Giants' QB controversy? At this point, it really doesn't matter who starts

Here’s the thing about this current Giants “quarterback controversy”: They don’t seem to have either a clear-cut quarterback or a clear-cut controversy.

As of Friday, Brian Daboll had yet to decide whether Tommy DeVito or Drew Lock will start when the team next takes the field on Dec. 8 at home against the Saints. That’s mostly because neither did anything special to stand out in their recent one-game auditions for the job.

“We’ll see where we’re at,” Daboll said on Friday. “We’ll see where Tommy’s at. We’ll see where Drew’s at . . . We’ll evaluate the two games that both of those guys played.”

If DeVito is healthy — he did not play in Thursday’s game against the Cowboys because of right forearm soreness — he likely will get the start for no other reason than Daboll’s decision to tap him for that responsibility in Week 12 against the Bucs (the Giants’ first game after benching and then releasing Daniel Jones).

DeVito completed 21 of 31 passes for 189 yards in that 30-7 loss. He did not score or throw a touchdown pass but also did not throw an interception.

Lock, forced into the start against Dallas on Thursday without having played a full-speed practice with the starters since the spring (when DeVito couldn’t go), gave the offense a bit more of a spark. He completed an almost identical 21 of 32 passes for 178 yards but also led the Giants with 57 yards rushing on four carries, including a 28-yard run to set up their first-quarter touchdown and an 8-yard run for a touchdown that made it a one-score game in the fourth quarter. But Lock also threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown and fumbled on a scramble early in the third quarter with the Giants trailing 13-10.

The Giants scored 20 points with Lock, only three with DeVito. But in assessing Lock’s performance, Daboll continually stressed the turnovers. It’s another hint that he might prefer to return to DeVito.

“We got to make sure we’re taking care of the ball,” Daboll said. “Give our guys a chance down the field to make some plays.”

Lock probably is the better player but a little sloppier with the ball. DeVito makes safer decisions with it, but that also means fewer opportunities to create big gains. At this point, the two players are so similar, they are just shades of each other. What to do, what to do?

Like most things in the Giants’ universe these days, this debate feels unwinnable.

“I came into this excited to go show what I can do,” Lock said after the loss to the Cowboys. “I didn’t have enough playing time in the system, like I said weeks ago. It’s one of my first times being that I can play a full game with these guys and show them what I can do.

“Minus the turnovers and a few things, it was up and down. Some good, some bad, some good, some bad. I’m happy I got some time. I’m happy I got some reps. Bank these and be ready for the next opportunity when it comes.”

Lock said he thought he showed his teammates and coaches “that I’ll go out there and fight. I’ll push the ball down the field. [I’ll] run a little bit . . . I’m an athletic guy that will run around, make plays and take care of the ball.”

None of it will matter, however, if DeVito isn’t cleared. He said on Thursday that he believes he will be by the time the team returns to practice on Monday. He also said that if the Giants had played on Sunday rather than Thursday in a “normal” week, he would have been ready.

DeVito required extra medical evaluation on Wednesday and had to fly to Dallas separately from the team when his appointments conflicted with the squad’s travel plans.

“It hurts not being able to be out on the field,” DeVito said after the loss in Dallas (he was the inactive emergency third quarterback and recently added Tim Boyle was the unused backup).

“As a competitor, you want to be on the field all the time,’’ he added. “The timing of how things happened and when they occurred and playing on a Thursday was really tough. I did everything I could, the training staff did everything they could. Just couldn’t happen.”

And so the two players again will wait to see which of them gets the nod — much as they did two weeks ago when they returned from the bye week to get the verdict in the decision that, at the time, also included Jones.

That call was one of the most impactful of Daboll’s tenure with the team. It created uncertainly and skepticism in the locker room, shook up the future of the organization and its most important position, and ended a significant chapter in the 100-year history of Giants football.

This one? A choice between two backups-at-best for a team already eliminated from playoff contention and now vying for a high draft pick that almost certainly will be used to select the quarterback of the future?

It certainly will matter plenty to DeVito and Lock. To anyone else, it’s more a curiosity than a competition.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

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.