York, can turn into costly cap casualties.