It’s hard not to be impressed by New York Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito. Not just in how he seems to be the living embodiment of a 1980s New Jersey stereotype — the fully-formed love child of a background Scorcese character and a star of Jersey Shore — but by the way he’s stepped into a starting role in the NFL.
Through four starts, DeVito is 3-1 with the Giants. He’s grown from the player who was badly overmatched after stepping onto the field in place of Tyrod Taylor in Week 8 (seven pass attempts, -1 passing yard) to someone capable of leading his team to game-winning drive in primetime against the Green Bay Packers. He’s stepped into the low-risk, take-off-running offense head coach Brian Daboll built to revive Daniel Jones’ career and executed that game plan better than anyone outside the DeVito family could have hoped.
But here’s the thing. It probably won’t last.
DeVito isn’t the first unexpected star to emerge from the ether and look like a legit quarterback after being pressed into the starting lineup. There are several examples from the past that fit this bill, from Trevor Siemian to Nick Mullen to Gardner Minshew. Heck, he isn’t even the first guy to do it this year; Joshua Dobbs pulled this off with two different teams in 2023, the Arizona Cardinals and, then, the Minnesota Vikings.
The problem is, none of those guys could quite sustain the hype they built with those ravishing starts. So let’s talk about what comes next for Tommy Cutlets, how unlikely stars have performed in the past and what his best case scenario probably is.