John Mara ‘still happy’ Giants gave Daniel Jones huge contract

John Mara doesn’t have $160 million worth of buyer’s remorse on Daniel Jones. 

What he expects to have soon is a final answer on whether the Giants have a franchise quarterback. 

“I’m still happy we gave him that contract because I thought he played really well for us in 2022,” Mara said of the four-year extension Jones signed in March 2023. “Last year, he got hurt. And let’s be honest: When he was playing, we weren’t blocking anybody. Let’s give him a chance with a better offensive line and some weapons around him to see what he can do.” 

One year after extending Jones instead of using the one-year franchise tag, which then went to Saquon Barkley, the Giants very publicly pursued Jones’ replacement, as HBO’s “Hard Knocks” showed.

General manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll scouted and tried (to no avail) to trade up to draft Jayden Daniels (Commanders) or Drake Maye (Patriots), citing Jones’ history of two neck injuries and a torn ACL. 

“I was nervous about giving up too much to go get a quarterback,” Mara said, “but I was prepared to let them do that if that’s what they wanted to do. We made a decision to stay with Daniel and add a weapon for him, and I think that’s going to work out.” 

That weapon’s name is Malik Nabers, who has been the star of training camp so far. 

“I’m excited by what I see on the field,” Mara said. “He’s got some unique movement skills to him and a certain attitude about him.” 

Mara isn’t concerned that his signing off on drafting a quarterback ruffled Jones’ feathers. 

“I check in with him from time to time, and he’s a professional — he understands this business,” Mara said. “If anything, it probably motivates him. And he doesn’t need to be motivated. I expect him to have a great season.” 

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Mara once joked that the Giants would be featured on “Hard Knocks” over his “dead body.”

Instead, the Giants wound up creating a new offseason version different from the traditional show focused on training camp. 

“It worked out about as well as I ever could have expected,” Mara said. “I was certainly a little nervous about it going in. It was a pretty honest depiction of what goes on, and I think people appreciated having that kind of access. … There were some uncomfortable moments in there, but all-in-all, I’m glad it’s over.” 

What changed his mind?

Mara said the initial internal plan was to have cameras follow scouts through the offseason as a sequel to their 2014 docuseries “Finding Giants” …. until NFL Films got involved. 

“The more discussions we had, they came to us and said, ‘We’d really like to call it ‘Hard Knocks’ because that has a certain brand and appeal,’ ” Mara said. “It took a few conversations to convince me to go along with that. I think it worked out fine.” 

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“Hard Knocks” confirmed Mara’s long-standing claim that he shares his opinion on personnel decisions but does not stand in the way of his decision-makers.

There was no better example than his wish to keep Barkley before Schoen let him walk to the Eagles in free agency as a way of redirecting spending to premium positions. 

“Every year there is going to be a personnel decision I’m not 100 percent in favor of,” Mara said, “but you let the general manager and coach — particularly if they have a unified conviction — make the decisions. And then bitch about it later.” 

That quip drew laughs. 

“No, I wasn’t crazy about it at the time. I didn’t want to lose [Barkley],” Mara said. “But I understand what their philosophy was. You have to let them do their jobs.”