This could be a franchise-altering decision
The New York Giants made the expected move this week and benched Daniel Jones. And with Jones declared the third quarterback and the emergency quarterback in case both Tommy DeVito and Drew Lock get hurt in the same game, he’s probably taken his last snap as a Giant.
The decision to start Tommy DeVito wasn’t exactly expected, but it’s one that might appease the fans at home for the time being. And if DeVito can’t recapture the magic from weeks 11, 12, and 14 last year, the Giants will likely turn to Drew Lock.
So we probably have a pretty good idea how the quarterback position will play out for the remainder of 2024. The all-important question now is how the Giants will address the quarterback position moving forward.
(For the purposes of this piece, we’ll set the possibility that DeVito or Lock could make a leap and become the answer. Their play this year will determine that.)
There are many, many different ways in which the Giants could answer their quarterback question. But broadly speaking, there are four paths before them.
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Draft a top quarterback — in this case, Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders.
This would assume that the Giants either finish with a suitable draft pick or a team amenable to trading. - Sign or trade for a veteran starter — This would mean acquiring a player like Russell Wilson or trading for a player like Kirk Cousins or Matt Stafford. An experienced player who can still get it done at a high-enough level for a couple years yet.
- Sign a bridge quarterback and develop a “Toolsy” quarterback — This option would mean acquiring a (likely) low-end starter like Sam Darnold, Andy Dalton, or prying Mitchell Trubisky out of Buffalo. They would start while the coaching staff works with a player like Jalen Milroe, Jaxson Dart, Justin Fields, or Trey Lance.
- Pray for Arch Manning — The phrasing is a bit tongue-in-cheek*, but this is effectively punting on the quarterback position. Essentially, the Giants would do what they could for the quarterback position and use the bulk of their resources to continue to reinforce the rest of the roster. Then, hope that the 2025 quarterback class is better than the 2024 class, as well as that the Giants are either (once again) bad enough to be in position to draft a top quarterback or find a buyer if they sell the farm to move up and draft one.
*Drafting Eli’s nephew is obviously poetic, but there’s no guarantee that Arch comes out in 2025 and not even much evidence that he can live up to his hype coming out of high school. I’m mostly just name-dropping Arch as a placeholder for hope that the stars will align for the Giants.
So Giants fans, which route would you prefer the Giants take once this season is (finally) done?
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