Tom Brady has taken a swipe at Daniel Jones over his New York Giants exit after insisting he would not have asked to be released from a team that ‘committed a lot to you’.
Jones left the Giants last week after approaching owner John Mara and asking to be released from his $160million contract, a request which was swiftly accepted amid his underwhelming form.
The quarterback had lost his starting place in Brian Daboll’s team just days before coming to that mutual agreement with Mara, which proved the final nail in the coffin after a disappointing six-year spell in New York.
Yet despite his struggles with the Giants, where he went 2-8 this season before being demoted, Brady does not agree with Jones asking to be released almost 18 months since being handed a lucrative new deal.
‘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,’ the seven-time Super Bowl winner said on commentary for Fox Sports during the Giants’ Thanksgiving fixture against the Dallas Cowboys.
‘I always felt I wanted to get the trust and respect of my teammates regardless of the situation, knowing that I was trying to be the best that I could for the team because that was the most important thing.’
Tom Brady has taken a swipe at Daniel Jones over his sudden New York Giants exit last week
The legendary NFL quarterback said he would have handled things differently if he was Jones
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Jones was dropped as the Giants’ starting quarterback after their 20-17 defeat to the Carolina Panthers in Germany earlier this month – the team’s fifth straight loss.
In the wake of his demotion, he was even lined up as a scout-team safety for the defense during a practice ahead of last weekend’s clash with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Brady went on to add: ‘There’s just some different things that happen in the NFL, and everyone makes individual choices.
‘I think we all at different points in our career face different challenges. I faced them in college and some things didn’t go the way I wanted, but the people that mattered most to me were the guys in the locker room.
‘I showed up every day. I don’t care if they asked me to be scout team safety [or] be scout team quarterback… I was gonna do whatever I can to help the team win.’
Interestingly, following his Giants departure it is believed Jones has rejected the chance to sign for the Las Vegas Raiders – where Brady recently acquired a minority 10 percent stake.
ESPN is also reporting that he has instead agreed a one-year, $375,000 deal with the Minnesota Vikings.
Jones will start life on the Minnesota practice squad, meaning the quarterback could still join another team in the coming weeks if a starter was to suffer an injury elsewhere. He is still slated to become a free agent at the end of the 2024 season.
The now former Giants quarterback is reportedly on the verge of joining the Minnesota Vikings
Earlier this week, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell refused to be drawn on the possibility of Jones landing with the Vikings but he heaped praise on the former Duke star.
‘I’m not going to really get into that today, but I will say tons of respect for Daniel Jones as a player and a person,’ O’Connell said.
‘I got to know him through the draft process years ago. I’m sure now that he’s a free agent and there’s probably a ton of league-wide interest in him, Daniel is going to make the decision that is best for him and his career moving forward.
O’Connell added: ‘I really can’t get into too much about any short-term or long-term. I can just say that I’ve been a big fan of Daniel’s for a long time and I hope wherever his next step takes him, it’s a good opportunity for him.’