RIP The Tommy Cutlets Era, 2023-2023.
Tyrod Taylor is starting against Philly in Week 18, meaning that it’s likely DeVito finishes the season with one great story and a few decent performances over two months, but not much more.
But, as the Knicks rode out Linsanity and then found a player, should the Giants have ridden with the Passing Paisan the rest of the way instead of going back to a veteran who will likely be gone?
“Even though this season is a massive disappointment no matter how you cut it, the way the season has closed, you look at Brian Daboll and say it was a bad year, but I believe in it, he's stable,” Evan said. “Shaun and I had a fight about it a few weeks ago where you were convinced it was going to get worse and they were not going to win another game, but they have fought tooth and nail – and so I think that you can look at a five or six-win season and certainly say it's not a good year, but say, I believe in the head coach…but I also believe that sometimes guys who are really, really smart, make decisions before they should.”
And yeah, that’s Evan’s problem: he doesn’t see Tommy DeVito as “Cutlets” or the “Jersey Italian Kid,” because that’s all gimmick – but he wishes he could see more of him as a player.
“I view him as an undrafted player who went three and three in the six games he started, and threw eight touchdowns,” Evan said. “That's how I view him, and I don't think that even a guy I trust saw enough to make that final decision, and that's my issue.”
“I understand that, but you also have to decide what you want to be. Do you wanna try to be great – and Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll come from a situation up in Buffalo where they were trending towards great – or just be a little above average?” Tiki asked. “The only way to be great is to have great players, I think this is what we don't know, is what the internal evaluation is of Tommy DeVito. I can tell you what I look at and see on tape, but I have no idea what he's being asked to do, and what he's doing well and he's not doing well.”
That’s the rub, and Tiki pointed out to Denver to show just how much that matters over anything else.
“That changes franchises, because look at what happened with the Denver Broncos; Russell Wilson won some games, and it was ugly and it sucked, but Sean Payton hated him,” Tiki said. “Why? Because he can only run nine or 10 plays as opposed to the 30 or 40 Payton wants to. So, from the outside, we look at Russell Wilson and say, yeah, he's finding ways to win games, but internally, Sean Payton is saying this is so average, we’re moving on from you.”
And so, here we are in East Rutherford.
“That’s why Tommy DeVito is not playing. At the end of the day, that’s why it's not happening the way I think the world wants it to happen,” Tiki said. “You still want to try to win as many games as possible.”
“But you didn't have to make a final decision now, and you did by not playing him, that’s the difference,” Evan shot back. “Russell Wilson is completely different because of the contract.”
Tiki doesn’t think so, because Payton knows Wilson can’t run the offense he wants, but you can take a listen to their entire conversation about it all above!