Tommy DeVito gives Giants hope for a potential playoff run after latest performance
Tommy DeVito of the Giants reacts after throwing a touchdown pass during the third quarter against the Packers at MetLife Stadium on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
There probably were some folks who arched their eyebrows last week when the Giants came back from their bye and Brian Daboll named Tommy DeVito the starter. He said it was because the rookie would give them the best chance to win — which is what they all say, right? But with Tyrod Taylor returning to health after missing four games, it had the faint smell of an ulterior motive.
If DeVito had flopped and it helped the Giants secure a better draft pick, would that have been so awful? It had the benefit of being enough of a populist move to avoid the full-on stench of a tank job, with all the potential benefits of one.
Except for one little wrinkle.
No one told DeVito the rest of this season is about next year.
So on Monday night, DeVito spun every narrative that had been building over the first three months of the schedule like one of the grilled sausages out at his family’s tailgate — and turned the next four weeks into a quest for what until recently was unthinkable.
His exploits, including a drive for the winning field goal as time ran out, helped the Giants beat the Packers, 24-22, and almost singlehandedly thrust his 5-8 team back into the playoff picture. Winners of three straight, the Giants are one game out of the last wild-card spot in the NFC with all four of their remaining contests against teams ahead of them in that chase . . . including two against the suddenly reeling Eagles.
DeVito was a novelty when he made his NFL debut at MetLife Stadium in October, an undrafted rookie who grew up just a few miles from MetLife. He was a folk hero when he won the game here in November, Now, in December, he has evolved into something else entirely.
A potential savior?
It’s way too soon to crown him as the Giants’ answer to Tom Brady, the quarterback forced into action by injuries who no one thought would amount to anything. He may not even be Kurt Warner (in the building calling the national radio broadcast on Monday night), another came-out-of-nowhere Super Bowl champ and Hall of Famer.
But when the Giants first turned to DeVito in the aftermath of injuries to Daniel Jones and Taylor, things could have gone in either of two directions. That it found this heading is still hard to grasp.
“Everyone would be lying if they said they’re not a little surprised,” said wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins, receiver of two DeVito touchdown passes in the last two games. “Tommy just came in so poised and confident, you don’t really expect that from an undrafted free agent. If you had asked him a year ago if he would be in this position, he’d probably be like ‘heck, no,’ but he’s here, winning three straight games, prime-time games, leading us on two-minute drives. I’m just happy for him.”
For now it’s enough to simply enjoy what DeVito has done — dragging the Giants back into relevance and meaningful games in the final stanza of the season and providing some entertainment along the way — rather than trying to project his future with the franchise or what his possible development could do to the anticipated quarterback hunt this offseason.
“That’s his job,” Daboll said after DeVito’s latest exploits. “He’s a young player doing the right things, making the most of his opportunity. He earned the right to play today and he earned the right to play the next week. Kid has done a good job.”
DeVito’s 26-yard scramble to the 1 in the third quarter set up a go-ahead touchdown. Later he took off on a 13-yard run, hit Wan’Dale Robinson on a 25-yard flea-flicker, then scrambled to his right and found Hodgins in the corner of the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown pass that put the Giants ahead 21-13 late in the third.
It seemed as if that was all he’d be called upon to do, but after Saquon Barkley fumbled at the end of a 33-yard run with 3:34 left and the Packers went ahead 22-21 with 1:33 left, DeVito had to engineer a rally.
After giving Barkley a quick pep talk after that fumble (“We’re good, flush it,” the rookie told the face of the franchise), DeVito addressed the entire offense. “Let’s go win the game,” he told the huddle.
It’s what leaders do. And then he followed through on it, with a key 32-yard pass to Robinson setting up Randy Bullock’s 37-yard kick as time expired.
DeVito stood next to Daboll for that final play. At one point Daboll contemplated turning away so he wouldn’t have to watch the deciding attempt. Eventually he decided he was better off witnessing it himself.
As the ball went through for the win, they celebrated.
“I grabbed him, hugged him, told him I loved him,” DeVito said.
Then the two of them ran off the field together toward the most unlikely of destinations: A game with playoff implications in New Orleans on Sunday.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.