Giants’ benching Daniel Jones for Tommy DeVito further indictment of Joe Schoen’s QB mismanagement

Joe Schoen said last week that the Giants’ personnel wasn’t the reason they were losing.
Then on Monday the GM and coach Brian Daboll benched Daniel Jones – the quarterback he paid $82 million guaranteed the past two years – and named third-stringer Tommy DeVito the starter over backup Drew Lock – the backup Schoen gave $5 million guaranteed this season.
Jones’ benching was inevitable due to the Giants’ 2-8 record, the ongoing public scapegoating of him by Schoen and Daboll and the presence of a $23 million 2025 injury guarantee in his contract.
Benching Jones likely means shutting him down completely, actually, because any injury in a game, practice or on the Giants’ grounds would activate that clause if he failed to pass a physical next March.
That’s why Brian Daboll declared Lock as DeVito’s backup instead of Jones on the coach’s Monday Zoom call.
“We felt like this was a decision we needed to make here and try to spark things, change things up,” Daboll said.
Schoen’s harsh reality, however, is that he created this problem. He did not pick up Jones’ fifth-year option when he arrived in 2022.
He signed Jones to a four-year, $160 million contract extension in the spring of 2023 instead of using the franchise tag on his QB and re-signing Saquon Barkley, who is now an MVP candidate with the 8-2 rival Philadelphia Eagles.
The GM then compounded his mistake this offseason by failing to sign capable competition or insurance behind Jones, even though Schoen had lost confidence in Jones and was trying to replace him in April’s NFL Draft.
Now, passing over Lock is further indictment of Schoen’s quarterback evaluation ability.
Going to DeVito signals that the Giants think he gives them a better chance to win than Lock, who moved his family across the country to compete for significant playing time here.
It also reflects poorly on Schoen and Brian Daboll’s training camp plan, when they didn’t even give DeVito a chance to compete with Lock for the No. 2 backup job.
“I’d say they’ve both done a good job with what we’ve asked them to do,” said Daboll, when asked if DeVito has outplayed Lock in practice, which wasn’t a yes.
All of these questionable decisions call into question whether co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch really want these two men selecting their next franchise quarterback in April after stepping in it this badly.
Daboll, for one, took responsibility for Jones and the offense regressing since the Giants supposedly had unlocked the quarterback in 2022.
“I think that’s an all-encompassing, that’s on everybody. It’s just not on Daniel,” Daboll said. “That’s on me, that’s on an entire offensive performance. So again, making this decision to try to spark it, give Tommy an opportunity.”
Schoen’s offseason this past spring, meanwhile, was a masterclass in poor judgment.
The GM incorrectly believed now-Jets QB Tyrod Taylor would re-sign with the Giants after the team had kept him benched while healthy for DeVito last year.
Schoen watched the Steelers acquire Justin Fields in a trade with the Bears to go 4-2 as a starter.
He let Russell Wilson walk out of his Giants free agent visit and sign with Pittsburgh, which now has an 8-2 record after turning to Wilson and beating the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.
The Giants GM saw Sam Darnold sign in Minnesota, where the Vikings are now 8-2 with Darnold the No. 1 every step of the way.
Schoen passed in the NFL Draft on Bo Nix, who has the Denver Broncos at 6-5 after throwing for 307 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-6 drubbing of the Atlanta Falcons.
The GM sat idly by as the Green Bay Packers acquired Malik Willis, who is 2-0 as their backup QB after coming from the Tennessee Titans. And Cleveland’s Jameis Winston would have clearly upgraded New York’s quarterback room, among others.
Schoen and Daboll also didn’t optimally support Jones.
They could have significantly improved Jones’ weapons by keeping Barkley and adding Malik Nabers. Instead, they only replaced Barkley with Nabers, which left the Giants stuck in neutral.
Instead of making an expensive and desperate trade for Brian Burns, Schoen could have retained Barkley, drafted a corner at the top of the NFL Draft’s second round and still signed a solid edge rusher to help his front.
But now the Giants are 2-8 with seven games remaining, and the best-case scenario would seem to be losing out to have a high pick to use on a quarterback next April.
The problem is it’s hard to envision Schoen and Daboll surviving if the bottom continues to fall out, which already happened before the bye in a pathetic loss to the Carolina Panthers in Germany.
DeVito went 3-3 as a starter last season, but Wink Martindale’s defense forced 11 turnovers in the three wins, plus the Giants got another from Thomas McGaughey’s special teams unit.
Shane Bowen’s 2024 Giants defense has only eight takeaways in 10 games. Only the Browns and Titans (seven apiece) and Raiders (five) have forced fewer turnovers.
More losses may help the Giants land their next franchise quarterback in April’s draft, but total dysfunction could wipe out Schoen and Daboll and leave the Giants in the hiring line for a new coach and GM.
It’s going to be especially hard to get the team to play hard down the stretch if the players don’t believe DeVito gives them the best chance to win – or if they’re aware that Jones’ demotion to third-string is motivated by money, not by football.
“That’s why Tommy’s out there,” Daboll said of giving his team the best chance. “Obviously [Lock] would like to be the starter and I understand that, but the spark that Tommy gave not just the offense but the team last year I think is important.”
Daboll is less than a month removed, though, from saying that Jones still gives his team the “best chance” to win after benching him against the Eagles and reinserting him as the starter the following week in Pittsburgh.
This is a tough sell to the team. It’s even a tough sell to the fan base. The only light at the end of the tunnel is April’s draft.
Going in the toilet in year three of a regime, however, and benching a player that they paid $82 million isn’t some part of some master plan. Neither is skipping over the backup the Giants adjudged as a solid insurance policy if that happened.
It’s malpractice. And it’s a sign of an organization and a regime and a team in disrepair.