Early on Monday morning, it was announced the New York Football Giants were making a long overdue change at quarterback. Daniel Jones, who has been the starter (when healthy) since he entered the league in 2019, has been benched. No, that’s not accurate. Not entirely.
Daniel Jones is no longer the starter, and he is not even the backup. He is now outranked by former Seattle Seahawks backup Drew Lock. Jones has been passed up in favor of both Tommy DeVito, who is now the starter, and Lock, who signed a a one-year deal with the Giants this offseason.
Coach Daboll: We are making a quarterback switch from Daniel Jones to Tommy DeVito. After evaluating and watching a lot of tape, that’s the reason we are going with Tommy. Drew Lock will be the backup. This was a necessary move for us and I’m looking forward to working with Tommy… pic.twitter.com/OTPmSCIq0P
— New York Giants (@Giants) November 18, 2024
From 2022-2023, Drew Lock was a Seahawk. He started two games in absence of Geno Smith due to injury, and performed quite well in relief. He likely parlayed his stellar performance on MNF last season into extending his career in the league with the aforementioned extension. Given how much quarterback Daniel Jones has struggled in every single year of his career aside from the 2022 season when he wasn’t completely awful, it made sense the Giants would want to bring in some insurance behind him. Of course, the irony is now Lock is the insurance for Tommy DeVito.
Last year, in relief of the injured Jones, Tommy DeVito started six games and won three of them. He threw eight touchdowns against only three interceptions, but did not have one in either of his last two starts – both of which were losses. However, DeVito’s eight touchdown passes last year in six games equal the amount of touchdowns Daniel Jones has thrown in 2024.
It was beyond time for New York to move on from Jones, who somehow managed to stay the starter far past the point he should have been benched. In a league where teams are quicker than ever to move on from young quarterbacks, Jones was inexplicably allowed to start 69 games, compiling a record of 24-44-1. In 2022, Jones somehow helped guide the Giants to a 9-6-1 record, and even won a Wild Card playoff game. He only had 15 touchdown passes that year, but apparently that was more than good enough for New York to give him a four-year, $160 million extension.
Unfortunately, with Jones being benched so far deep on the depth chart, this likely means his final win of the season was in Week 5 against… the Seattle Seahawks, where two of his eight touchdown passes on the season were thrown in the 29-20 victory at Lumen Field. Incredibly annoying.
I will conclude with one more note about Drew Lock. For all the talk about how Giants head coach Brian Daboll is some “offensive mastermind,” he still isn’t able to get Lock to being a starting caliber player. Meanwhile, former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll had Lock playing quality football in his two starts in 2023, including a heroic win on Monday Night Football.
[lawrence-auto-related count=4 category=1360]