Tom Brady criticized Daniel Jones for how he handled his final days with Giants
"To think that you would ask to be released from a team that committed a lot to you is maybe different than I would have handled that."
Tom Brady wasn’t a fan of how Daniel Jones handled his final days with the Giants.
During Fox’s broadcast of the Thanksgiving game between the Giants and Cowboys, Brady took aim at New York’s former quarterback for his ask to be released after the team benched him earlier in November.
“I don’t know how the whole situation went down, but to think that you would ask to be released from a team that committed a lot to you is maybe different than I would have handled that,” Brady said. “I always felt I wanted to get the trust and respect of my teammates regardless of the situation, knowing I was trying to be the best that I could for the team because that was the most important thing.”
The Giants had given Jones a four-year, $160 million deal after he helped the team make the postseason in 2022. That contract, which included $92 million guaranteed, set the Giants back, though. Jones failed to live up to his play from the 2022 season, going 3-13 with 2,979 passing yards, 10 touchdown passes, and 13 interceptions in the 16 games he started over the last two years.
Jones had an out in his contract following the 2024 season that would allow the Giants to only take a $22 million cap hit for 2025 if he were released. But he also had an injury guarantee of $23 million that the Giants would’ve been on the hook for had he suffered a severe injury before the 2025 season.
So, New York opted to bench Jones following the team’s Week 10 loss. In the first couple of practices after his benching, Jones was seen practicing as the scout team safety on defense, and he took fourth-string reps at practice.
Jones approached Giants owner John Mara to be released shortly after he was benched. That wish was granted on Nov. 22.
Brady recalled the adversity he faced at Michigan when he said he would’ve handled the situation differently than Jones did.
“There’s just some different things that happen in the NFL,” Brady said. “Everyone makes individual choices. I think we’re all, at points in our careers, faced with different challenges.
“I faced them in college. 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 the scout team safety, scout team quarterback, I was gonna do whatever I could to help the team win.”
Before Brady became a seven-time Super Bowl champion, he dealt with his fair share of obstacles at Michigan. He rode the bench for his first three seasons at Ann Arbor before battling for the starting job over his final two seasons with the program. Brady actually platooned with Drew Henson at quarterback over seven games in the 1999 season despite outplaying him before becoming the team’s primary quarterback.
This also wasn’t the first time that Brady made a jab at Jones’s expense. In August, he actually used Jones as an example of how he wanted to analyze the game without being “so critical” as he previewed his broadcasting career.
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