It’s now official that Tommy DeVito is the Giants’ starting QB going forward, head coach Brian Daboll making the official announcement and discussing the move on late Monday morning.
“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. Drew (Lock) will be the backup,” Daboll told the media. “It's never an easy conversation to have with the players, but we 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 said both Daniel Jones and Lock have been “nothing but pros,” but Lock, who played the fourth quarter in the team’s blowout loss to Philly last month, is being surpassed not due to anything he did or didn’t do, but what DeVito did in 2023.
"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."
That experience may have given DeVito the edge, but also, there is the notion that Lock is on a one-year deal that has up to $3 million in performance incentives, at least $1.5 million of which would have been reasonably reachable had Lock taken the reins the rest of the way.
DeVito was 3-3 as a starter and played nine games last year, completing 64 percent of his passes for 1,101 yards, with eight TD versus three INT.
"I'm excited to see what Tommy brings to the table," Daboll said. "That's why he's out there. We had a lot of conversations. Studied a lot of stuff. Again, confidence in Tommy and that's the reason why he's in there. We spent a lot of time here over the last week of evaluating a lot of things and just felt like this was the best thing for us.”
The Giants are 2-8 after their pre-bye loss to the Panthers in Munich, and face a schedule where, following their hosting Tampa on Sunday, includes the Cowboys on Thanksgiving in Dallas and then games against the Saints, Ravens, and Colts, as well as at the Falcons and Eagles.
“We're obviously not playing the way any of us want to play and that's on all of us," Daboll said. "But we have a lot of football in front of us. I think we all need to be committed to doing everything we can do to close out the season the right way and just take it one week at a time. The only thing we control is our response of this is how the season has been so far. It doesn't dictate where the season is going. We put a lot of time, effort and energy into this and that's what we'll all do."