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Jordan Raanan, ESPN Staff Writer
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — It was a steamy summer afternoon in August and the New York Giants fans attending training camp that day had already reached their boiling point with starting quarterback Daniel Jones. He had failed to connect on a few deep passes and two college-aged young men started yelling for his replacement.
“Tommy! Tommy DeVito!” they yelled. “You’re the man. We want Tommy.”
Usually the backup quarterback is the most popular man in town. In this case for the Giants, it’s actually the third-stringer in second-year QB Tommy DeVito. The local boy-turned-sports hero went to a Cedar Grove vs. Verona high school football game in his hometown of Cedar Grove, N.J. back in September, and it was as if a sitting president had walked into the building.
“Went over there and it was a freaking riot,” DeVito said. “Soon as I walk in, student sections were screaming. It was nuts.”
It’s the kind of reaction that is not usually reserved for the backup to the backup quarterback. But there is still a segment of the fanbase that appreciates what the hometown hero did as a rookie. And with the Giants struggling, that subset of the fanbase longs for last year’s rags-to-riches fairytale story. The thought process seems to be, at the very least, it will make it more exciting than watching Jones struggle again.
The Giants (2-6) already started the process of moving on from Jones. They were on “Hard Knocks” this offseason trying to trade up for a quarterback in the draft and then benched Jones for backup Drew Lock late in a blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles two weeks ago.
Jones will start Sunday against the Washington Commanders (1 p.m. ET, FOX), but who knows for how much longer. His inconsistent play (six touchdown passes vs. five interceptions in eight starts) and the team’s struggles have called even his near future into question.
In the meantime, Lock and DeVito are biding their time as the scout-team quarterbacks while Jones takes every first-team rep at practice.
Lock is a sixth-year player who was a first-round pick in the same 2019 NFL draft that landed Jones with the Giants. DeVito is in his second year still trying to find a place in the league. He won three straight games in 2023, showed he can play (threw for 246 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in a win last November over Washington), then was shoved right back into the third QB role this offseason when the Giants guaranteed Lock $5 million as a free agent.
“I mean, it’s like anything else. I know it’s a business,” DeVito said. “So I understood it, I guess, a little bit. The competitiveness in myself, knowing in my head, I thought I had done that or gave a spark or glimpse of what could be, but I knew I was just a rookie. [The Giants] probably wanted a guy who had a little more experience. That’s kind of the path that they went, but we’ll see how it goes moving forward.”
DeVito took the area by storm while winning those three straight games spanning mid-November into early December last season. It came just months after going undrafted out of the University of Illinois.
Living at home and not shy about his Italian heritage, he is relatable to a large portion of the fanbase. It made him an instant sensation being the ultimate ‘Jersey boy’ who hit the Italian pinched fingers celebration on touchdowns.
“I’ve always unapologetically been myself,” said DeVito, an admitted mama’s boy who doesn’t drink and isn’t shy about walking around with a Shirley Temple (extra cherries) instead.
It’s hard to imagine that DeVito isn’t the most famous third-string quarterback in the NFL. When he’s walking in public next to Lock, there is no competition for who gets recognized more frequently. It’s DeVito who gets his teammates the reservation to famous New York Italian restaurant Carbone or tickets to Yankees World Series games. He was there for Games 4 and 5 this week in the Bronx.
DeVito, 26, no longer lives at home now, but he remains especially close to his family. He has also developed a tight relationship with Lock, who has a neighboring locker. It has created a quarterback room that recognizes its pecking order.
“That’s the cool thing about [the] quarterback room too. I think we understand this guy’s the No. 1, this guy’s a [backup], this guy’s a [third-string QB],” Lock said. “Opportunities will come for one of us, maybe two of us, maybe three of us. And we want the best for everybody that goes in there and plays. There’s a lot of rooms that don’t handle it that way.”
That’s the thing with DeVito. Despite all the attention, his ego — not to be confused with his confidence — has remained in check. He wants to prove he’s not a one-hit wonder. He has put his head down this year and gone to work.
Quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney says the biggest difference this year is DeVito’s understanding of the Giants’ system. It allows DeVito to more seamlessly make alerts and checks at the line of scrimmage in the run game and with pass protections.
He has improved by “leaps and bounds,” according to Tierney.
DeVito spent time this offseason working out in Florida and building on his rookie season. A focus was on getting the ball out quicker. Still, he’s right back where he was at this time last year — sitting and waiting behind two other quarterbacks. Only this time, a change in the pecking order could come at any moment, and not just because of injury.
“Every step of the way there is always something there,” DeVito said. “So overcoming obstacles … I just keep my head down, work and be ready. Similar situation to last year where you’re the No. 3 [quarterback]. You never know what’s going to happen. Be ready to roll when it’s time to roll. That’s it.”
As things sit at the midway point of the season, it could be sooner than later.
Source: www.espn.com