The Latest Daniel Jones Contract News Should Worry Vikings Fans
Josh Frey
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After a strong 2022 season with the New York Giants, Daniel Jones is now looking to get a lucrative contract extension that would keep him with the franchise for years to come.
By leading New York to a playoff win over the Minnesota Vikings and reaching career-highs in completion percentage and passing yards while passing for 15 TDs compared to just 5 INTs, on top of everything he does with his legs (708 rushing yards and 7 TDs in 2022), he’s certainly earned a new contract.
However, the details of exactly how much Jones is asking for should greatly worry Vikings fans. Apparently, Jones wants much more than what New York has offered him to this point, and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported that the Giants QB is looking for a contract with an annual value in excess of $45 million.
This is important for one massive reason: Kirk Cousins is probably going to try to get a contract extension this offseason as well. If Daniel Jones were able to get a contract anywhere near the realm of $45 million per year, there is nothing stopping Cousins from asking for the same thing.
Cousins is already carrying a hit of over $36 million in 2023, so the Vikings are already set to pay their QB more than the infamous 15% of the salary cap threshold. Paying Cousins even more in the future would only make it tougher to put together a winning roster around him.
Now, this could be taken as a positive for fans that want the Vikings to move off of Cousins. If the Vikings QB wants to make that much in his next contract, it seems that Minnesota would be wise to avoid being the team that paid that contract.
However, the concern comes back to the fact that the Vikings really don’t have a contingency plan in place for life after Cousins right now. Perhaps they could find someone in the 2023 NFL Draft or even the 2024 Draft to take that role, but as of now, sitting with the No. 23 pick in this April’s draft, there is an extremely slim possibility that one of the top 4 QB prospects (Bryce Young, CJ Stroud, Will Levis, Anthony Richardson) will fall that far down the board.
Regardless of what happens with Cousins, this latest news around Jones simply reinforces the fact that Minnesota probably needs to think about their QB of the future sooner rather than later.
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Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho with a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing. He also earned minors in History, Human Biology, and Journalism. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh enjoys marathon training, playing video games, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. For more of his opinions, check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken.