Tommy DeVito will start at quarterback for the Giants this Sunday because Drew Lock has a heel injury after taking 35 hits in his past two starts.
That number is not a typo.
The Dallas Cowboys hit Lock 20 times on Thanksgiving Day: six sacks and 14 more QB hits. Then the New Orleans Saints hit him 15 times: two sacks and 13 QB hits.
Head coach Brian Daboll, the Giants’ offensive play-caller, had Lock drop back and throw 49 passes in the 14-11 loss to New Orleans. So it was no surprise Lock had to get “a couple things” examined and ended up in a walking boot.
“Drew is… I wouldn’t say he’s doing great. He’s in a boot,” Daboll said Wednesday. “He has a heel [injury]. He won’t practice today… Tommy will get all the reps… Can’t see [Lock] going [Thursday]. Hopefully Friday we can see whether or not he can end up being a two or a three [as a backup]. But not there yet.”
Former Jets quarterback Tim Boyle, who was re-signed to the practice squad Tuesday, would be DeVito’s backup on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens (8-5) at MetLife Stadium if Lock isn’t able to dress.
The Giants (2-11) opened as 14-point underdogs to the Ravens. The line moved on Monday to 14.5-point underdogs. And now, after the Lock-DeVito news, they are 16.5-point underdogs to Baltimore.
That is the largest line of the 2024 NFL season.
This is the second time in three weeks that Joe Schoen and Daboll have had to switch QBs because they couldn’t prevent their starter from getting clobbered and hurt.
In Week 12, when they shut down and released Daniel Jones, they skipped over Lock — the No. 2 QB on the depth chart — to start DeVito. They believed DeVito gave them the best chance to win.
Then the Giants lost to Tampa Bay, 30-7. DeVito took 13 hits: four sacks and nine more QB hits. And he sustained his worst injuries while throwing passes in the final minutes of a blowout as Daboll tried to make the final score look better.
DeVito had to come out of that game for one snap, with Lock replacing him briefly. And in the following days, DeVito said he had full body soreness, a stiff neck and an injury to his right forearm.
The Giants incredibly didn’t even put DeVito on their injury report that Monday, even though he was unable to fly with the team or dress in that Thursday’s Thanksgiving game.
So Lock made his first Giants start by default at Dallas in Week 13.
The Giants trailed the Cowboys, 27-10, entering the fourth quarter. But Lock managed 10 fourth quarter points, including a garbage-time touchdown, to make the 27-20 final score look more optically palatable.
Lock took an absolute beating in that Thanksgiving defeat and joked postgame, while patting his gut with his hand, that he was 230 pounds so he could handle it.
Coming out of that loss, Schoen, Daboll and the Giants then changed their minds and declared Lock their choice over DeVito for their Week 14 game against the Saints.
That was, to be clear, an admission that their decision to skip over Lock for DeVito in Week 12 was the wrong one.
Then Lock’s Giants offense scored three points against the Saints until a late touchdown, a two-point conversion and a blocked field goal to lose the game.
DeVito was healthy enough to play against New Orleans, though, and his availability produced one of the strangest play calls of the season:
Daboll removed Lock, a productive and capable runner, for one play to have DeVito hand the ball off to Tyrone Tracy Jr. for a 1-yard gain. Then the coach took DeVito out and put Lock back in the game.
The crowd actually cheered when DeVito came into the game and booed when Lock — who was putting his body on the line all day — was subbed back in.
So at least on Sunday, the few thousand fans clamoring for DeVito will get their wish and see the local celebrity play.
They’d better be in their seats early and not blink, however, or else they might miss it, based on how poorly Schoen and Daboll have been able to protect their QBs.
