Tommy DeVito is the NFL’s newest sensation.
The finger-pinching, hand-waving, loud-Italian-family, agent-looking-like-a-made-man quarterback has become “il tesoro” — the darling — of New York Giants fans everywhere. He’s one of them, after all.
The 25-year-old undrafted still lives in his childhood home where he grew up less than 20 miles from MetLife Stadium in New Jersey with his parents, who put out tailgate spreads anyone’s nonna would be jealous of. He gets his laundry done by his mom, who also makes the chicken cutlets he loves so much.
And then on Sundays, or in this case Monday night, he goes out and he simply wins football games.
DeVito had his trademark moment as a Giant in primetime at MetLife Stadium, leading a last-minute drive to set up Randy Bullock’s game-winning field goal to lift Big Blue to a 24-22 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football.
“You enjoy it when it’s an outcome like this, right?” DeVito asked. “I mean, I enjoy being on the field any play, no matter what play it is, so just try to enjoy it.”
DeVito leads clutch drive to Bullock’s winning kick, Giants top Packers 24-22
Completing 17-of-21 passes for 158 yards through the air and a touchdown to go with an additional 71 yards on the ground, DeVito saved some of his best magic for last, completing a 32-yard strike to Wan’Dale Robinson on a drive in which he went 4-for-4 to get the Giants into field goal range after Green Bay scored with 1:33 left in the fourth quarter to take a one-point lead.
“He’s composed, relentless,” Robinson said of his quarterback. “Everything that you want out of your quarterback… Whenever we get out there on the field it’s like he’s a stone-cold killer. I feel like that’s what you want out of your quarterback. I mean he’s laser-focused and just letting everybody know this was going to be ours.”
Not only was that composure obvious on the last drive, but it was evident on the Giants sideline even after they went down late. Star running back Saquon Barkley fumbled on a 34-yard run that looked as though it was going to ice a Giants 21-16 win inside four minutes to go. With that new life, the Packers went down and scored the go-ahead touchdown on a nine-play, two-minute drive.
While Barkley has often been a guiding, nurturing presence for DeVito, the roles suddenly reversed.
“[I told him that] he’s all good. Always. Like, I believe in him,” DeVito said. “Same thing happens if I turn the ball over, he’s the first one to come up to me, so it’s something when that situation happened the way it did, I was the first one to go up to him and told him, ‘we’re good, flush it, we are going to go win the game.’
“That’s rare for a rookie quarterback,” Barkley added. “But with the confidence and swagger he plays with, you could feel it through the stadium, you could feel it on the sideline, and happy we were able to get the win today.”
The moment hasn’t been too big for DeVito, yet. The third-stringer was an unknown at the start of this season but injuries to Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor forced head coach Brian Daboll to turn to the Illinois-by-way-of-Syracuse product.
In the four games he’s started, he’s won three in a row, taking down the Washington Commanders and New England Patriots before outdueling Jordan Love and the Packers. Each of those three wins has featured a quarterback rating of over 100. It has rewarded Daboll’s faith in DeVito — the head coach opting to stick with him rather than pivot back to Tyrod Taylor, who was activated and available for the Week 14 clash after recovering from a rib-cage injury.
“He made good decisions, took care of the ball, used him in the run game,” Daboll said. “Just keep developing him. He’s improving. Still got stuff to work on, but like I said two or three times last week, I think he’s a young player that’s doing the right things and making the most of his opportunity. He earned the right to play today, and he earned the right to play the next week. The kid’s done a good job.”
All the while, he’s won over his teammates, which winning will do. The Giants were 2-8 entering Week 11 and now at 5-8, sit one game back of the final NFC Wild Card spot, which is still a longshot to nab considering their remaining schedule includes two games against the Philadelphia Eagles. But unlikely things can sometimes happen when a team has bought completely in, especially on a Cinderella story like DeVito.
“He’s earned that, and he knows we’ve got plenty to work on,” Daboll said of his quarterback. “He’s only started four games, but they [have a lot of confidence in him]. They see him at practice. He has good practices. He’s not afraid to turn it loose.”
With four games remaining, the objective now is to stay the course and see what kind of “magia” (magic) DeVito has left in the tank on one of the most unlikely stories of the NFL this season.
“I think I will [take a moment to really appreciate what is happening to me] probably later on,” he said. “When I get home after this, I’ll go see my family, everybody else. Then when all that dies down and I’m just kind of alone and with my parents and my brother, that’s when I kind of reflect on everything.”
