Daniel Jones is headed to the bench, and he might not ever start another game for the Giants.
Coming off of a bye week late in another lost season, the Giants have decided to bench Jones and turn to fan favorite Tommy DeVito as their starting quarterback, The Post confirmed.
Former general manager Dave Gettleman once said that it would take three years “to find out how crazy I am” for reaching to pick Jones at No. 6 overall in 2019. It took twice as long as Gettleman forecasted and a lot of excuse-making, but the six-year Jones Era likely is over.
It would be shortsighted of the Giants (2-8) to even activate Jones for any of their remaining seven games, including Sunday against the Buccaneers.
The Giants bypassed season-long second-stringer Drew Lock for DeVito.
The four-year, $160 million extension that Jones signed after his well-timed career year in 2022 – highlighted by a great performance in the Giants’ only playoff victory since winning Super Bowl XLVI in 2011 – includes a $23 million injury guarantee.
If he is injured and can’t pass a physical by March, then the Giants’ dead salary-cap charge for releasing him goes from a manageable $22 million to an unwieldy $45 million.
But benching the oft-injured Jones is a “football decision” – not strictly a business decision – as general manager Joe Schoen said last week.
The Giants are 3-13 in Jones’ 16 starts since he signed that extension. He has 10 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions.
By comparison, the Giants are 5-6 with 13 touchdown passes and six interceptions over that timeframe when someone else (Tyrod Taylor and DeVito) starts. Those 11 starts happened when offensive coordinator Mike Kafka was calling the plays, but now it’s head coach Brian Daboll who will be in DeVito’s ear.
Giants fans lashing out on social media and booing at home games have made it known that they are done with Jones, even though he is far from the team’s only flaw. As per usual in Jones’ tenure, the Giants have one of the NFL’s lowest-scoring offenses (15.6 points per game).
If the book is closed on Jones, he will finish 24-44-1 with 70 passing touchdowns, 15 rushing touchdowns, 51 fumbles (26 lost) and 47 interceptions.
He hasn’t had a three-touchdown passing game since Week 16 of his rookie season.
Jones had three different head coaches (Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge, Daboll) and five different offensive play-callers (Shurmur, Jason Garrett, Freddie Kitchens, Kafka and Daboll).
Schoen replaced Gettleman and declined the fifth-year option on Jones’ rookie contract before the 2022 season but ultimately reversed course and gave him franchise quarterback money.
Jones and Dexter Lawrence are the longest-tenured Giants, as first-round draft picks in 2019.
