The New York Giants agree to a mega-contract with Daniel Jones at the deadline, making him one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league. Why the franchise felt compelled to make such a panic move remains questionable and is likely to have massive consequences – a commentary.

Four years. 160 million dollars. Another $35 million possible via bonuses.

Daniel Jones gets his mega-contract with the New York Giants virtually minutes before the deadline.

What the Giants were thinking with this knee-jerk reaction is something no one outside the franchise can really understand. At first, it seems like a pure act of desperation.

Paying $48 million a year – when all the bonuses kick in – for a player who has been in contention since the moment he was selected in the draft and who, in his fourth year in the NFL, could begin to justify his role as a starter for the first time?

It seems like a staircase joke.

Daniel Jones gets rewarded for unrealistic claims

Just days ago, it was reported that the New Yorkers had offered the 25-year-old 39 million dollars a year, but the player had refused and demanded the 48 million annual salary that he is now getting in the best case scenario.

Until recently, the playmaker was smiled at for his completely unrealistic demands, and not just behind closed doors.

Which franchise would panic and overpay a player of his calibre so much? That was the prevailing opinion.

In the “Big Apple”, they obviously didn’t hear the bang.

From a purely sporting point of view, this expensive miscalculation will be paid for in the next few years, even if only 82 million dollars are initially guaranteed in the first two years of the contract and the cap is supposed to be significantly less burdened in the first year than, for example, by the franchise tag.

The team should not expect huge leaps in performance analogous to his salary increase from Jones.

Daniel Jones is not an elite quarterback

Even though “Danny Dimes” performed well in the much-anticipated playoff trip this year, one thing shouldn’t have been obvious until yesterday: Jones is not a clearly above-average quarterback and cannot turn a franchise into a contender in the long run through his individual quality, just like the greats of their guild do and are paid accordingly.

But the Giants obviously saw it differently. Jones now receives a salary among the league’s absolute elite quarterbacks. But to even mention him in the same breath as the top stars at his position around two-time MVP Patrick Mahomes is an affront.

But Jones will now have to face up to the even more stringent evaluation criteria for his performance and live up to his monster contract.

Daniel Jones: New contract an overpriced misunderstanding

It positively reeks of a grossly overpriced misunderstanding that the Giants have gotten themselves into. And it’s actually completely without need, given the potent quarterback market – Lamar Jackson, cough, cough – and the strong draft class this year.

Permanent sleepless nights for general manager Joe Schoen and Co. in the city that famously never sleeps anyway? No one should be surprised anymore.