With Mike Glennon's season over, Jake Fromm likely to start Giants' finale
Mike Glennon of the Giants throws the ball in the third quarter of the game against the Bears at Soldier Field on Sunday in Chicago. Credit: Getty Images/Quinn Harris
Mike Glennon won’t get a chance to improve upon one of the worst games by an NFL quarterback in recent memory. Jake Fromm will.
Glennon, who was 4-for-11 for 24 yards and turned the ball over four times in Sunday’s 29-3 loss to the Bears, also came away with a season-ending injury. Joe Judge said on Monday that Glennon will require surgery on his non-throwing wrist and will be unavailable for the season finale.
He’ll likely be replaced by Fromm, who, in his last appearance, a start against the Eagles in Philadelphia on Dec. 26, completed 6 of 17 passes for 25 yards. That performance was so uninspiring that even with Glennon struggling at a historic rate on Sunday — the Giants had minus-10 net passing yards, the lowest total in franchise history and the lowest in the league since 1998 — and with Glennon's wrist clearly bothering him, they did not give Fromm one snap.
"Right now, it would be Jake," Judge said of his plans for the position against Washington. "We have Brian Lewerke who has been with us all year [on the practice squad], including some of the preseason. He’s been with us and is familiar with our schemes. We’ll work both those guys in practice this week. But right now, based on reps and games, Jake would have the nod."
It may not even matter much who plays if the Giants go into the game with a run-first game plan similar to the one they had against the Bears. Fromm or Lewerke likely will hand the ball off much more often than they’ll be asked to throw it, and that’s assuming the Giants actually have a quarterback on the field. Four times on Sunday, they ran direct snaps to Saquon Barkley, eliminating the middle man and giving the ball straight to the running back.
The Giants have scored only six touchdowns in their last seven games — and none in three of them — mostly because of inconsistency at quarterback. In the five games started by Glennon and Fromm, the Giants have averaged 9.8 points per game, which is actually bolstered by the three late TDs in a blowout loss to the Chargers. They averaged a meager 18.1 in the 11 games Daniel Jones started before a neck injury ended his season but appeared more fluid and functional with him on the field.
The play of Glennon and Fromm has been another of the many challenges for the Giants in their offensive planning. It’s not hard to see how disheartening and discouraging it can be for the rest of the team to go into an NFL game without NFL-caliber play from the most important position on the field.
"Whoever prepares to play quarterback, their job is to facilitate the offense and move it around," Judge said. "It’s not everyone’s job to worry about other positions. It’s their job to come in and focus on what their assignment is, how they can execute and how they can help the team."
On Sunday, it will be Fromm’s job to try to atone for his last outing.
"Any time something doesn’t go your way, you want to get the opportunity to respond," Fromm said last week.
He’ll get it Sunday.
By default, but he’ll get it.
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.
