Could Daniel Jones still have success in the NFL? His case for another shot, plus five team fits

It’s the end of a largely disappointing era. The New York Giants released quarterback Daniel Jones on Friday, granting his request to be cut following his benching this week. The sixth overall pick of the 2019 NFL draft, Jones was never really what the Giants hoped he’d be when they made him the successor to Eli Manning.

Over six seasons, he threw 70 touchdown passes and 47 interceptions, and his 53 QBR ranks 28th in the NFL since he entered the league. Jones never posted a winning record in New York save for the 2022 season (9-7-1) that got him paid, and he now leaves the Giants as a 28-year-old reclamation project.

While the ceiling on Jones is fairly limited, I actually like the idea of him as a reclamation project. There’s a chance Jones has an acceptable finish to his career in the league; in fact, there’s a good shot he gets another season or two as a starter. But which teams could make sense, and will the next opportunity come this season or next year? Let’s look at why Jones still has an NFL future and pick out five potential team fits for his next stop.

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What’s next for Jones | Five team fits

Why Jones can still have success in the NFL

Editor’s note: This section previously ran Nov. 19 in Solak’s larger post-Week 11 story and has been updated following Friday’s news.

When the Giants benched Jones, it was clearly a financial move. After all, $23 million of Jones’ $30 million base salary in 2025 was guaranteed for injury only, so the Giants wouldn’t have been able to cut him — not now, nor after this season — nearly as easily had he gotten hurt in the next few games. By benching him, the Giants made sure they could cut him with minimal dead-cap pain.

Releasing him now doesn’t change the dead cap hit in 2025 at all, so there was no financial benefit for the Giants here. It also doesn’t change the financials for Jones: He’ll make his entire $35.5 million in salary this season. If he is claimed on waivers, the team that claims him will have to pay his remaining salary (about $13.8 million), so that’s very unlikely to happen. If he isn’t claimed on waivers, the Giants will pay his remaining money, and Jones will be free to sign elsewhere on a second contract.

Because Jones’ benching and subsequent release were financial moves, we shouldn’t use this as a barometer for his level of play. That isn’t to say his play was great, of course. Since Jones entered the league, he is 32nd among 42 quarterbacks in both success rate and first down/touchdown rate, and he is 30th in EPA per dropback. Perhaps most concerning, he never really got better in New York. His 0.11 EPA per dropback in his rookie season was exceeded only once — his 2022 season. He leaves New York as largely the same guy he entered it — a big-bodied passer without big throws in his bag and some escapability but not enough to eliminate bad sacks from his game.

But as the sun sets on Jones’ tenure as the Giants’ starting quarterback, I feel worse about general manager Joe Schoen than I do about Jones. Schoen extended Jones after his peak 2022 season, the first season for the quarterback under coach Brian Daboll. It was a move that led to the franchise-tagging and eventual well-documented free agency of star running back Saquon Barkley. That 2022 season was pretty evidently fool’s gold, and even if it wasn’t, it was a pretty modest peak to invest in.

After that investment, the Giants remained unable to buttress their offense with the necessary playmakers to succeed — either with a second-contract veteran quarterback or a hapless rookie. The best player Jones has ever thrown a pass to was Barkley. The second best? Maybe those 30 targets to 31-year-old Darren Waller, or perhaps the 119 to also 31-year-old Golden Tate? Giants fans are telling me it’s Evan Engram or Darius Slayton, which tells you all you need to know … the options haven’t been great. The hope is that Malik Nabers will end up being that guy, but it was too little too late.

Jones will be 28 years old next season, still young enough that you can expect his mobility to remain a big part of his game for the next few seasons. He’ll be as old with his next team as Baker Mayfield was when he joined the Buccaneers, and I can’t help but wonder if Jones’ career will follow the same arc. Mayfield bounced from the Panthers to the Rams before he ended up the bridge starter for the Bucs, but when he finally landed in Tampa Bay, he had multiple quality pass catchers, a great offensive line and an ascendant playcaller in Dave Canales. He took the lessons learned from a rocky first tenure in Cleveland and became a totally fine starter worthy of a midtier quarterback contract.

A new helmet (and new expectations) will be as valuable to Jones as a new voice in his ear. Mayfield, Geno Smith, Ryan Tannehill and many of the quarterbacks who have had career resurgences in new spots benefitted from the freedom of low expectations. They played with less pressure because they had less to lose, and accordingly found the confidence to play better. Jones was drafted into a position with extremely high visibility as the heir apparent to Manning, and he just never rose to that challenge. Maybe a low-stakes season as the bridge quarterback for, say, a water-treading Raiders team is exactly what the doctor ordered.

