If Joe Schoen hadn’t signed Daniel Jones to that four-year, $160 million extension in 2023, Russell Wilson might have been the Giants’ quarterback this coming Monday night in Pittsburgh — instead of starting for the Steelers against them. Wilson, 35, visited the Giants as a free agent in March. They couldn’t guarantee him a starting job because Jones was the incumbent making $40 million a year. So Wilson flew to Pittsburgh and received a sufficient commitment from Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, who boldly replaced Justin Fields with a healthy Wilson despite a 4-2 record for last Sunday’s 37-15 win over the Jets. “That’s why I’m well-compensated,” Tomlin quipped. Schoen, the Giants’ GM, is well-compensated for the same reason: he is paid to make the difficult decisions. And he is paid to be right when he does. Signing Jones to that contract, however, even if the GM did create an escape hatch after this 2024 season, has limited how the Giants have been able to operate and spend since. Schoen hosted Wilson on a visit this spring — a flirtation that was not documented by “HBO’s Hard Knocks” — but Mr. Unlimited signed in Pittsburgh. The GM angled to re-sign Tyrod Taylor as Jones’ backup, but Taylor was never coming back here. He went to the Jets. So Schoen signed Drew Lock to a one-year, $5 million deal. Schoen then tried to trade up to draft Jones’ eventual replacement at quarterback in April, but he wasn’t able to get into the top three. And then he passed on J.J. McCarthy, Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix. So the Giants continued to build around Jones this year even after the offense failed to function in 2023 and the quarterback tore his right ACL. And on Sunday, in the Giants’ seventh game of the season, head coach Brian Daboll benched Jones with 11:26 remaining in the fourth quarter for Lock. The Giants finished the 28-3 loss to the Eagles with a pathetic 119 yards of offense, their lowest total since 1999. Co-owner John Mara, who delivered a vote of confidence in Schoen and Daboll on Wednesday night, declined to speak about Jones’ benching and play. “I’m not gonna get into critiquing individual players,” Mara said. “Obviously we’re struggling on offense right now, but there are a lot of reasons for that. And I don’t want to get into critiquing individual players. I’ve never done that, and I never want to do that.” Mara also declined to answer a question about whether Jones’ $23 million injury guarantee for next season will be a factor in how the team handles the QB. None of Jones’ 2025 salary is guaranteed. But if Jones sustains an injury on Giants property or in a game that prevents him from passing his physical next March, the Giants are on the hook for $23 million no matter what. “I’m not gonna get into that,” Mara said. That question will persist, though, because a lot of the Giants’ problems right now date back to that fateful day in March 2023 when Schoen franchise-tagged Saquon Barkley and extended Jones — instead of the other way around. If Schoen had flipped his decisions, the Giants right now could have had an offense led by Wilson, Barkley and Malik Nabers. Plus, Schoen would have had more money to spend on the rest of his roster. Barkley’s Eagles signing and 187-yard eruption to bury the Giants last Sunday rubbed salt in that wound. “He knows how I feel about him,” Mara said of Barkley. “I can’t say that I was surprised by the game that he had. We greeted each other before the game. He’s a great player. Not only was he a great player for us, but the way he represented us off the field, that is something that I always appreciate him for. He knows that.” The Giants could have kept Barkley for only a few more million guaranteed, and that would have been easy if Schoen hadn’t re-signed Jones. The franchise tag would have committed a higher cap hit to Jones in 2023 than he had on the new deal, but it would have freed them up this year. The Steelers only had to pay Wilson a $1.2 million base salary this season, after all, because of the five-year, $242.6 million contract he had previously signed with the Denver Broncos. Justin Fields started the season at quarterback when Wilson went down with a calf injury late in the preseason, but once Wilson got healthy, Tomlin put him in. Now Jones’ tricky Giants situation mirrors the end of Wilson’s time in Denver: The Broncos benched Wilson in 2023 before he could suffer an injury that would have triggered a $37 million injury guarantee for this year, then cut him and ate a huge dead cap hit. The Giants could do the same thing with Jones, even though Daboll said he is starting Monday’s game: bench him for good, dodge the $23 million trigger in his deal and cut him in the spring. It is interesting that Mara would reaffirm confidence in Schoen with that likely scenario on the horizon. There is always Monday night’s performance from Wilson, though — and nine more games upcoming after that — to cause Mara to change his mind.