New York Giants coach Brian Daboll is not ready to commit to who his starting quarterback will be when the team plays host to Tampa Bay on Nov. 24 following the bye week.
The Giants fell to 2-8 with Sunday’s last-second loss to Carolina in Germany, a game in which quarterback Daniel Jones threw for 190 yards on no touchdowns while getting intercepted twice and posting a paltry 33.9 quarterback rating.
New York has now lost five consecutive games to fall into a tie with Jacksonville for the worst record in the NFL.
“We’re going to spend a lot of time here watching our tape and evaluating things. We’ll do that as a coaching staff over the next week here,” Daboll said on Monday when asked if Jones is still the starting quarterback.
Jones has completed 63.3 percent of his passes for 2,070 yards and eight touchdowns against seven interceptions. He was benched for Drew Lock in the second half of a 28-3 loss to Philadelphia in Week 7, but Daboll has stuck with Jones as his starter for each of the ensuing three losses.
When pressed on why he declined to commit to Jones as he has in previous weeks, Daboll offered only that, “I would say we’re evaluating our team at the bye week is what we’re doing.”
In addition to Lock, the Giants have former undrafted free agent Tommy DeVito on the roster. DeVito, who played in nine games after Jones suffered a season-ending knee injury last year, has yet to appear in a game this season.
“We’re going to get started on this process here of going back and looking at everything you normally look at in a bye week,” Daboll said. “Schemes, situational stuff, technique, all the things you do in a normal bye week. You evaluate the players. You have a good amount of games to watch. Situational review tape, calls, all those types of things.
“We’ll do that like we normally do on a bye week and try to improve in the areas that we need to improve on.”
Jones signed a four-year, $160 million contract during the 2023 offseason that includes $92 million in guaranteed money. He is due to earn $30 million in base salary next season, with $12 million becoming fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the league season.
If the team is considering moving on from Jones after this season, his $23 million injury guarantee could prompt a change to Lock or DeVito. Daboll acknowledged that he’s in communication with general manager Joe Schoen and the team’s ownership group on “a daily basis” regarding every position.
“I think that’s very important and healthy for the organization,” he said. “If there’s changes we need to make, we’ll make them. Again, you only have about a week to do this and look at things. But you’re always doing that throughout the season after a game. It’s just here, you’ve got some more information. You’ve got back-to-back-to-back of cutups of things you want to look at. Practices, meeting times, all those types of things. Then you make the necessary adjustments that you think you need to make.
“How drastic? I couldn’t give you that answer. But I understand the question.”
