The New York Giants and Seattle Seahawks are about to enter the doomed world of quarterback purgatory when it comes to their contract situations with Daniel Jones and Geno Smith.
One of their greatest values to their team’s success — a cheap contract — is about to go away.
Jones, a top-10 pick by the Giants in 2019, put together his best season in the NFL by throwing for 3,205 yards, rushing for another 708, accounting for 22 total touchdowns (15 passing, seven rushing) and only throwing five interceptions. It helped the Giants make the playoffs for the first time since 2016 where they beat Minnesota in the Wild Card round for their first playoff win since the 2011 Super Bowl.
Smith took over the Seattle job following the offseason trade of Russell Wilson and completely turned around his career by throwing for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns for one of the most surprising performances in the league. Even though he slowed down considerably in the second half it was still a great year that helped his team make the playoffs.
They were both very good. At times excellent. It was the production, combined with their affordable contracts, that made them so valuable for building rosters around them.
Jones’ cap hit was just $8.3 million for the Giants.
Smith’s cap hit was just $3.5 million for the Seahawks.
Both numbers put them among the bottom-tier of NFL starting quarterbacks. That is an enormous advantage when it comes to building a team, and it is why quarterbacks on rookie contracts (like Joe Burrow in Cincinnati) are so important.
If Jones and Smith are to be back with their respective teams next season they will come back at dramatically higher prices.
Word on Jones’ potential new deal with the Giants is that the starting point could be $35 million per year, and that it could go as high as Dak Prescott’s $40 million deal in Dallas.
Smith, meanwhile, could be looking at a deal similar to the one Ryan Tannehill signed in Tennessee which could carry a cap hit of more than $34 million. Franchise tagging him would cost around $32 million.
Those contracts would put them among the top-earning quarterbacks in the league and eat up a ton of each team’s salary cap space.
This is the problem teams like the Giants and Seahawks are going to face in the quarterback market where there is no middle ground. Players either earn north of $35 million, or they make the equivalent of a rookie contract. In 2022 there were only four quarterbacks in the league that had contracts with an average annual salary between $10 million and $30 million. There is no longer a middle-level pay scale for mid-tier quarterbacks. This is the same problem a team like Tennessee ran into with Tannehill. A mid-level quarterback got paid like a top-tier starter, and the team was unable to add around him. If anything, it had to subtract weapons (A.J. Brown).
There is nothing wrong with having Daniel Jones or Geno Smith as your team’s quarterback. You can compete with that, especially if you put talent around them. But when you have to start paying them like top-tier quarterbacks your ability to build around them takes a huge hit. And both teams still need a lot of help around their two quarterbacks. When these new deals get signed it is going to be a lot harder to add that talent.
