Tommy DeVito to start at quarterback for the Giants in place of Daniel Jones

After fits and starts, promise and disappointment, the Daniel Jones era might very well be over.

The Giants benched their quarterback in favor of Tommy DeVito, coach Brian Daboll announced Monday — a move that came less than two years after Jones signed a hefty contract extension. It also seems probable that this is his end with the franchise who drafted him sixth overall to be Eli Manning’s successor in 2019, as his salary for the next two years isn’t guaranteed.

Jones, who signed for four years and $160 million ahead of the 2023 season, will move to third on the depth chart behind Drew Lock, who remains the primary backup as the 2-8 Giants host the Buccaneers on Sunday.  Though hardly the only reason for the team’s struggles, Jones' play has been subpar: a 79.4 passer rating with eight touchdowns and seven interceptions.

“We’re obviously not playing the way any of us wanted to play and that’s on all of us,” Daboll said Monday. “Those are never easy conversations. Got a lot of respect for all three of those guys. After evaluating a bunch of things and looking at a lot of tape and being around Tommy last year where he created a little bit of a spark for us, that's the reason why we're going with Tommy.”

DeVito, who played in nine games and started six last season, gets the call despite general manager Joe Schoen signing Lock to a one-year, $5 million contract this past offseason. DeVito hasn’t played since last season, while Lock played quarterback in just one game this season (12 snaps) when Jones was benched for most of the fourth quarter against the Eagles. Pressed on why the Giants opted for DeVito despite not wanting him in the primary backup role, Daboll declined to get into specifics.

“Tommy has been improving since he's been here. I have confidence in Drew as well,” he said. “Just felt like this was the right move to make . . . Tommy will be working hard to get ready.”

Last week, Schoen said that the quarterback position would be a “football decision.” There are, however, significant financial incentives to starting DeVito. Jones could have made $30 million in 2025 and $46.5 million in 2026, but that salary isn’t guaranteed. What would be guaranteed, however, is $23 million if Jones gets hurt over the last seven games of the season in a way that makes him unable to pass a physical in March. Lock, too, has incentives in his contract — $250,000 each for playing 40%, 50%, 60% and 70% of snaps.

“We're going to evaluate everything the rest of the week and the decisions we make will be a football decision,” Schoen said last week when asked how much Jones’ contract would factor into their next move. “Any decisions we make moving forward as we evaluate the roster and what we're doing for the final seven games will be football decisions.”

DeVito started six games last year when Jones was sidelined by a neck injury and a torn ACL. He went 3-3 with eight touchdowns and three interceptions.

“I think he has good fundamentals and he's got a good, quick release,” Daboll said of DeVito. “But it's really some of the things in the meeting room when you're talking about tape, you're talking about pressure packages or re-identifications or checks and things like that. He's played almost 700 snaps for us, preseason and regular season included. So, experience helps. We'll do everything we can to get him ready.”

The Giants are 3-13 in Jones’ 16 starts since he signed the extension. He has 10 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions in that span. His two interceptions played a large role in the Giants’ most recent loss to the Panthers — widely considered to be the worst team in the league — in Munich last Sunday.

Daboll said he informed his quarterbacks of the decision Monday morning, and that Jones intends to remain with the team. He said there likely would be other personnel changes to accommodate the different packages they intend to use with DeVito, but that it was still something he was working out.

Daboll also declined to place the blame on Jones, who wasn’t able to build on a more bullish 2022 campaign that included a road playoff win. The issue, he said, was “all encompassing."

"That's on everybody,” he said. “That's just not on Daniel. That's on me. That's on an entire offensive performance. So, again, making this decision to try to spark it and give Tommy an opportunity. He did some nice things when he was in there and he played as a rookie, and I know he's eager for the opportunity."

Extended futility would put the Giants in a better draft position, though Daboll said the team would “be committed to doing everything we can do to close out the season the right way and just take it one week at a time."

"That's where our focus is going to be, with Tampa, and certainly all the issues that they present defensively, particularly on the offensive side," he said. "The only thing we control is our response to how the season has been so far. It doesn't dictate where the season is going.”

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.