Tag: Brian DaBoll

Giants’ Dexter Lawrence on Daniel Jones benching: ‘It’s tough’

New York Giants NT Dexter Lawrence is confused by the demotion of QB Daniel Jones, saying it’s “tough” to see his “best friend” benched.

The New York Giants have found themselves in a situation they never wanted to be part of. Head coach Brian Daboll had some positive momentum after his first season leading Big Blue, but he and general manager Joe Schoen have done nothing but go downhill ever since then.

In their latest bid to keep their jobs, Daboll and Schoen decided to move Daniel Jones to QB3. But instead of Drew Lock taking over, as many would assume given his signing this offseason, they are giving the nod to Tommy DeVito.

Even Giants fan favorite Dexter Lawrence is confused by the decision and doesn’t necessarily agree with it, although he says he will respect the team’s decision.

“You’ve got to respect it as a player even though you don’t like it,” Lawrence said, via The Athletic. “That’s my best friend. It’s tough for that to happen. I can’t control it. They made the decision based off their evaluations and their thoughts and feelings. … That’s my boy. As a player, you got to keep playing. As a human and as a brother, I feel for him.”

Sure, as a player, you have to respect the decision. You don’t really have a say in it anyway. Daboll and Schoen are your bosses in a sense and players don’t have much of a say in anything. And it likely is hard to watch someone you care about take the brunt of all criticism.

But Lawrence also said it was confusing; that no one really understood what happened.

“A little bit of confusion,” he added. “(Brian Daboll) just said it was a hard decision. I’m sure it’s hard. He’s the QB1. To me, the best quarterback on the team. But they see things differently. I guess that’s all that matters.

“Teams lose games, not just one player, and I think that should be understood.”

The lack of transparency from the administration to the players in this situation is just another indication of how far estranged the regime has become from the locker room.

Despite co-owner John Mara publicly standing behind Schoen and Daboll, it’s about time they got ahead of this problem and began distancing themselves from this regime. It’s not working, and the sooner ownership realizes it, the sooner this organization can move forward.

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Desperate Giants hope to change narrative by playing the ‘Cutlets Card’

The New York Giants are desperate and dishonest, and now they’re playing their last hand — the Cutlets Card — in hopes of what, exactly?

These are desperate times for the New York Giants. After another 2-8 start, they finally canned their underperforming quarterback, Daniel Jones, in an effort to create “a spark.”

With the Northeast (and the Giants) in the throes of a historic drought, is that even a good idea?

Is putting hometown hero Tommy DeVito back under center really the answer at this point? Or is this a red herring to draw attention away from the many problems of this organization?

The Giants are benching Jones for reasons they won’t admit, most of them financial, but the reality is they need to change the conversation.

They can do that by elevating their young players into key roles. But, they’re already doing that. They can make a coaching change, but co-owner John Mara isn’t feeling that at the moment. He’s been through too many coaching changes over the past decade and has said he is not planning on another one.

So, the only card they have left to play is the Cutlets Card. DeVito, who has been the Giants’ emergency quarterback all year and has not played a single snap this season, was leapfrogged over Drew Lock and thrust into the starting role.

The Giants are actually leaning on the celebrity status of DeVito to salvage what’s left of this garbage can of a season. That’s asking a lot of the Jersey product considering he is a player of limited ability.

Don’t get us wrong. DeVito is a legitimate NFL-level talent, but not as a starter. He was in the right role up until Monday which is as a third-string, emergency quarterback.

The Giants’ decision to turn back to DeVito is a clear indication they are out of ideas. They are desperate and there’s nothing that chaps Mara’s britches more than his team playing meaningless football in November in front of clusters of empty seats.

The Giants still have four home games remaining this season. They are hoping to capitalize on DeVito — the colorful former Don Bosco Prep star who burst onto the scene last year after Jones and backup Tyrod Taylor both got injured — creating some positive buzz.

The only issue here is that they’ve already played this card. It worked for a while and then it faded out. They are in such dire straits that they have no other cards to play. Sad.

DeVito played surprisingly well at times last season, compiling a 3-3 record with eight touchdowns against three interceptions, but his performance was not without warts.

DeVito had a knack for making plays, yes, but he also looked like a deer in the headlights on most snaps. His sack rate of 17.2 percent was unnerving. By comparison, former Jets bust Zach Wilson’s sack rate was a much lower 12.1 percent and it seemed like he was ravaged on every play.

But this is where the Giants are right now. Playing out the string and hoping a franchise quarterback somehow falls into their lap next March or April.

There are seven games remaining this season. The Giants are 0-5 at home and could challenge for the franchise record for fewest home wins in a season (0-7, 1974) but this will be far worse.

