Carolina Panthers have the best odds of any NFL team to sign Daniel Jones

Former Carolina Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman did have a few hits as an NFL exec. However, his track record also includes a whole bunch of bad misses. Perhaps none of them was worse than when he drafted Daniel Jones when he was the GM of the New York Giants back in 2019. A Charlotte native who played his college football at Duke, Jones getting taken in the first round (sixth overall) by the Giants came as a huge surprise to the draft community.

Early in his pro career Jones did show some promise – especially as a rushing weapon. However, he was never really able to put all the pieces together as a passer and the Giants only posted one season with a winning record with Jones as their starter. That was in 2022 when Jones went 9-6-1 and threw for 15 touchdowns to go with just five interceptions – by far his cleanest year. The Giants rewarded him with a massive new contract worth $160 million over four years.

Unfortunately for the Giants Jones was unable to build on that season and quickly regressed. Over the next season and a half he only totaled 10 passing touchdowns to go with 13 interceptions. Jones finally hit rock bottom against the Panthers two weeks ago in Germany, coughing up two interceptions in a 20-17 overtime loss.

Following that game the Giants not only benched Jones in favor of Tommy DeVito (passing over Drew Lock in the process), they humiliated him by having him play as a scout team safety at practice. Yesterday the Giants granted Jones’ request to be released, finally putting an end to this ugly stain of a saga for a once-proud franchise.

No NFL team is going to claim Jones off waivers given what it would cost in cap space, but once he clears waivers we expect he will get signed by some team in need of quarterback depth. The Carolina Panthers still qualify as that, despite the recent progress we’ve seen from Bryce Young. In fact, the oddsmakers at Bovada have Carolina has the favorite to sign Jones.

Most fans are probably not going to like it if that winds up happening – and for good reason. We have seen more than enough from Jones to believe he has no business starting at this level – which Gettleman should have known from the start. However, Jones may still have value as a backup for teams that are truly QB-desperate.

If the Panthers can sign Jones for cheap with the intention of having him backup Bryce Young rather than compete with him for the starting job we would have no objection. Jones is 10 years younger than current backup Andy Dalton and has a higher ceiling, even if it comes with a lower basement.

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