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Stephen A. roasts the Giants after releasing Daniel Jones

Stephen A. explains why the New York Giants’ mistakes led to the release of Daniel Jones.

To that point: There are a few spots that make sense for Jones in the long-term. The Jets will likely have a quarterback opening next season, as will the Steelers and maybe even the Browns. But none of those teams is in a position to sign a QB now and give him snaps this year. So if Jones wants to sign somewhere that can give him reps in 2024, he’ll have to target a different sort of team — namely, one that’s pretty bad.

I’m not sure that it behooves Jones to sign with a team and look for snaps this season. He’ll be hugely behind the curve of the offense, likely throwing to bad receivers and playing behind a bad O-line, and the locker room might be checked out altogether. But if he wants it, here’s my list of 2024 teams that make sense for Jones to join once he clears waivers Monday.

Picking the best team fits for Jones

Carolina Panthers

Canales is credited with authoring the recovery of Mayfield — whose career Jones is now attempting to model — so it seems only appropriate that Carolina gets a mention here. If the Panthers are wholly out on Bryce Young as a future starter (a fair assessment), then they might need a veteran quarterback to tie them over until their next rookie draft pick. Remember, when Mayfield signed with the Buccaneers, he was technically in a camp battle with 2021 second-round pick Kyle Trask for the job. And Canales has shown a remarkable knack for helping QBs eliminate sacks from their game, which is something that Jones and his career 8.0% sack rate really need.

If Jones signs with Carolina now, there’s a chance he will get a start or two this season. But scrambling for good film on the Week 17 Panthers doesn’t seem like a great way to get interest on the free agent market. If they come calling, Jones will be wise to wait on the Panthers.

Tennessee Titans

The Titans are in a similar spot to the Panthers. There’s a little more hope for Will Levis, but Tennessee should and will be investigating all quarterback options this offseason. If the Titans want to bring Jones in as a potential veteran bridge, they can sign him now and potentially give him a start or two down the stretch once they’re mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.

The Titans have been using Levis more in the designed running game as of late, and Jones would benefit from that usage — but that seems more like an invention of necessity than what coach Brian Callahan sees as ideal for his offense. Jones might not be the best schematic fit in Tennessee right away, but he’s pretty much a better version of Levis across the board right now, so he’d bring improvement to the offense immediately.

Las Vegas Raiders

The Raiders clearly do not view Gardner Minshew as a long-term option, or even an acceptable short-term placeholder. They’ve benched him three times on the season and are still playing him only because they have no better options (Aidan O’Connell is on injured reserve). If Jones’ goal is to cash in quickly on a desperate team, I can easily see the Raiders giving Jones a contract now and extending him on a veteran deal similar to the one they just gave Minshew.

While the departure of Davante Adams certainly hurts the Raiders’ offense, there is still plenty to like there: Brock Bowers looks amazing, Jakobi Meyers is rock-solid and Tre Tucker has the juice. There are worse spots to put up some inflated passing numbers for the final month of the season than Las Vegas.

Jacksonville Jaguars

It looks increasingly unlikely that Trevor Lawrence (shoulder) will play again for the Jaguars this season, as their year is basically over and coaching staff changes are on the horizon. Mac Jones has done little to establish himself as a quality QB2 in Jacksonville, so the Jags would be wise to give Daniel Jones his reps. It could help Doug Pederson audition for new jobs just as it would help Daniel Jones audition for his own.

Jacksonville’s offense is very injured, but you could still do worse than handing the ball off to Tank Bigsby and throwing it to Brian Thomas Jr. and Engram, who played with Jones for three seasons in New York. Given the quality of the pass catchers, if Jones’ goal is to use empty-calorie passing production to lull the league into giving him a decent contract in 2025, this is the place he should go.

Dallas Cowboys

I’m putting the Cowboys here only because they play the Giants next week on Thanksgiving Day, and it would tickle me greatly to see Jones trot out against his former team with exactly 15% of the playbook at his disposal while I’m eating mashed sweet potatoes and pumpkin cheesecake on my couch. Dallas is currently rolling with Cooper Rush following Dak Prescott‘s season-ending hamstring injury.