Tyrod Taylor

Latest On Giants’ QB Situation

After the Giants poked around at the likes of Russell Wilson and landed on Drew Lock, there was some speculation that the organization could be looking to manufacture a QB competition. Seahawks GM John Schneider only fueled that fire earlier this week, telling Seattle Sports 710AM that the Giants lured Lock away from Seattle by selling the QB on the “opportunity to compete to be the starter.”

[RELATED: Giants To Sign QB Drew Lock]

Lock was quick to dismiss that notion. After inking his one-year deal with the Giants yesterday, the QB told reporters that it’s clearly been conveyed to him that Daniel Jones is the starter.

“Now, I need to come in and push Daniel to be the best that he can be,’’ Lock said (via Paul Schwartz of the New York Post). “I’ve had both sides of this. I’ve been the guy to push a starter, I’ve been the starter that’s being pushed by the backups. It’s about making that room the best it can be. If we can do that, the sky’s the limit for this team.’’

As Jeff Howe of The Athletic writes, it was likely Jones’ career-long injury issues and Brian Daboll‘s quarterback-friendly system that helped lure Lock to New York. Both Tyrod Taylor and Mitch Trubisky parlayed stints as Daboll’s QB2 into larger pay days, and Lock is surely hoping for the same outcome.

Lock could have an opportunity to start in 2024 as Jones continues to rehab a torn ACL that ended his 2023 season, but the new addition will simply be keeping the seat warm. That’s a big reason why the Giants didn’t end up adding Wilson to the mix; as Lowe reports, the Giants didn’t make the veteran QB “any promises about playing time.” The Giants also tried to retain Taylor, as Tony Pauline of Sportskeeda.com writes. Ultimately, Taylor was able to garner a higher offer from the Jets than what Lock settled for with the Giants.

While the Giants continue to give Jones a vote of confidence, that doesn’t mean the team is entirely comfortable with his future outlook. As Ralph Vacchiano of FOX Sports writes, Jones’ injury history has “shaken” the Giants’ faith in the franchise QB. The former first-round pick has only made it through one season unscathed, and that’s led the team to consider taking a quarterback in next month’s draft. Even after handing Jones a four-year, $160MM extension last offseason, the Giants have scouted many of the draft’s top quarterback prospects. If the organization does pull the trigger on a rookie signal-caller, that will only further cloud the team’s QB picture moving forward.

Contract Details: Young, Awuzie, Taylor, Rams, Cards, Chargers, 49ers, Lions, Texans

With free agency’s first wave in the rearview mirror, here is a look at some of the contracts authorized by teams in the days since the market opened:

  • Chidobe Awuzie, CB (Titans). Three years, $36MM. Contract includes $22.98MM guaranteed. Awuzie’s 2025 base salary ($11.49MM) is guaranteed for injury at signing, with $7.51MM of that total fully guaranteed. Awuzie being on Tennessee’s roster on April 1 of next year locks in the other $3.98MM. The veteran cornerback is a due a $1MM bonus on April 1, 2026, per KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson.
  • Darious Williams, CB (Rams). Three years, $22.5MM. Commanding a market, the recent Jaguars cap casualty’s second Rams contract can be worth up to $30MM, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets.
  • Chase Young, DE (Saints). One year, $13MM. The deal includes $7.99MM in per-game roster bonuses, CBS Sports Jonathan Jones notes. Including a $2.7MM base salary and a $1.86MM signing bonus, Young’s New Orleans pact is still heavily tilted toward games active. That will make the defensive end’s recovery from neck surgery worth monitoring more closely.
  • Tyrod Taylor, QB (Jets): Two years, $12MM. Taylor will see $8.5MM fully guaranteed, The Athletic’s Dan Duggan tweets. An additional $6MM in incentives are present in the veteran QB’s deal. Three void years are included here, dropping Taylor’s 2024 cap hit to $2.8MM.
  • DeeJay Dallas, RB (Cardinals): Three years, $8.25MM. Dallas will see $2.4MM guaranteed, Wilson tweets. The final two base salaries on this contract — both worth $2.4MM — are nonguaranteed. Rushing yards-based incentives run up to $750K per year in this deal.
  • Javon Kinlaw, DT (Jets): One year, $7.25MM. The ex-49ers first-rounder will receive a $5.5MM signing bonus, with KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson indicating the deal also includes $1.75MM in incentives.
  • Gus Edwards, RB (Chargers). Two years, $6.5MM. The ex-Ravens back will see $3.38MM guaranteed, Wilson tweets. Edwards’ $3MM 2025 base salary is nonguaranteed, with Wilson adding he is due a $125K roster bonus on Day 5 of the 2025 league year.
  • Noah Brown, WR (Texans): One year, $4MM. Brown re-signed with the Texans for $3MM guaranteed, per Wilson. The wideout’s second Houston contract can max out at $5MM.
  • Jon Feliciano, G (49ers). One year, $2.75MM. Feliciano will receive a $925K signing bonus, and Wilson adds $1.25MM in incentives are present in this accord.
  • Emmanuel Moseley, CB (Lions). One year, $1.13MM. Moseley will stay in Detroit for the veteran minimum, via the Detroit News’ Justin Rogers. Coming off a second ACL tear in two years, Moseley will receive a $1MM signing bonus. He received $6MM in 2023.

