Looking at the financial implications of the Daniel Jones release

The Giants have released quarterback Daniel Jones, ending an awkward streak that had Jones buried on the depth chart not because of skill but because of $23 million in injury guarantees for 2025.

There are still financial consequences of the move.

First, his $35.5 million salary this year remains fully guaranteed. They owe him $1.97 million per week for the rest of the regular season.

The Giants will be entitled to an offset for anything he earns elsewhere unless he chooses to take the remainder of the 2024 salary as severance pay. (He will go through waivers first and will undoubtedly remain unclaimed.)

Thus, they save no money or cap space for 2024. For 2025, they owe him nothing. Based on the original signing bonus ($36 million) and the restructuring of his 2023 base salary (which dropped the number from $9.5 million to $1.08 million and prorated), the Giants will carry $22.21 million in dead money for Jones in 2025.

It’s not clear what was in it for the Giants to cut Jones. At the very least, they should have requested exemption from the possibility of avoiding set-off through the severance pay.

Even then, the Giants have lost the ability to make him a post-June 1 release in March, which would have split the cap equally between 2025 and 2026 — $11.105 million each year.