In 1974, they were a mess and were playing their home games at the Yale Bowl. This season, they are a mess again and can best that infamous record by losing three of their four remaining home games.

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Report: ‘Growing sense’ that Giants’ Brian Daboll is ‘coaching for his job’

There is reportedly a “growing sense” around the league that New York Giants coach Brian Daboll is “coaching for his job” down the stretch.

Less than a month after getting a vote of confidence from ownership, New York Giants head coach Brian Doboll is apparently very much on the hot seat.

NFL insider Jordan Schultz reports that there’s a growing sense Daboll is “coaching for his” job over the final seven games.

Daboll met with the media via Zoom on Monday to discuss the team’s decision to bench quarterback Daniel Jones and insert hometown hero Tommy DeVito into the starting role.

Daboll said, “a decision that we needed to make here and try to spark things, change things up. We went and did it with Tommy.”

It was suggested that the switch was made for financial reasons rather than football ones as general manager Joe Schoen had suggested they would be made going forward in his presser last week.

“I understand your question,” Daboll said. “Again, our conversations will be private. We have plenty of them. Looking forward to Tommy getting ready here to go against Tampa.”

It’s just the latest of several sudden decisions the team has made this season when it comes to personnel.  There seems to be mixed messages being sent throughout the different levels of the organization to which the response is always that there is constant communication between ownership and the rank and file.

Daboll has also put more pressure on himself this season by assuming the offensive play-calling. The Giants have been the lowest-scoring team in the NFL through 11 weeks.

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Giants’ Brian Daboll going with Tommy DeVito to ‘create a spark’

New York Giants coach Brian Daboll says he’s going with Tommy DeVito as QB1 to “create a spark” after he was a healthy scratch for 10 games.

On Monday, the New York Giants officially benched quarterback Daniel Jones, demoting him to the QB3 spot, effectively ending his career in East Rutherford.

It was a move many saw coming after a Week 10 debacle in Germany against the Carolina Panthers but one that was followed by a more controversial decision.

Instead of moving Drew Lock into the starting role and using Tommy DeVito as his backup, the Giants instead promoted DeVito to QB1 in order to create a spark.

“After evaluating a bunch of things and looking at a lot of tape and being around Tommy last year where he created a little bit of a spark for us, that’s the reason why we’re going with Tommy,” head coach Brian Daboll told reporters.

“Drew will be the backup. Continue to work with him. He’s been nothing but a pro and as was Daniel. It’s never an easy conversation to have with the players. But felt like this was a necessary move for us and look forward to working with Tommy and getting him ready to go against Tampa.”

Daboll refused to elaborate on why Jones was demoted to QB3 and will be inactive for the remainder of the season, but the reasons are obvious. There’s an injury clause and a $23 million guaranteed salary in 2025 hanging over their heads. Admitting that would cause some issues with the NFLPA, so the coach attempted to thread a needle with his comments.

Everyone can accept that answer with a wink and a nod. We know.

But why DeVito over Lock, who was handed a one-year, $5 million contract during the offseason? After all, DeVito has been a healthy scratch for the past 10 games.

Pressed further, Daboll said after evaluating the film, they suddenly discovered that DeVito was their best quarterback.

“I wanted to take our time and watch a lot of tape. Not just this year’s, last year’s, some other things, too. And try to make the best decision we can make for our team. That’s what I did,” he said.

Uh-huh. We’re sure it has nothing to do with the potential escalators in Lock’s contract or the fact that the Giants have the third-least remaining cap space in the NFL. It was just a “football decision.”

If that were true, one must wonder how the Giants failed to recognize this over their first 10 games.

Jones is likely to be cut after this season, Lock will become an unrestricted free agent, and DeVito will become an exclusive rights free agent. It’s entirely possible — if not plausible — that none of the three return.

“We’re just focused here on this week and the decision that we made to get these guys ready to go. That’s where our focus is,” Daboll said when asked about the future of Jones and the other quarterbacks.

The irony is that DeVito was probably the best choice but how the Giants have handled him thus far, Lock’s contracts and Daboll’s answers make it a spectacle. It casts doubt on general manager Joe Schoen and Daboll and their ability to properly evaluate quarters. It also calls into question their ability to handle contracts and personnel. After all, this is far from the first time personnel decisions have raised an eyebrow.

And what if DeVito, who will play behind an improved offensive line compared to his last time on the field, actually goes out and wins? It might save the regime but cost them a chance at a true franchise quarterback.

Even when the current Giants regime makes the right move, they find a way to muck it up. And that can not make co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch happy.

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Around the NFL: Former Seahawks QB Drew Lock now primary backup in NY

Around the NFL: Former Seahawks QB Drew Lock now primary backup in NY

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.