Jets To Sign QB Tyrod Taylor

It is quite possible Tyrod Taylor will not have to change residences; he will merely switch locker rooms at MetLife Stadium. The Jets are adding the recent Giants backup, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero tweets.

Maligned for their quarterback plan behind Aaron Rodgers last year, the Jets will bring in a veteran QB2 in Taylor. The journeyman arm will slide in behind Rodgers, with the Jets on track to part ways with Zach Wilson soon. This will be Taylor’s seventh NFL team.

[RELATED: Jets Give Zach Wilson Permission To Seek Trade]

Not seeing much action in his first season with the Giants, Taylor became needed early in 2023. Daniel Jones battled a neck injury before going down with a torn ACL. While Tommy DeVito enjoyed a memorable stretch in relief of Jones — as Taylor sat healthy behind the rookie UDFA — the older backup closed the Giants’ season back under center. The Jets will hope Taylor does not have similar involvement in their 2024 season — as that could well mean a regime change — but they have one of the game’s most experienced QB2s ready to go in the event Rodgers suffers another injury.

Taylor, 34, is coming off a season in which a rib injury required hospitalization. This reminded of the lung puncture that ended his brief run as Chargers starter in 2020. The 2023 injury led to DeVito’s debut. Taylor later expressed disappointment he did not get the call upon returning from IR. But Brian Daboll moved him back into action on Christmas; the veteran ignited the Giants’ offense and started the final two games. For his career, Taylor now has 58 starts; he is 28-28-1 in those games.

The Ravens, Bills, Browns, Chargers, Texans, Giants and now Jets have employed the former sixth-round pick, who impressed a points during his previous AFC East cameo — a three-year starter stay in Buffalo. At a different point in his career, Taylor will come off the market and give the Jets better insurance — after Woody Johnson went so far as to say the 2023 team lacked a backup quarterback. Wilson remains on the Jets’ roster, but be it via trade or release, the former No. 2 overall pick will be gone soon.

Giants To Turn Back To Tyrod Taylor As Starting QB

After making a Christmas Day relief effort, Tyrod Taylor will return to action for the Giants. Brian Daboll confirmed the team will move Tommy DeVito back to the bench and go with Taylor against the Rams in Week 17.

The Giants had wanted to look at DeVito for a possible backup role down the line, and the team gave the popular rookie six starts. It took Taylor breaking four ribs to move DeVito into the lineup, though. Daniel Jones‘ top backup going into the past two seasons, Taylor lost his job to a rookie for a fourth time in six years. But the free agent-to-be will have a chance to continue his audition Sunday.

Numerous starters going down due to injury this season could make this an important audition for Taylor, should the NFL’s QB2 market balloon come 2024. Taylor joins a number of veteran backups headed for free agency. With the Giants not expected to re-sign the 13th-year veteran, he is set to continue submitting tape for other teams to evaluate.

Taylor, 34, expressed disappointment when the Giants activated him from IR and kept DeVito in place as their starter. A three-year Bills starter, Taylor has certainly grown accustomed to teams making similar choices. Baker Mayfield replaced him early in the 2018 season, and a pregame injection mishap led to Justin Herbert‘s rise in Los Angeles two years later. Davis Mills usurped Taylor with the Texans in 2021. DeVito represented the most unlikely candidate to jump Taylor on a depth chart, being a UDFA who had petitioned the NCAA for an extra year in college. That being denied led the ex-Illinois and Syracuse starter to the Big Apple.

