Full terms: The #Jets and G Joe Tippmann have agreed to a 4-year, $66.4M extension with $34.9M guaranteed in a deal negotiated by Joe Panos and AJ Stevens of @AthletesFirst.
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John Michael Schmitz Jr. #61 of the New York Giants speaks to the media during OTA Offseason Workouts at NY Giants Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
Entering the 2023 NFL Draft, the New York Giants needed a new center, and there were two clear options as the second round rolled on.
Minnesota’s John Michael Schmitz and Wisconsin’s Joe Tippmann were the two top prospects, with Schmitz generally graded out as the higher-rated prospect.
According to Pro Football Focus, Tippmann was the 67th best overall prospect, while Schmitz came in as high as 35th.
That’s why, when Schmitz slid all the way down to No. 57, Giants fans were ecstatic and thought they had found their center of the future.
Well, here we are three years later, and Tippmann just inked himself a monster extension with the New York Jets, while Schmitz is entering the final year of his rookie deal with no long-term security in place.
Full terms: The #Jets and G Joe Tippmann have agreed to a 4-year, $66.4M extension with $34.9M guaranteed in a deal negotiated by Joe Panos and AJ Stevens of @AthletesFirst.
Of course, the one shred of grace you can give the New York Giants regarding their center woes is the fact that Tippmann was off the board by the time pick No. 57 rolled around.
The New York Jets nabbed the Wisconsin center with the No. 43 overall pick, not even giving the Giants a choice when they were on the clock.
Regardless, Monday’s extension terms should serve as a reminder to Giants fans that they were this close to finding a long-term building block along the interior of their offensive line, and narrowly missed it by 14 draft slots.
FanSided’s Mike Luciano highlighted the two linemen’s differing career paths, and how it was one of ex-Jets general manager Joe Douglas best moves despite other poor decisions he made throughout his tenure.
“Schmitz might be in line for another year as the starting center, but any metric one could dig up suggests that he is a below-average player. At least the Giants addressed their interior offensive line in the NFL Draft with the Francis Mauigoa selection, as Schmitz serving as one of the anchors could be a recipe for disaster,” wrote Luciano.
“The Jets very rarely have the opportunity to 360 dunk in the Giants’ face, even when Big Blue is going through some rough patches, but the decision to take Tippmann and leave their roommates with Schmitz seems to have been one of Joe Douglas’ biggest victories as a personnel evaluator.”
While Schmitz hasn’t been the player the New York Giants expected when they drafted him in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, he has at least been an NFL-caliber player, and could still be in line for a new deal with Big Blue.
He likely won’t reach the same average annual value that Tippmann did (which comes in at around $16.6 million), but Spotrac expects Schmitz’s value to come in at $12.4 million per year, on a three-year $37.3 million contract.
That may seem a bit pricey for a player who graded out as the NFL’s 29th-best center in 2025, per Pro Football Focus, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Schmitz could remake himself under a new offensive coaching staff.
If the 27-year-old has a good year in 2026, it wouldn’t be out of this world to see him land that extension.
But it’s unlikely he ever reaches the heights that Tippmann has.
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