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.

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Giants’ Brian Daboll implies other personnel changes are coming

New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll hinted on Monday that the lineup changes could go beyond the quarterback position this week.

New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll officially announced the team’s intention to make a change at quarterback going forward on Monday during a Zoom conference call.

Daniel Jones will no longer be the starter and has been relegated all the way down the depth chart to the No. 3 spot.

Drew Lock will remain the primary backup while third-stringer Tommy DeVito, who hasn’t played a snap since the preseason, has been elevated to the starting role beginning this Sunday at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The changes may not end there. Daboll intimated that there could be more lineup adjustments at other positions coming this week.

“Personnel groups offensively or defensively, a lot less than this, obviously, where you just see the quarterback situation. But there’ll be different guys mixing in and out and we’ll take a look at some of these guys that have done a nice job since they’ve been here,” he said. “Maybe they haven’t had as many reps or we implement them into some personnel groups. That’s what we’ll do here over the next couple of days when we get ready for Tampa is to decide where these guys fit.”

Daboll did not offer any specifics on those comments but the reality is, there’s not much the team hasn’t tried this season.

All six of their drafted rookies have seen significant playing time and injuries up and down the roster have also given a good portion of the backups a chance to get on the field as well.

One possibility is along the offensive line where they could try to get rookie Jake Kubas some more work. Some changes at wide receiver could also be made with Darius Slayton likely headed to free agency after the season.

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Maybe Joe Schoen was right about how close the Giants are

An interesting graphic details just how close the New York Giants are to being one of the NFC’s best teams but it’s a bit misleading.

The New York Giants are 2-8 through 10 weeks of the season and appear destined for another top-10 draft pick come April.

Despite the poor play, general manager Joe Schoen insists the team is close to turning a corner and becoming serious contenders. He expressed as much during his bye week press conference this past Tuesday.

“Yeah, the results have not been what we wanted them to be. I don’t want to be sitting up here at 2-8. Like that’s not what we want and nobody’s happy about it,” Schoen said. “And I understand that, but I do see progress and we’re better in different areas. And again, we’re going to evaluate all that stuff this week, but we’re better in a lot of areas.

“We just got to figure out how to finish games. And again, we’re in the games. We’re not getting blown out in those games. We’re 1-5 in close games and that’s the league. We have to develop the mentality that we’re going to win and close out those games. And that’s what we’re going to look to do these last seven games of the season.”

The Giants’ inability to close out one-possession games is an indictment of poor coaching more than anything else. Many want to point fingers at quarterback Daniel Jones and while he’s certainly not without blame, much of it falls on the shoulders of head coach Brian Daboll.

However, it matters not who is saddled with the blame. The reality is that Schoen is hypothetically correct and if all one-score games in the NFL were flipped, the Giants would be among the best teams in football.

Maybe they are close but that only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. The above graphic is very much an alternate universe fantasy land. The Giants aren’t 6-4 and among the top three teams in the NFC, they’re 2-8 and dead last.

For far too long this team has relied on “ifs” and “buts” and if they were candies and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas. But they’re not and 2024 will be another holiday season in which the Giants franchise fails to deliver any gifts to their fans.

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Daniel Jones ‘may be staying’ as Giants’ starting quarterback

Will Daniel Jones remain in place as the New York Giants’ starting quarterback? It’s beginning to look that way.

On Monday, New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll said the team would “evaluate” everything during their bye week. That included the possibility of benching quarterback Daniel Jones.

However, Daboll chose his words very carefully, and those of us at Giants Wire warned that the coach was actually leaving the door open to continue starting Jones rather than leaving the door open for his benching, which is the way his comments were presented elsewhere.

Although no official decision has been announced as of yet, Dianna Russini of The Athletic reports that Jones may, in fact, return as the team’s starting quarterback in Week 12.

“At this point, from what I’ve been hearing and the conversations I’ve had, Daniel Jones may be staying as the starting quarterback here for a few more weeks,” Russini said on the Dan Le Batard Show. “I’m not sure if this is completely done. We’re going to know more this weekend, though, when they come back from their bye and they meet with their quarterbacks.”

Russini suggests that a decision to stick with DJ would be more about saving the jobs of general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll than anything else.

“You’ve got Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll, despite the vote of confidence from their owner John Mara, it may appear that they’re safe, but we know how this goes,” she said. “Even if the owner says that if they go out there and lose in a really bad way and it’s ugly football it’s going to be really hard to bring those guys back there.

“In the mind of a Brian Daboll and a Joe Schoen, we don’t really know what Drew Lock’s about. I think Daniel Jones may still give them the best chance to win.”

