Tom Brady doesn’t appear to approve of how Daniel Jones handled his final days with the Giants.
Brady was critical of Jones on the Fox broadcast during the Giants-Cowboys Thanksgiving clash.
“I don’t know how that whole situation went down but to think that you’d ask for a release from a team that committed a lot to you is maybe different from how I would’ve handled that,” Brady said. “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 I could for the team because that was the most important thing.”
The Giants benched Jones last week ahead of the team’s 30-7 loss to the Buccaneers.
They subsequently opted to start third-stringer Tommy DeVito, bypassing backup Drew Lock.
And they signed Tim Boyle to their practice squad as well, in turn relegating Jones from starter all the way down to fourth-string.
Jones notably possessed an injury clause in his contract with the Giants, which would have guaranteed him $23 million if he got injured and couldn’t pass a physical during the offseason.
So once the Giants decided to bench Jones, it was expected he’d be demoted to third- or fourth-string to prevent any possible injury.
During practice last Friday, the Giants at times had Jones stand in at safety on the scout team.
One day later, Jones asked for and was granted his release to end his tumultuous five-plus-year tenure.
“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 career, 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.”
Jones signed with the Vikings on Wednesday.
