The New York Giants and left tackle Andrew Thomas to a five-year, $117.5 million contract extension on Wednesday, locking down their franchise left tackle through the 2029 season.
The extension gives Thomas $67 million gully guaranteed at signing, which is a record for an offensive lineman, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
Andrew Thomas was selected at No. 4 overall by the Giants in the 2020 NFL Draft, and he initially struggled in the first half of his rookie season. However, after the Giants fired offensive line coach Marc Colombo in the middle of the 2020 season, Thomas began his upward trajectory and never looked back.
Andrew Thomas finished the 2020 season with a 62.4 PFF grade, then went up to 78.9 in 2021, and established himself as one of the top tackles in the league, recording a 89.1 PFF grade. He also was voted to the AP All-Pro second team for offensive tackles.
In Daniel Jones' rookie season, he struggled mightily with fumbles, and much of that was due to the struggles of left tackle Nate Solder. Since Thomas has come into the league, he has protected Jones' blind side, which is super valuable.
The average annual value for Thomas' five-year deal is $23.5 million, which is significant, but not at the top of the market. It is clear that Thomas valued the record-setting guaranteed money. The timing of the deal is good for the Giants as well. Thomas is the first tackle from the 2020 draft class to sign an extension. The other elite tackle from that class is Tristan Wirfs of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Thomas signing his deal first means that the market likely was not as high as it would have been if the Giants had waited to get this deal done.
A theme of this offseason for the Giants has been locking down their own players to deals. The first deal with quarterback Daniel Jones, who was an impending free agent. The second was Dexter Lawrence, an elite interior defensive lineman who thrived in his first year in Wink Martindale's system.
The Giants were unable to come to a long-term deal with running back Saquon Barkley. However, they did give him a one-year deal with some incentives to get him to report to camp after failing to get a deal done before the deadline for franchise tagged players to agree to a long-term extension. The last order of business was Thomas, which got done just before the first training camp practice on Wednesday.
It was always viewed as a long-term build when Joe Schoen took over as general manager, but there were some quality players from the previous regime who were solid players and flourished when Brian Daboll took over as head coach of the team.
Thomas is a player who was already on an elite trajectory, and was one of the lone bright spots in an abysmal 2021 season. It made a lot of sense to lock him into a long-term deal as soon as possible. Many discussions about the Giants revolve around Saquon Barkley's importance when it comes to Jones, but Thomas is arguably just as important, if not more important. We saw Jones' fumbles go way down in the 2020 season when Thomas took over at left tackle.
It was a matter of when, not if the Giants would extend Thomas. They now have him at left tackle through the 2029 season and will not have to worry about having a hole at one of the most important positions in football for a long time. There is little, if anything to dislike about this contract.
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