It’s a precarious position for Schoen and Daboll. If they replace Jones and are noncompetitive for the remainder of the season, and the MetLife Stadium seats are empty, they may lose their job. But if they stick with Jones, he’s injured and they remain, they are financially crippled.

Still, Jones does give the Giants their best chance to win, and competitive football will keep jobs. Don’t be surprised to see him back under center when the team returns to East Rutherford next week.

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NFL analyst: Giants coach Brian Daboll’s seat is getting hotter

The New York Giants are 2-8 and headed nowhere this season, leading to talk of head coach Brian Daboll’s job security.

The New York Giants thought 2024 would be a season in which they turned the corner to sustained success.

Not so, it seems, as the team has fallen on its face once again out of the gate winning just two of their first 10 games and a killer schedule on the horizon.

The losing of games, of course, has been concerning but the manner in which the team has lost games has fans and pundits wondering if this team is truly headed in the right direction as general manager manager Joe Schoen believes it is.

Head coach Brian Daboll’s bunch has been uninspired, undisciplined, and just downright bland this season. Veteran Giants and NFC East reporter Ralph Vacchiano of FOX Sports has listed Daboll as a possible candidate for the unemployment line after this latest Giants disappointment.

Daboll jumps up on this list mostly because two coaches have already been fired and because his team heads into the bye week on a five-game losing streak and coming off an ugly, 20-17 loss to the Carolina Panthers in overtime in Germany. He was hired for his offensive mind, but their offense is awful, they probably need to make a quarterback change sooner than later, and at this point their fans are clamoring for a tank so they get the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

The Giants also have four home games left and they’re already 0-5 at the Meadowlands this season. Empty stadiums and angry crowds have a history of weighing on this ownership and convincing them to do things they otherwise promised themselves they wouldn’t do.

Co-owner John Mara has recently given his front office and Daboll a vote of confidence saying he has no plans of firing anyone during or after the season.

But the reality is that the Giants are 17-26-1 under Schoen and Daboll. The team, at times, appears as if there is no one steering the ship, and their continued ineptitude in nationally televised games has amplified the team’s internal problems.

Daboll isn’t likely going anywhere for the moment. Keep in mind, he is the team’s fifth head coach since 2016 and Mara is taking a more patient approach with him.

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Ex-Giant says team should fire everyone ‘effective immediately’

One former New York Giants defensive lineman and Super Bowl champion says John Mara should fire everyone “effective immediately.”

It’s time to burn things down and start over once again, says former New York Giants defensive lineman Chris Canty.

Following last Sunday’s embarrassing 20-17 overtime loss to the lowly Carolina Panthers, Canty suggested co-owner John Mara fire the entire regime “effective immediately” and get to work on another complete rebuild.

“The Giants should fire everybody effective immediately,” Canty said on Unsportsmanlike. “I know what Giants owner John Mara said two weeks ago about not making any changes in the season or after the season, but Sunday’s loss in Munich puts Big Blue on a five-game skid.

“It was the first time in 25 games where the Giants were actually favored by Vegas and they lost.”

Canty believes Mara and fellow co-owner Steve Tisch must accept that the franchise is going through another rebuild and there’s “no sense” in keeping the same power structure that has failed.

“There’s no sense in going through a rebuild with the head coach and a general manager on the hot seat,” Canty said. “It’s been three years for (Brian) Daboll and (Joe) Schoen and frankly, that’s long enough.”

The Super Bowl XLVI champion also added that blaming quarterback Daniel Jones for the team’s struggles is lazy and while DJ did little to help himself in Week 10, it’s important to remember Schoen and Daboll hitched their wagon to him.

“Even though this regime didn’t draft him, Daniel Jones is their guy because they paid him,” Canty said. “There’s the quiet part that needs to be said out loud about this head coach and general manager: They’ve already won with Daniel Jones. You can’t say you can’t win with Daniel Jones when you got to the playoffs with Daniel Jones.

“You can’t say you can’t win with Daniel Jones when Daniel Jones quite literally won a playoff game with this head coach and this general manager. They’ve already done it. There’s proof of concept. What you’re saying is the head coach and general manager aren’t coaching well enough (and) aren’t building the team good enough in order to maximize what you’re getting out of the quarterback — you know, the guy you invested $40 million a year in.”

That alone should be enough for Mara to go back on his word and “dismiss” Schoen and Daboll, Canty says.

“You’ve got to hold somebody accountable for what we’re seeing from this team,” he added. “I understand you don’t want to be the New York Jets when you’re hiring and firing coaches every couple of years. . . but under this current circumstance, it’s actually warranted to move on from Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen.”

Mara has offered his vote of confidence in several previous regimes before ultimately talking them back and hitting the reset button, and there’s mounting pressure for him to do that again this coming offseason.

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