During the New York Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys matchup on Thanksgiving, it’s no surprise the subject of Daniel Jones came up. The former No. 6 overall pick was benched prior to Week 12 — a decision which likely was made to save the Giants from the $23 million injury guarantee in Jones’ contract — before he was ultimately released last Friday.
Giants president John Mara said Jones requested his immediate release, a move with which Tom Brady, the Fox commentator and legendary NFL quarterback, took issue in front of a national audience on Thursday night.
“I don’t know how that whole situation went down but to think that you’d ask for a release from a team that committed a lot to you is maybe different than how I would’ve handled that,” Brady said. “I always felt I wanted to get the trust and respect of my teammates regardless of the situation, knowing that I was trying to be the best I could for the team because that was the most important thing.
“There’s just some different things that happen in the NFL. Everyone makes individual choices. I think we all, at points in our career, face different challenges. I faced them in college, and some things didn’t go the way I wanted, but the people that mattered the most to me were the guys in the locker room. I showed up every day, I didn’t care if they asked me to be scout team safety, be scout team quarterback, I was gonna do whatever I could to help the team win.”
Jones made more headlines with the benching than he did as the starter — a reason why the Giants were probably OK with taking the majority of his dead cap hit in 2025 instead of being able to spread it out over two years. As Brady alluded to, Jones was spotted playing scout team safety at practice, which led to criticisms on social media.
It’s honorable that Brady claims he would support his team after being shelved, but the bottom line is that the Giants gave up on Jones. This wasn’t some situation where Jones could work hard and earn his starting job back. He was out — his next start would come with another team. Now, Jones gets a chance to end the season with another organization in the Minnesota Vikings before free agency this offseason.
