They signed their franchise player, 6-4, 265-pound running back Brandon Jacobs, to a four-year, $25 million contract Wednesday night. It is being reported that $13 million of the contract is guaranteed.

Jacobs has had two consecutive 1,000-yard seasons (1,009 in 2007 and 1,089 last year), and is now certain to be a Giant through the 2012 season, when he will be 30 years old.

He was drafted out of Southern Illinois in the fourth round in 2005, after he first left Auburn University. He attended a Division II school so as not to miss a year of eligibility, and said the reason for his departure was that Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams were ahead of him. Brown and Williams were drafted in the first round (each in the top 10) the same year the Giants took a chance on Jacobs in the fourth round.

Suffice to say that Jacobs is the only one with a Super Bowl ring and two 1,000-yard seasons so far.

"I was confident all along that this was going to get done," Jacobs said. "I didn't panic at all (at the franchise tag). I knew I was going to be with the Giants and I was super confident that things would work out."

But despite the joy in Giant-land, there are questions about the deal put together by assistant general manager Kevin Abrams and the players' agents, Justin Schulman and Andrew Kessler of Athletes First.

One: It does seem kind of "light" in the total dollar value for a bruising, game-turning running back who is just 26 years old.

Two: He was "guaranteed $6.621 million in 2009 under the terms of his franchise tag, and now he'll "settle" for roughly $5 million in each of the next two years.

Three: Had he remained the Giants' franchise player and earned that $6.621 million in 2009, he could have stayed in the UFA role next year and been tendered at 110 percent of his most recent salary, or $7.28 million. Adding those two years comes to roughly $14 million or $4 million more than he just accepted.

But his penchant for getting injured might have figured in his plans, too. It is reported that the agents surrendered more total value in return for more guaranteed money.

In any case, he's with the Giants, and now they can move on with their "skimpy" $21 million total under the salary cap.