The New York Giants offense was a mess in 2023. What happened at quarterback was obviously a big part of that. Let’s take a look at what happened and look ahead to what could happen in 2024 as we continue our look at the 2023 position..
Let’s look at the 2023 seasons of Jones, Taylor and DeVito separately..
Daniel Jones
Jones received a four-year, $160 million contract from the Giants with $81 million fully guaranteed. He got the deal because the 2022 season was the best of his career and led Giants brass to think the 2019 No. 6 overall pick could rise even more.Season 2023 really didn’t go that way.Jones never looked right. He never seemed comfortable. In six games, he played one good half of football. That effort in last week’s Week 2 win against the Arizona Cardinals yielded this incredible stat:.
Unfortunately, the rest of Jones’ season brought just five losses, another neck injury, a torn ACL, and a lot of questions about what the Giants should do at quarterback going forward.Jones was a human face in 2023. He had 5+ sacks in 30 games. He was pressed on 45.5 percent of downs. Only Justin Fields was pressured more often (48.8%). The play of the offensive line was terrible and was definitely a factor in Jones’ poor play..
Saquon Barkley and Andrew Thomas were out for several games in which Jones played. Wan’Dale Robinson did not play in the first two.However, Jones’ performance in his fifth and final season under contract was unacceptable. He threw two touchdown passes, six interceptions, a career-worst 3.8% interception percentage, a career-low 151.5 yards per game, a career-low passer rating of 70.5 and a QBR of 36.2. His net yards per pass attempt was an insane 3.1.Jones wasn’t good enough. His performance and knee injury opened the door to all the quarterback questions swirling around the Giants, who have the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft..
Tyrod Taylor
Taylor lasted 13 years in the NFL because he has enough talent for teams to want him and enough brains to know his role as a backup and not make waves. He had little notoriety in the NFL because he was usually always a placeholder or had something go wrong when it looked like his time had come.Taylor’s 2023 season followed that pattern. The Giants signed Taylor to a two-year, $11 million contract before the 2022 season to provide insurance for Jones in the event of injury. When it came time for the Giants to collect insurance, Taylor failed. The loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 6 came in large part because he started a run game that failed at the 1-yard line on the last play before halftime, resulting in zero points in a 14-9 loss to the Giants. Then in Week 8, Taylor broke four ribs and opened the door for DeVito’s mania.After returning from IR and the DeVito mania continuing, Taylor started and played well in the last two games of the season. He threw for 319 and 297 yards, including amazing deep throws..
Taylor finished with a 2-3 record as a starter and appeared in 11 total games..
Tommy DeVito
DeVito Mania was never supposed to happen. Such things never exist.DeVito shouldn’t have done it with the Giants. After he made the practice squad, he never played again. Well. There are never 3 quarterbacks. But sometimes they do.Injuries to Jones and Taylor opened the door, and the decision to keep DeVito with NFL pedigree instead of a backup looked like a disaster at first..
The Giants lost to the Jets in overtime in Week 8, mostly because when DeVito had to face Taylor head coach Brian Daboll seemed petrified of letting the rookie throw the ball. Devito threw just seven passes and two touchdowns on 50 carries from the second quarter to overtime. Three of his seven passes were behind the line of scrimmage and none went more than 10 yards.There was no sign of what was to come.Under DeVito, the Giants defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 30-6 and the Dallas Cowboys 49-17.Then the world went mad. The Giants have won three games in a row. In the third period, DeVito led a comeback in the final minute.During this process, the world – at least the world of New Jersey-New York Giants fans – went crazy. DeVito mania was born. An Italian boy who was a local high school hero and lived at home with his parents, supported the Giants and everyone fell in love with him.There were lines everywhere to get autographs and pictures. There were sandwiches. There was a lot of attention.Then it ended with losses against the New Orleans Saints and the Philadelphia Eagles.All in all it was a good year and a great experience for DeVito. He had 15 minutes of fame, made himself some money, probably added years to his NFL career, and his story brought fun and life to an otherwise miserable Giants season..
2024 outlook
So many questions. Really, so few answers..
If you don’t know exactly what your quarterback situation is, it can never be considered good. But there the Giants have to transition into the third year of the Joe Schoen-Brian Daboll regime.Schoen acknowledged that the Giants have to address the situation, with Jones uncertain to start the season and Taylor heading to free agency.”We have to do something,” said Schoen. “Once free agency starts, we’ll address the draft, regardless of which way we decide to go.”Jones is part of the equation in 2024. Whether or not they feel they made a mistake signing him to a big contract — and they didn’t — the $69.315 million they’d carry if they cut Jones makes that impossible.The question is, will Jones be joined by a first-round pick to replace him in 2025 — or sooner? Will he be joined by a Day 2 or Day 3 quarterback the franchise hopes to develop into a replacement?Schoen also said the Giants need a Taylor-type backup who can “win you games early” if Jones isn’t ready to start the season.It didn’t really sound like Schoen thought DeVito was the guy.So the Giants quarterback outlook for 2024 is fraught with uncertainty. Which is not a good place..
