Giants restructure Daniel Jones’ contract, prepare for Dallas Cowboys opener
Brian Daboll’s team was back in the building and on the field Monday preparing for Sunday night’s season opener against the Dallas Cowboys.
“I think everyone’s excited and looking forward to our preparations here,” Daboll said on Zoom.
The only real news of the day was on the business side.
The Giants’ front office restructured quarterback Daniel Jones’ contract to give GM Joe Schoen some breathing room on operating costs through the season.
The team converted $8.42 million of Jones’ base salary into a signing bonus to create $6.315 million in cap space, as first reported by ESPN.
Daniel Jones’ initial cap hits on his new deal were: $21.75 million (2023), $45 million, $39.5 million and $56.5 million, respectively. So this restructure should make his new cap hit for the season $15.4 million while kicking some costs down the road.
The Giants only had $4.7 million in space as of Monday morning, per the NFLPA database, which is why they needed some room. They’re using Jones’ contract and not Leonard Williams’ team-high $32.3 million cap hit because Jones’ future here is more of a certainty.
Williams’ contract at his current cost isn’t something Schoen wants to impact his books past this season. So that’s an example of the second-year GM continuing to take his medicine in some places in order to try and create long-term cap health.
As for the team, Daboll said the coaches were back in the building on Sunday to get ready for their players’ return and ramped-up preparations for Dallas.
“The first game of the NFL season, there’s a lot of unknowns,” Daboll said. He said the unpredictable nature of early games increases the importance of the Giants being fundamentally sound and committed to their own techniques and preparations first.
Daboll is 0-2 against Mike McCarthy’s Cowboys. His Giants lost 23-16 at home to Dallas last season with Cooper Rush quarterbacking the Boys. Then they fell 28-20 to a Dak Prescott-led Dallas team on the road on Thanksgiving Day.
The Giants have lost four straight and 11 of their last 12 meetings against their NFC East rivals. A 23-19 victory in the final game of the 2020 season is their only win over Dallas from 2017 through 2022. They last swept the Cowboys in 2016.
“Coach McCarthy has done a very good job there. He’s calling plays,” Daboll said of one change to this year’s Dallas team, which fired offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, who landed with the L.A. Chargers. “They have really good players, some elite players. It’ll be a big challenge for us.”
NOTES
Monday’s practice was closed to the media. The Giants will then practice Tuesday and Wednesday, take Thursday off, and practice one last time on Friday before their Week 1 game.
The Giants placed WR Cole Beasley on the “practice squad/injured” list late Monday afternoon and signed WR Cam Sims to their practice squad. Daboll said earlier on Monday, before practice, that injury information would come out on Wednesday. It’s unclear what changed. Beasley is a player who can help if healthy.
Sims, 27, has experience playing gunner on punt coverage for Washington. He might help the Giants fill the void at that position created by rookie Bryce Ford-Wheaton’s season-ending torn ACL.