Daboll initially did not let DeVito throw much once he replaced an injured Taylor against the Jets, but the second-year Giants HC soon loosened the reins. En route to a popularity surge, DeVito has quarterbacked the Giants to three wins. But he struggled in losses to the Saints and Eagles, taking sacks at a high rate as the Giants fell behind by multiple scores in each contest.

The Commanders’ decision to bench Sam Howell stands to be more important for the team’s post-2023 future. This DeVito benching likely does not affect a potential future starter. Jones has been expected to return as Big Blue’s starter for 2024, and the fifth-year veteran is aiming to recover from this ACL tear by training camp. That is not a lock, and GM Joe Schoen mentioned a QB addition as being necessary due to Jones’ injury.

It will be interesting to see how closely the Giants are linked to QB prospects in the draft, as Jones’ contract effectively ensures he will be a Giant in 2024. (The team currently sits fifth on the 2024 draft board.) DeVito can be kept through 2026, via ERFA and RFA tenders, but this benching makes it a bit early to project that far ahead regarding the local product.

Latest On Giants’ Tommy DeVito Plans

The Saints pumped the brakes on Tommy DeVito‘s recent run, sacking him seven times in a one-sided Week 15 loss. Absorbing a concerning number of sacks is nothing new for DeVito, but the Giants had entered their Superdome date on a three-game win streak.

Brian Daboll confirmed DeVito remains the team’s starter over Tyrod Taylor. The Giants activated Taylor from IR before their Week 14 win over the Packers but will continue to evaluate DeVito for 2024. With Taylor in the final weeks of his two-year Giants contract, NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo notes (video link) the team is using this window to see if DeVito can be its backup next season.

DeVito’s recent stretch has complicated matters for the Giants. Following Daniel Jones‘ ACL tear, Taylor suffered four broken ribs. This left a UDFA rookie — one Daboll kept on a tight leash in an ugly loss to the Jets that featured almost nothing but handoffs on the Giants’ part — piloting a team that hovered near the top of the 2024 draft board. The ensuing three DeVito-quarterbacked wins leave the Giants at 5-9. The NFL has five 5-9 teams, creating a pivotal stretch — for draft positioning, at least — over the final three weeks. But the team is no longer a realistic candidate to land a top-two pick. This gives Jones a smoother runway toward a return as the Giants’ unquestioned starter.

DeVito is not a serious threat to supplant Jones, Garafolo adds, and the recently re-signed starter is aiming to return from his ACL tear by training camp. That would solve some problems for the Giants, who did not exactly see encouraging work from their $40MM-per-year passer before his injury. But GM Joe Schoen said the team would look to add a quarterback in the offseason. DeVito’s improvements may have adjusted the team’s thinking here, but with Taylor heading toward free agency, the team would at least need another arm for 2024. DeVito’s final games may determine if the Giants target a true backup option or a third-stringer-type presence.

Taylor has now been benched by four teams since 2018. The Browns sat their trade pickup for No. 1 pick Baker Mayfield, while the pregame injection snafu in Los Angeles introduced the NFL world to Justin Herbert in 2020. The Texans began their Deshaun Watson healthy-scratch year with Taylor under center, but Davis Mills eventually replaced him. Taylor had operated as Jones’ backup, but the rib injury brought in DeVito. Taylor expressed disappointment about Daboll’s decision, and the journeyman QB is expected to depart soon.

DeVito, who admittedly has just one 200-yard passing performance in five starts, showing enough to be considered a long-term QB2 would help the Giants a bit; he is tied to a league-minimum deal. DeVito’s extended look as a starter has also cost Taylor a bit of dough. Taylor carried $1MM in 2023 playing-time and performance incentives. Reaching the 40% and 50% snap thresholds would have provided him $250K apiece, per The Athletic’s Dan Duggan. A Taylor 92.5 passer rating and 65% completion rate would also lead to $250K apiece. The 34-year-old veteran, however, has only attempted 91 passes this season.

This surprising DeVito storyline came to fruition in part because he turned down opportunities to join the Commanders (as a UDFA) and the Patriots (as a practice squad arm post-training camp). The New Jersey native transferred from Syracuse to Illinois in 2022 and had hoped the NCAA would grant him a waiver to play in 2023, which would have made him a rare seventh-year senior. Once that did not go through, Illinois HC Bret Bielema — a Giants assistant under Joe Judge in 2020 — helped convince DeVito to turn down multiple other opportunities after the Giants waived him following training camp, the New York Post’s Ryan Dunleavy notes.

