It is deja vu all over again for the New York Giants, who find themselves trotting out Tommy DeVito to start under center during the second half of the season.
Daniel Jones’ season-ending torn ACL opened the door for the undrafted free agent last year. This time around, head coach Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen have benched their $160 million man, who came up empty in his final audition to prove that he can be Big Blue’s franchise quarterback.
“We’re obviously not playing the way any of us want to play and that’s on all of us,” Daboll said. “But felt like this was a decision that we needed to make here and try to spark things, change things up. We went and did it with Tommy. Again, we spent a lot of time here over the last week evaluating a lot of things and just felt like this was the best thing for us.”
Consider this a second chance for DeVito to prove that he can stick around. After all, rumors flew during the offseason that he would be a longshot to make the roster — especially after the team signed career backup Drew Lock to take over the No. 2 role behind Jones.
But why not Lock?
He spent four years as a backup with the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks, appearing in 30 games, passing for over 5,200 yards, and throwing 28 touchdowns compared to 23 interceptions. This is why he was brought into New York in the first place to provide a more established No. 2 option behind Jones.
It is as much about their current standing as anything else.
The Giants’ season is already over at 2-8 and they need to see what they have moving forward. Lock is a free agent next season while DeVito is an exclusive rights free agent, meaning the Giants can offer him a one-year league-minimum deal this coming offseason. If they choose not to, he becomes a free agent.
Daboll and Schoen now have seven games to assess DeVito, though that is not to suggest there are any legitimate plans to start him in 2025. The Giants are on pace for a top-five draft pick and with that will come the selection of a new franchise quarterback. DeVito is auditioning to be the backup rather than the third-stringer.
Lock will remain as the No. 2 for the remainder of the season while Jones was demoted to No. 3.
“I got a lot of confidence in Drew, the way he’s handled himself since he’s been here, and he handled this well too,” Daboll said. “We’ve been with Tommy here for a little bit. He’s done a nice job, I would say, throughout practices here. But also, we have something to lean on by going back and watching him operate some of our stuff from last year. This is no indication on Drew whatsoever. He’s been excellent for us. It was more about what I felt Tommy gave us.”
