Daniel Jones needs the Giants more than the Giants need Daniel Jones.

This is not meant to be a knock on the 25-year-old quarterback as he enters his fifth NFL season seeking the security of a lucrative long-term contract following a strong 2022 season.

This, too, is not intended to suggest that the Giants, coming off of a 9-7-1 season and a first playoff berth in six seasons thanks in large part to the way Jones played, don’t need (and want) Jones back for 2023 and beyond.

It’s simply reality.

Jones produced his best all-around season in 2022 in large part because he finally found a head coach who got the best out of him in Brian Daboll.

Daboll was Jones’ third head coach in his four NFL seasons. Daboll’s offensive coordinator, Mike Kafka, was Jones’ fourth coordinator in four seasons.

Continuity counts in the NFL — especially when it comes to quarterbacks — and staying with Daboll will only make Jones better, even if it is for a few million less than he might make in the open market.

Jones — who’s rumored to be seeking a new contract paying in the neighborhood of $40 million (or more) per year now that he’s made the recent representative switch from CAA to Athletes First — should take into account as he assesses his options that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence with more greenbacks in your bank account.

In the case of Jones, blue is better — as in remaining in Giants blue.

That means agreeing to a reasonable contract that is both Jones- and team-friendly, a contract that pays him something in the $30 million-$35 million-a-year range and keeps him in the offensive system he thrived in most.

The window for teams applying the franchise tag on its players opened on Tuesday and closes March 7. If a deal isn’t struck by then, it’s highly likely the Giants will apply the tag on Jones, which would give him the $32.4 million franchise-tag number for 2023 unless the sides come to a long-term agreement before the July 15 deadline.

Jones playing on the franchise tag in 2023 isn’t beneficial for the Giants or Jones, because that $32.4 million number will immediately sap the team’s salary cap and potentially inhibit the Giants from bringing in some better offensive skill-position players around Jones.

In that scenario, neither the Giants nor Jones wins.

If we’re being honest in an assessment of Jones’ 2022, it’s not as if he was one of the most prolific quarterbacks in the league. He threw 15 touchdown passes in 16 games. Patrick Mahomes threw 41 TD passes, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow 35 each.

Sure, Jones didn’t have the most prolific group of receivers with which to work. The unit was not close to the strongest in the league even when completely healthy, and its members were significantly compromised by injuries.

Still, Jimmy Garoppolo, in just 10 starts, threw one more TD pass than Jones did. Andy Dalton, in 14 starts, threw 18 TD passes. Geno Smith, the former Jets reject, threw 30 of them. Davis Mills threw for 17. Davis Mills.

This isn’t to say those quarterbacks are better than Jones, who also produced 708 rushing yards and seven TDs in 2022. It is, however, to say that no team in the NFL is likely to pay him upwards of $40 million a year.

There are no guarantees if Jones doesn’t sign a long-term deal or is locked up for 2023 by a franchise tag to stay with the Giants that he’ll ever be better elsewhere than he is under the watch of Daboll, who developed Allen into one of the league’s best quarterbacks while he was in Buffalo.

But strong evidence was set in 2022 with Jones, Daboll and Kafka. And his performance and production would figure to be even better in 2023 and beyond if they remain together.

If it doesn’t work out and Jones were to part ways with the Giants, Daboll would pivot and he’d likely do so relatively seamlessly, because he’s that good of a coach.

Right now, with Jones having signed on with his new agency — a group that produced Aaron Rodgers’ fully guaranteed three-year, $150 million contract; Dak Prescott’s four-year, $160 million deal with $128 million guaranteed; and Deshaun Watson’s fully guaranteed five-year $230 million contract — the rumors are flying about what he may be seeking.

Even though we haven’t heard a peep from Jones.

Let the posturing play out. When the spin cycle of speculation slows and difficult decisions must be made, I have believed from the moment the season ended that Jones will remain a Giant because it’s best for both parties — most particularly the Jones party.

Jones needs the Giants more than he needs a few more million dollars. He needs the Giants more than they need him.