DeVito’s decision to stick around on the Giants’ practice squad could result in him becoming a long-term part of the team’s future, but he will probably need to impress over the team’s final three games to both hold off Taylor and show team brass he can be a true backup to Jones.

Giants Activate Tyrod Taylor; Tommy DeVito To Start In Week 14

DECEMBER 11: Taylor will be in uniform Monday night. The Giants used one of their remaining injury activations to bring Taylor back onto the 53-man roster. Despite DeVito looking overmatched early in his starter run, the Giants have stuck with the rookie UDFA, who has shown some improvement. Taylor expressed disappointment about not returning to a starting role, but he will back up DeVito tonight against the Packers. The 34-year-old QB suffered four broken ribs earlier this season.

DECEMBER 5: While Taylor will likely be activated in time for the Giants’ upcoming Monday night game, head coach Brian Daboll said (via Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News) it will be DeVito starting for the fifth straight contest. The latter will receive at least one more look as a No. 1 to close out the season.

DECEMBER 4: The Giants will soon have a quarterback decision to make. Tyrod Taylor will be designated for return from injured reserve this week, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. The move has indeed taken place today, per a team announcement.

The move will allow Taylor to return to the practice field as the Giants return from their bye week. The 34-year-old will have 21 days to be activated or revert to season-ending IR. With Daniel Jones out for the season, the Giants have been forced to rely on undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito over the past four games in the wake of Taylor’s rib injury. The latter is now set to return to the lineup in the near future, though.

It came out last month that Taylor expected to return to action after New York’s bye week, so today’s update comes as little surprise. The journeyman has made three starts in 2023, his second season with the Giants. Taylor – like each of the team’s other quarterbacks – was unable to guide New York to significant offensive production during his time at the helm, but he will provide experience and consistency in contrast to DeVito, who has gone 2-2 as a starter.

On the other hand, the latter could be deemed to have more upside than Taylor, a factor which could weigh into the Giants’ decision on their pecking order at the QB spot. The final weeks of a lost campaign could be used to evaluate DeVito, whose play over the past two weeks has been much better than his initial NFL action. The 25-year-old drew interest from at least two other teams after the draft, but his decision to sign with the Giants has proven to be a shrewd one so far.

Taylor is a pending free agent, so the final weeks of the season would give him an opportunity to boost his market on a new Giants pact or one which would send him elsewhere. DeVito could likewise play his way into the QB2 role for 2024 by continuing to show promise if he gets the nod to finish the campaign. New York has the ability to move on from Jones’ $160MM extension signed in March at the end of next year, so plenty of pressure will be on him to show improvement once he returns to action. How the team handles the backup spot will be a storyline to watch as well, though, with the upcoming Taylor-DeVito decision representing an important choice for the team in the immediate future.

NFL Injury Roundup: Jefferson, Herbert, Hamilton

Justin Jefferson‘s return from injured reserve may not last long. In Jefferson’s first game back from the IR-stint caused by a nagging hamstring injury, the Vikings wide receiver was knocked out of the game early with a separate injury.

While cutting across the middle of the field on a deep slant, Jefferson leapt up, arms extended, in an attempt to grab a high pass from quarterback Joshua Dobbs. While Jefferson was fully exposed in the process of the catch, Raiders safety Marcus Epps delivered a big shot to Jefferson’s rib cage from the side.

It didn’t take long for the team to rule Jefferson out for the remainder of the game with a chest injury. According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, Minnesota decided to transport Jefferson to a local hospital in Las Vegas. While perhaps not indicative of the worst-case scenario, the Vikings are likely just acting out of an abundance of caution.

At 6-6, the Vikings are one of a handful of NFC teams on the boundary of playoff contention, even without Jefferson for the last eight weeks. If Jefferson’s chest injury is not too painful to overcome, he would be a great asset in a playoff push to close the season.

Here are a few other injury updates from around the league:

  • The Chargers are facing an uphill battle in their attempts to remain in playoff contention. Things won’t get any easier as starting quarterback Justin Herbert was ruled out of today’s game with a finger injury, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. With Herbert out, backup quarterback Easton Stick has entered the game for his first game action since the 2020 season. Since starting in place of an injured Tyrod Taylor in Week 2 of his rookie season, Herbert has not missed a single start in his career. If Herbert’s finger keeps him out for more than a few days, with Los Angeles facing a short week, Stick could see his first ever NFL start in Vegas this Thursday.
  • Ravens do-it-all safety Kyle Hamilton was forced to leave today’s overtime win over the Rams with a knee injury. He had sat out a couple of plays after initially tweaking his knee before returning to the field of play earlier in the game. A few drives later, he would not return and was ruled out for the rest of the game. According to Schefter, the plan is for Hamilton to undergo an MRI scan tomorrow in order to determine the extent of the injury. Baltimore is set up well with Marcus Williams and Geno Stone at safety, but Hamilton lines up in so many places on the defense that he would be virtually impossible to replace with a single player if he’s forced to miss any time.

