Giants sign Daniel Jones to huge deal, give Saquon Barkley the franchise tag | You Pod to Win the Game

Yahoo Sports NFL Writers Charles Robinson and Jori Epstein discuss the new deal that Daniel Jones signed with the New York Giants, and talk about what it means for the future of the team to bring back both Jones and Saquon Barkley next season.

Video Transcript

CHARLES ROBINSON: Daniel Jones obviously cuts the four-year extension. Four years, $160 million. More like three years $37.5 APY in there. And then Saquon Barkley gets the franchise tag, a little over $10 million. You and I talked about this before I doubted that Daniel Jones would get the deal done.

But it just shows you-- and we'll get to this with another player-- that when your agents who you hire to get deals done make last ditch efforts by going to the teams and meeting face to face, that can be a moving event and get deals finished. Good for the Giants, right? I mean, you spent time on the inside of the Daniel Jones deal, the negotiation. You had a chance to talk to some people. I felt like you thought, hey, you know what, you get that done and you can tag Saquon, it's a win for everybody.

JORI EPSTEIN: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, you can have the people who say, like, is Daniel Jones a $40 million quarterback? Or I have friends who are Giants fans who are saying, why is he making $5 million less than Patrick Mahomes? And I'm like, that reflects more Patrick Mahomes' deal than it does Daniel Jones. When you think about the salary cap going up, I don't look at it as-- and I tweeted this, so I guess I'm guilty of this. But, like, yes, he and Dak are making the same amount of money. But in terms of the contract he just signed, you have to account for inflation of the salary cap over a couple of years in between.

And so it wasn't a crazy deal. Like when you said he wants $45, I mean, look, obviously Geno and Derek Carr got less, and so you can question how much Daniel is worth relative to those guys. But I do think that this is a Giants team that sees potential. They felt like he understands their system, he was ready to rock with it. And if you're going to get the deal done anyway by July 17, which is the franchise tag deadline, just get it done now and keep Saquon in the building.

And I still think that there will be a little questions in terms of what comes out with the guarantees and the money. I know that we had more details come out, but you'll have to excuse me for being a little bit skeptical of the veracity of any details the day a deal is done that we see reported. But I do think that this is not a crazy deal for the Giants. If Daniel Jones plays like he did last year or better, I think that this is a good deal. If he goes back and regresses, maybe not.

But I think that now you have this setup where you've got some great young defensive players like Dexter Lawrence, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and then you have Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley. You don't have to keep Saquon forever if you think that he starts to deteriorate like a running back occasionally does in this league, but him haven't for a really, really good price point this year. You can get a receiver probably in the first round of the draft. And you're rolling. You've got great tackle play. I mean, this is a talented team, a team with really good coaching.

And it's funny, I was talking to Giants head coach Brian Daboll today for another story totally unrelated to Daniel, and I was like, how's your day going? And he goes, oh, we're self scouting. And I was like, well, it's nice to be self scouting guys who are coming back, I bet. And he goes, well, we still have a lot of work to do. And that's what you want to hear if you're a Giants fan, that they've got these guys but they're going back to see what they did last year, not because they think that's what they should do next year, but because that is the starting point foundation one. Now let's see what you can do in year two.

CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah. And I think there's a way too Giants fans could look at this and say, well, let's just look at it as we brought a tandem back. OK, so if it is 37 APY, let's-- I doubt they're going to end up getting Saquon on 10 year long-term, but let's just-- for now, the numbers are the numbers. If you were able to get Daniel Jones and Saquon together-- let's just call it 50 a year combined between those two players-- if they played like they played last season and they're healthy and you continue to see the strides in the offense and the salary cap keeps moving north, OK. I think that's doable, and Giants fans would probably feel better about that, particularly as the salary cap moves up as we move forward in time and the deals look a little more economical, particularly after future quarterback deals come in.

I mean, I've had a chance to talk to people now, they're already saying, like, Burrow is going to get 55. Joe Burrow is getting $55 million. He might get 60 by the time this all ends up. But I did think it's interesting, when you get in the inside of the contract, and realistically it's a three-year deal-- most deals nowadays are three-year deals. That's where most of the guaranteed money ends anyway.

So I think it's-- is it a lot of money for Daniel Jones? Would I have said that sounds crazy if you had asked me this in August? Yeah, I would have said it sounds crazy. But for how he performs, for the relationship he has with a head coach who did a good job with the team, it helps to continue the reversal and culture that they had this year.