After New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll addressed the media following the Week 10 loss in Germany, just about everyone around the NFL community came to the same conclusion — Daniel Jones will most likely never start another game for Big Blue.
ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter even “guessed” as much publicly on November 12.
On November 15, however, fellow NFL insider Dianna Russini (The Athletic) reported a total curveball while joining the “Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” live on DraftKings Network.
“So, they’ve got this injury guarantee for next year and they gotta make a decision right now — Are we done with him and we want to save this money, or do we go to Drew Lock?” Russini began. “At this point, from what I’ve been hearing in the conversations that I’ve had; Daniel Jones may be staying as the starting quarterback here for a few more weeks.”
“I’m not sure this is completely done,” Russini added, confirming that we should find out the answer to this question early next week after the Giants players return from the bye.
A few hours after this spot with Le Batard, Russini also covered her bases slightly on X, stating: “At this time, the Giants have not informed their quarterbacks or the team about who will start moving forward. We will know more Monday. The [head coach] and [general manager] have left the door open for change.”
NFL Insider Dianna Russini Explains Why Giants Could Stick With Daniel Jones as Starting QB
If you’re reading this and wondering, why on earth would the Giants stick with Jones? Russini did have an answer for you while speaking with Le Batard and his show.
“I read Schefter’s [comments] as — This would make a lot of sense if the New York Giants want to save money,” Russini clarified. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s what the New York Giants are going to do because you have other factors here. You’ve got Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll.”
“Despite the fact that they got the vote of confidence from their owner John Mara, and it may appear that they’re safe, we know how this goes,” she continued on. “Even if the owner says that, if [the Giants] 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.”
“So, I think in the mind of a Brian Daboll and a Joe Schoen, we don’t really know what Drew Lock’s about,” Russini concluded. “I think Daniel Jones may still give them the best chance to win.”
There you have it Giants nation. In order to save their jobs — and much to the chagrin of most fans — Daboll and Schoen could still choose to start Jones in Week 12.
Will Giants Third-String QB Tommy DeVito Get a Chance to Start in 2024?
A contingent of the fanbase likely noticed that second-year quarterback Tommy DeVito went unmentioned by Russini, and that’s pretty telling. At this stage of Week 11, it feels like a longshot that DeVito leapfrogs both Jones and Lock as the starter after the bye.
Now, that’s not to say DeVito has no chance of starting, eventually.
If Russini is wrong, and the Giants do bench Jones, it’d make sense to drop him to third on the depth chart because of his injury guarantee. By process of elimination, that moves DeVito into the backup role.
This also puts him an injury — or a really abysmal performance by Lock — away from entering the game. And if either of those things occur and Jones has already been relegated to the furthest corner of the 53-man roster, why not roll with the fan favorite prospect as the full-time starter from that point on?
Having said all of that, if Jones sticks around as the starter for another three or four weeks and then gets benched with just three or four games left on the schedule, it makes it far less likely that DeVito gets a real opportunity to start in 2024.
The Jersey native’s best avenue to playing time is if Lock takes over in Week 12 and fails. At that point, the Giants would have nowhere else to turn.
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