Tommy DeVito's meteoric rise with the Giants has Kurt Warner full of joy
Tommy DeVito of the Giants throws a touchdown pass in the third quarter against the Packers at MetLife on Sunday, Dec 11, 2023 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Credit: Mike Stobe
The quarterback whose Hall of Fame career was so unlikely that it literally was made into a movie is enjoying the opening act to what may be the next such rare NFL journey.
Kurt Warner, who rose from obscurity to a Super Bowl, from stocking cans to enshrinement in Canton, was at MetLife Stadium on Monday night for Tommy DeVito’s entrance onto the national stage in a 24-22 victory over the Packers. As he rode the elevator down from the press box where he’d just called the radio broadcast of the action, he couldn’t help but get swept up in the joy he feels whenever an undrafted player like he was proves he belongs in the NFL.
“It’s fun to see,” Warner told Newsday. “You love to see stories like that.”
They happen every so often, of course, and when they do the players at the center of them don’t always finish where Warner did. Sure there is the occasional Tom Brady, the afterthought 199th draft pick who became the greatest quarterback of all time. Or more recently Brock Purdy, taken with the final selection in the 2022 draft, who led the 49ers to the playoffs last season and has already clinched a berth for them this year.
But for Warner, the patron saint of the overlooked and under-scouted, these things aren’t about where they end up. It’s where they begin that pulls them close to his heart.
“There are a lot of guys who get here [to the NFL] and don’t have the opportunities but they know how to play football,” Warner said. “It’s cool when you see them get opportunities and rise up.”
Giants head coach Brian Daboll has seen it happen before. He was on the 2000 and 2001 Patriots coaching staffs when Brady was drafted and pressed into service after Drew Bledsoe was injured. He’s not ready to make comparisons between TB12 and TD15, but at least he knows first hand that these things do sometimes happen. And they always seem to have origin mythologies similar to DeVito’s.
“I'm proud of him,” Daboll said of DeVito on Monday night. “He’s put a lot of work in really since he's gotten here, since the first day he was working out in the local pro day. He spent a lot of time in meeting rooms, he's earning what he's getting. But again, we’ve got a long way to go.”
Warner, excited as he was for DeVito on Monday night, said he’s not quite ready to crown the kid as the next in that line of out-of-nowhere surprise superstars.
“He battled and made plays,” Warner said of DeVito’s 17-for-21 passing night for 153 yards and a touchdown along with 71 rushing yards and, perhaps most significantly, no sacks and no turnovers. His three straight wins have already tied the NFL record for most victories in a season by an undrafted rookie quarterback.
Giants QB Tommy DeVito by the numbers
Age: 25
Games played/started: 6/4
Attempts: 126
Completions: 83
Completion percentage: 65.9
Passing yards: 855
Passing TDs: 8
Interceptions: 3
Rushing attempts: 31
Rushing yards: 154
Rushing TDs: 1
*-stats through Week 14
More importantly, Warner said, he saw the Giants battle for DeVito.
“I think what becomes such a huge part of this business while you learn to play the position is do guys rally around you and do you make plays in the moment,” he said. “That’s really what it was [on Monday]. It wasn’t necessarily beautiful across the board in every facet but when they needed him to make plays, whether it was a scramble to set up the touchdown or more importantly the last drive, he stepped up and made plays for them.”
So when will we know that DeVito is a legit starting quarterback and not a novelty? When does he make the transformation from sideshow to starring role? Warner and Brady won Super Bowls in their first full seasons as starters. Purdy brought his team to the NFC championship (and it was an injury that kept him from the Super Bowl as much as it was the Eagles in that game).
Warner said it takes more than four starts, more than a Monday Night Football win that was the first Giants regular season prime time victory at home since 2016 when DeVito was a junior at Don Bosco.
“For me, I think you always have to have at least a full season,” Warner said. “Anything short of a full season it’s going to be ‘OK, we need to see a little bit more.’ That’s how I always gauge it. It’s like we did with Purdy. Great last year, unbelievable for a period of time, got them in the playoffs and won, but we still needed to see it again. Now we’ve seen it and it’s like ‘OK.’ You do it for 18 games, 16 games in this league, and you do it consistently, that to me is a pretty good indication, especially if you do it over two seasons, that you are a pretty good player.”
DeVito still has a way to go for that. It’s been barely a month for him as a legit starter, and this was just his first week playing with a healthy and legitimate alternative on the bench (Tyrod Taylor returned from the fractured ribs that had him on injured reserve). But he has won three straight and the Giants are a game out of a playoff spot. Anything can happen in the next four weeks. Perhaps even four weeks ... plus.
For now, DeVito and the Giants will have to settle for being a pretty good opening chapter. Stories like these don’t always end the way they did for Warner or Brady. Sometimes they fizzle out.
But they all have to start somewhere.
Maybe, just maybe, the newest somewhere in the NFL is right here in East Rutherford.
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.