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Theres a good chance the Daniel Jones era is over for the New York Giants.
The team officially benched the overpaid, highly-drafted quarterback this week, indicating that theyve lost hope he can deliver on the $160 million contract they handed him in the 2023 offseason.
With that in mind, lets see where Jones waste of a deal ranks among the worst quarterback contracts from the last decade.
9. Dak Prescott: 4 years, $240M ($231M guaranteed) with the Cowboys in 2024
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Too early? Nah. In fact, theres still plenty of time for this contract to climb this list in the future.
Not only is Prescott a 31-year-old with virtually no playoff success who is about to miss at least a handful of games for the third time in the last five years, but hes a bottom-10-rated passer while residing on injured reserve for the rest of the campaign.
Hell now enter his 10th NFL season with just two playoff wins under his belt, despite plenty of support for practically that entire tenure.
He simply doesnt have it, and yet hes the highest-paid player in the history of the NFL.
8. Jimmy Garoppolo: 5 years, $137.5M ($90M guaranteed) with the 49ers in 2018
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The 49ers handed this deal to Garoppolo just seven starts into his NFL career. Over the course of the next five seasons, he was good-not-great and rarely fully healthy as a glorified game manager for a team that excelled elsewhere and often when despite/without him.
Within three years, the Niners felt the need to trade up and draft Trey Lance third overall. And within four years, Jimmy G had been replaced by a rookie seventh-round draft pick.
Now, hes nothing more than an aging backup. One who collected more than $122 million worth of cheques from the 49ers organization over a six-year span.
7. Brock Osweiler: 4 years, $72M ($37M guaranteed) with the Texans in 2016
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Right place, right time.
That was Brock Osweiler as a free agent in 2016, after he shined in limited action behind Peyton Manning with the 2015 Broncos and became a hot commodity for the desperate Texans to win via sweepstakes.
At the time, like Garoppolo, he had just seven career regular-season starts on his resume. And hed only add 14 more during a run with the Texans that lasted just one season and contained more interceptions (16) than touchdown passes (15).
Two years later, his pro football career was over.
6. Carson Wentz: 4 years, $128M ($107M guaranteed) with the Eagles in 2019
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The Eagles dont win the Super Bowl in 2017 if not for Wentz, who before going down with a late-season knee injury was an MVP candidate as a sophomore No. 2 overall pick. Thats likely why they made him one of the highest-paid players in the league despite the fact he struggled 2018.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, that might have been a sign of things to come.
Many of his rate-based numbers further fell off in 2019 and injuries and inconsistent play continued to plague him throughout the 2019 and 2020 campaigns, leading to a trade from Philadelphia to Indianapolis.
He stuck around just one season in Indy and was benched early in a short ensuing tenure with Washington. Hes now been on five rosters in the last five seasons, but he can bask in the fact the Eagles paid him more than $56 million for very little return in that two year-span between the start of 2019 and the end of 2020.
5. Nick Foles: 4 years, $88M ($50M guaranteed) with the Jaguars in 2019
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The Eagles also dont win that Super Bowl without Foles, who shocked the football world in Wentz stead down the stretch in 2017 and did just enough in limited action in 2018 to become the Osweiler of the 2019 offseason.
A few months before Wentz landed his blockbuster deal with Philly, Foles got big bucks from the desperate Jags, who were hoping hed pull it all together as an entrenched starter for once at the age of 30.
Nope.
Dude never won a game in Jacksonville, going 0-4 during a season in which he missed significant time due to injury but was also benched for a rookie sixth-round pick. He was soon traded to the Bears, and he made just 10 starts for the remainder of his pro career.
The Jags gave him $7.6 million per start, all of which were losses.
4. Aaron Rodgers: 3 years, $150.8M ($102M guaranteed) with the Packers in 2022
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Rodgers was once a superstar and is forever a legend, but that doesnt change the fact the Packers paid him $42 million for one season of work following the execution of this extension.
The then-37-year-old saw his numbers nosedive during that lousy, expensive campaign, which led to the trade that sent him to the Jets the following offseason.
Since signing this deal, Rodgers has been a part of 12 total wins and has posted a pedestrian 90.1 passer rating.
He simply isnt worth it.
3. Russell Wilson: 5 years, $245M ($165M guaranteed) with the Broncos in 2022
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Wilson has revived his career to an extent this year in Pittsburgh, but hes doing so primarily on the Broncos dime.
By the time this season comes to an end, Denver will have paid the soon-to-be 36-year-old nearly $123 million.
The return on that investment? Two losing seasons in which Wilson posted a mediocre 90.9 passer rating. And now, hes performing much better for a fellow playoff rival in the AFC while the hamstrung Broncos bring along a rookie under center.
What a colossal waste of money.
2. Daniel Jones: 4 years, $160M ($92M guaranteed) with the Giants in 2023
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The Giants were always rolling the dice that Jones would suddenly live up to his draft status despite the fact he rarely resembled a future franchise quarterback early in his career with the team.
Its safe to say they hit snake eyes.
Since inking this deal two offseasons ago, Jones has been a part of three total Giants victories while throwing more interceptions (13) than touchdown passes (10). During that span, the team has paid him $82 millionwhich works out to $27.3 million per win.
At 27, the former No. 6 overall pick is likely done as an NFL starter. But the G-Men will still have to hand him $22.2 million simply to walk away in 2025.
1. Deshaun Watson: 5 years, $230M ($230M guaranteed) with the Browns in 2022
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This has undoubtedly become the holy grail for bad contracts.
Considering their reputation for quite simply doing dumb things, its amazing the Browns had the gall to look at a baggage-plagued Deshaun Watson in 2022 and decide to give him the largest contract guarantee in league history (by a mile).
And yet, here we are.
Watson has been a trainwreck for pretty much his entire run thus far with the Browns. By the time he finishes up this season on injured reserve, he will have started just 19 games while posting a losing record and a horrible 80.7 passer rating in three years as a Brown.
Theres a good chance that after paying him over $137 million to do more harm than good the last three years, the Browns will simply cut their losses to the tune of $73 million in dead-cap hits beyond this season.