Am Leaving; Tyrod Taylor accepted a deal of $75.5m to depart from New York Giants today after……
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Bob Glauber on the Giants QB Situation
Giants QBs Partly to Blame for O-line’s Historically Bad Season
The Giants’ 85 sacks allowed last season was the second most in NFL history. But how many of those sacks were the o-line’s fault?
It’s way too easy to blame an offensive line that “allows” an abundance of sacks throughout the season for all that goes wrong in pass protection.
But as coaches and players like to say, every play has its own story, including plays that don’t quite go according to script. And in the case of the Giants offensive line, which this season “allowed” a whopping 85 sacks against all three quarterbacks (Daniel Jones, Tyrod Taylor, and Tommy DeVito), not all of those sacks were necessarily the result of the offensive line.
According to Ian Hartiz of Fantasy Life, who gathered data from Pro Football Focus, Devito and Jones were the top two worst quarterbacks in the league last season in terms of allowing pressures to be converted into sacks, Devito at a 37 percent rate and Jones at a 32 percent rate.
While this data doesn’t absolve the offensive line for its part in a historically bad season–the 85 sacks allowed is the second most surrendered by a team in league history since sacks became a tracked stat–the tendency of the Giatns quarterbacks to hold onto the ball at alarmingly long intervals played a part on their weekly beatings by opposing defenses.
Coaches prefer quarterbacks to get rid of the ball in 2.5 seconds or less. If the protection is clean, that’s a reasonable metric to meet, assuming the quarterback is processing the post-snap reads quickly enough to get the ball out of his hand.
Sometimes, however, a quarterback will add to his average time to throw because he’s rolling around the pocket to buy time or avoid a rush.
How did the Giants quarterbacks do in 2023?
Jones averaged 2.28 seconds when kept clean, but he also threw three interceptions to two touchdown passes, his receivers dropping three balls. His average time to throw jumped to 3.54 seconds when under pressure, with three interceptions, no touchdowns, and just one dropped pass.
Taylor averaged 2.34 seconds to throw when kept clean, throwing four touchdowns to two interceptions. His intended targets also dropped six passes under those circumstances. Under pressure, he averaged 3.61 seconds to throw, tossing one touchdown and one interception while having his pass catchers drop another three balls.
DeVito, the undrafted rookie pressed into action probably well before he was ready, averaged 2.54 seconds to throw when kept clean, completing six touchdowns and throwing just three interceptions with ten passes dropped. He averaged 3.86 seconds to throw under pressure, completing two touchdowns and no interceptions, with just two dropped balls.
Again, not all pressures are created equal, and this isn’t to say that the Giants offensive line was better than what its historically bad numbers otherwise suggest.
This is just a reminder that not all sacks and pressures are created equal and that some of the blame must be placed elsewhere, such as the running back or tight end who fails to chip or, more importantly, the quarterback who holds onto the ball endlessly out of fear of making a mistake.
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BY PATRICIA TRAINA
Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for over three decades for various media outlets. She is the host of the Locked On Giants podcast and the author of “The Big 50: New York Giants: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants” (Triumph Books, September 2020). View Patricia’s full bio.
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Giants to start Tyrod Taylor over Tommy DeVito at QB vs. Rams
Jordan Raanan, ESPN Staff Writer
Dec 27, 2023, 11:14 AM ET
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Giants will start Tyrod Taylor at quarterback Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams, keeping rookie Tommy DeVito on the bench after six straight starts, coach Brian Daboll announced Wednesday.
DeVito, the undrafted rookie and local folk hero who quickly became a fan favorite, was benched in favor of Taylor during Monday’s 33-25 loss against the Philadelphia Eagles. Taylor threw a touchdown pass in the second half and almost led a game-tying drive in the final seconds.
“I thought [Taylor] did some good things in the second half of Philly, so he earned the right to start this game,” Daboll said. “Getting ready for the Rams. Really have nothing else to add on it. That’s where we’re at.”
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The Giants (5-10) chose to stick with DeVito as the starter this month when the veteran Taylor returned from injured reserve, where he was dealing with a rib injury. Daboll justified the decision by saying that DeVito had earned the right to continue as the starter.
DeVito and the Giants beat the Green Bay Packers that week for their third straight win. They have since dropped two straight and Daboll benched DeVito while trailing 20-3 at halftime in Philadelphia.
DeVito’s ride lasted six starts and he threw seven touchdown passes to one interception while the team went 3-3.
“Yeah, continue to be a good teammate. Obviously, it’s a coaches’ decision. I have, obviously, no say in that,” DeVito said. “But I’m going to continue to be a good teammate, go out and compete. That’s it.”
Taylor was 7-for-16 passing for 133 yards with one touchdown and an interception on a final-second heave to end the game. The touchdown toss was a perfectly placed deep ball to wide receiver Darius Slayton for a 69-yard score.
The veteran, who had lost his starting job to DeVito because of injury, now gets another chance. It just so happens to come with free agency on the horizon.
Taylor, 34, is a free agent at the end of the season.
“It means everything to me,” Taylor said of getting the chance to start again. “Obviously the work that you put in week in, week out — been playing this game a long time — anytime you get a chance to lace up the cleats and go out and compete means the world to me. That is when I’m the happiest. It’s what I love to do, to be able to go out and not only show your peers but prove it to yourself what you can do.”
The decision to start Taylor is based in the belief he gives the Giants the best chance to win. It reinforces to the rest of the locker room that the priority remains winning, even though the Giants were officially eliminated from playoff contention this week.
DeVito will serve as the backup. The Giants don’t have another healthy quarterback after veteran Matt Barkley was signed off their practice squad Tuesday by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“I’ll just say both [Taylor and DeVito] are ready to go, doing their job and when their number is called expect them to be ready to go,” Daboll said.
Even though he’s not the starter, DeVito doesn’t plan to change his approach
“The same thing I’ve said since the beginning: Stay even-keel through it all,” he said. “Never too high or too low because like I said, when you’re up, everybody loves you. When you’re down, everybody hates you. So, for me, stay even though it all.
“That’s why I’ll be mellow and get through it all.”
It was a wild ride with DeVito at quarterback since early November. The six weeks created excitement in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area that some compared to “Linsanity,” when Jeremy Lin took the NBA and sports world by storm playing for the New York Knicks in 2011.
DeVito’s popularity skyrocketed in large part because of his performance (a three-game winning streak and seven touchdown passes to just one interception) and relatability to local fans. He embraced his Italian heritage, celebrating touchdowns by tossing pinched fingers in the air, and famously admitted to living with his parents at his childhood home in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. He affectionately became known as “Tommy Cutlets” by fans and teammates.
“We bang with it,” DeVito said of the nickname several weeks back.
Through it all, he even proved something to himself.
“That I belong in the NFL specifically,” DeVito said. “Just to go out and prove that to myself, to the younger me, to the me that was training to be here up until this point, that is all it is.”
DeVito started the season as the Giants’ practice-squad quarterback after going undrafted out of the University of Illinois this year. He returns to being the backup, the role he had when Taylor was originally hurt trying to scramble during an Oct. 29 game against the New York Jets.
The change comes just eight days after Daboll said DeVito had earned the right to start and didn’t want to keep going week to week with his quarterbacks. It’s still not out of the question that DeVito gets another start this season.
“I don’t know what the future holds, let alone tomorrow,” he said. “I’m just going to continue to be here and be in the moment. Be at my best every day.”
The Giants host the Eagles in Week 18 at MetLife Stadium.
