The New York Giants have made a big change coming out of their Week 11 bye. After enormous struggles (and an enormous contract), the Giants are benching their embattled quarterback Daniel Jones.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Jones will be replaced by Tommy DeVito, who started in Jones’ place during the 2023 season. While Drew Lock signed a $5 million contract with the Giants to be their backup quarterback, Lock was injured during the preseason and head coach Brian Daboll reportedly feels more comfortable with DeVito, since he saw DeVito have success in his system in 2023.
Jones, 27, was the direct replacement for franchise legend Eli Manning. Jones actually took over for Manning during the 2019 NFL season, and impressed under then-head coach Pat Shurmur. Jones spent the next two seasons under head coach Joe Judge until he was fired and replaced with Daboll. It was Daboll who led the unexpectedly not-terrible 2022 Giants, a team that over-performed their way into the divisional round of the playoffs.
It was the 2022 season that essentially got the Giants into the mess they’re in now. They went 9-7-1, their best record since 2016, and made the playoffs, in no small part due to the confident football Jones was playing. That season is what led general manager Joe Schoen to offer Jones a four-year, $160 million contract in March 2023.
Jones signed the contract, which didn’t leave the Giants enough money to lock running back Saquon Barkley down for the long term. So they franchise tagged Barkley in 2023, which kicked off the deterioration of their relationship. As we saw on the offseason edition of HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” the Giants no longer saw a stud running back like Barkley as a must-have for their offense, so Barkley took his talents to Philadelphia, a team that was more than happy to pay for an offensive difference-maker like him.
The 2023 season was essentially a lost one for Jones. Over his first five games he had two passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown, all of which came in the same game, while throwing six interceptions. He injured his neck in Week 5, but when he finally returned in Week 9 he tore the ACL in his right knee, ending his season.
The Giants are 2-8. They’re in last place in the NFC East and are tied for the worst record in the NFL. It’s a long, long, long way back to the top from here, but benching Jones means they’ve finally started that journey.
