Giants' Daniel Jones Says He's Not Focused on Contract Extension After 4-1 Start

New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones finds himself in a contract year after the team declined his fifth-year option for the 2023 season in May.

He's responded well, helping to lead the team to a surprising 4-1 record to start the season, and his contract situation doesn't appear to be a major focal point for the fourth-year quarterback at the moment:

The 25-year-old has been solid, throwing for 848 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions through five games while completing 66.7 percent of his passes and taking 15 sacks. He's surprisingly made a very big impact on the ground, rushing for 230 yards and two scores.

For context, his career high in rushing yards is 423 yards in 2020, so he's already halfway there, and he's matched his career high in rushing touchdowns already.

While Jones has done a lot of dinking and dunking this season while managing the game for the Giants, he's also come up big in clutch moments for the team and has avoided the types of back-breaking mistakes that cost games.

Some of the game management has come down to missing personnel, as this past week Jones was without wideouts Kenny Golladay, Sterling Shepard, Kadarius Toney and Wan'Dale Robinson.

And it helps having Saquon Barkley and the running game to lean on, as the Giants currently rank second in the NFL in rushing yards per game (179). That, in turn, has opened up the play-action passing game.

According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Giants are running play action on 39.3 percent of their passing dropbacks (h/t ESPN's Jordan Raanan).

And Jones is converting those plays at a solid clip. Per Raanan, he has completed 78 percent of his play-action passes in 2022, compared to 66 last season.

New head coach Brian Daboll also has designed more plays to get Jones out of the pocket in an effort to protect him from the team's mediocre pass-blocking.

The result, per Raanan: "Jones went 4-of-4 for 38 yards with three first downs passing outside the pocket Sunday against the Packers. He's now completed 63 percent of his passes outside the pocket this season (71 percent in wins). Jones completed 50 percent of his passes from outside the pocket his first three years."

Jones isn't going to earn comparisons to Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen anytime soon. It's hard to argue that his relatively pedestrian counting stats are going to earn him a blockbuster deal this offseason.

But he's running the offense that's been schemed for him well, and the result is a 4-1 start. If Jones and the Giants continue to win, those contract negotiations this offseason are going to become pretty interesting.