Daniel Jones done with Giants as team grants his request for release

NEW YORK — Daniel Jones asked for his release and was granted his freedom by the Giants on Friday, four days after GM Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll shut him down for the season and humiliatingly demoted him to No. 4 on their depth chart behind Tommy DeVito, Drew Lock and Tim Boyle.

Jones went directly to co-owner John Mara to make it happen.

“Daniel came to see me this morning and asked if we would release him,” Mara said in a statement. “We mutually agreed that would be best for him and for the team.

“Daniel has been a great representative of our organization, first class in every way,” Mara continued. “His handling of this situation yesterday exemplifies just that. We are all disappointed in how things have worked out.

Mara added: “We hold Daniel in high regard and have a great appreciation for him. We wish him nothing but the best in the future.”

Jones will clear waivers and then will become a free agent able to hook on to a better situation.

There are a lot of teams with questionable backup quarterback situations, strong offensive coaches or injury histories to starters that would benefit from having Jones immediately.

The Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Tennessee Titans, San Francisco 49ers, Las Vegas Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins are all teams with either a good apparent opportunity, advantageous offensive coaching or both.

The Giants could have saved $11.1 million against their 2025 salary cap by waiting to cut Jones as a post-June 1 cut at the start of the new league year, before the fifth day. That would have spread $11.1 million in dead money across 2025 and 2026, rather than rolling up the $22.2 million dead money.

They would have had to wait until June 2, 2025, to acquire that extra $11.1 million in cap space for 2025 in that scenario. Instead, they cut Jones now and roll up the full $22.2 million dead money into 2025.