NFC East Notes: Eagles, Leonard, Cowboys, Giants, Commanders, Del Rio

Shaquille Leonard‘s free agency decision brought additional intrigue due to its NFC East-only nature, and Jerry Jones said during an interview with 105.3 The Fan (h/t The Athletic’s Jon Machota) the chase did not come down to money. The Colts still owe Leonard $6.1MM guaranteed for the rest of this year. The sixth-year linebacker will collect $416K in prorated base salary from the Eagles, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. That checks in above the veteran minimum, and Yates adds the Eagles included a $100K incentive and $17K per game in roster bonuses.

Leonard played 2 1/2 seasons on a five-year, $98.5MM accord — one that topped the ILB market until the Ravens’ Roquan Smith deal earlier this year — but saw two 2022 back surgeries impact his career. Visiting both the Cowboys and Eagles (ahead of the NFC East powers’ rematch Sunday), Leonard said (via AllPhly.com’s Zach Berman) his bond with Nick Sirianni played a key role in the Eagles choice. Sirianni was the Colts’ OC from 2018-20, Leonard’s first three NFL seasons (all of which resulted in All-Pro honors). He will attempt to recapture that form ahead of another free agency run in 2024.

Here is the latest from the NFC East:

Tyrod Taylor Likely To Return This Season

While Daniel Jones‘ injury placed the Giants in the unexpected position to target a high-end replacement in the 2024 draft, the team only moved into realistic range for such an aspiration due to Tyrod Taylor‘s absence. Taylor’s rib injury left Tommy DeVito as the last man standing for the Giants, who have sunk to 2-8 during the rookie UDFA’s time at the controls.

DeVito will make another start in Week 11, but the Giants are not closing the book on Taylor. The veteran backup said he does not expect this rib ailment to end his season, and ESPN.com’s Jordan Raanan notes the second-year Giants QB2 appears likely to return following the team’s Week 13 bye.

The Giants placed Taylor on IR before their Week 9 game, meaning Week 14 will be the earliest he can return. The injury led to the 13th-year veteran being hospitalized, and it brought back memories of the injection snafu in Los Angeles, which ushered in Justin Herbert in September 2020. Taylor resurfaced with the Texans in 2021, opening the season as the rebuilding team’s starter while Deshaun Watson began a full season as a healthy scratch. Taylor, 34, has settled onto the backup tier. And his Giants contract expires at season’s end. But he could suddenly be an X-factor in the race for the 2024 top picks.

NFL teams do not make a habit of framing stretch runs around tanking for draft positioning, a process that impacts NBA lottery teams’ plans annually. But clubs do rest veterans at points. The Jaguars sat rookie-year dynamo James Robinson late in the 2020 season, and the Bears rested Justin Fields in Week 18 of last season. Both teams ended up securing the No. 1 overall pick the following year.

The most memorable tanking act in recent NFL history affected the Giants, as the Eagles pulled Jalen Hurts during a competitive Week 17 game against Washington. Doug Pederson inserting Nate Sudfeld effectively ended Philly’s effort to win, thus handing Washington the NFC East title. With a 6-10 Giants team in the strange position of being on the cusp of the playoffs with a Washington loss, Raanan adds team brass was understandably not happy with how the Eagles proceeded that night. Philly ended up with the No. 6 overall pick, which it traded to Miami for a 2022 first-rounder.

The difference in the Giants’ offensive capabilities with Taylor (56 career starts) at the helm vs. DeVito certainly stands to be impactful enough it will be a storyline to monitor over the season’s final five weeks. If the season ended today, the Giants would hold the No. 2 overall pick. GM Joe Schoen was recently spotted at a USC-Washington game earlier this month.

Although the guarantees in the Giants’ Jones four-year, $160MM Jones extension will leave the team no choice but to keep him in 2024, the club is not expected to pass on drafting Caleb Williams or Drake Maye if the opportunity presents itself in April. That will leave the Giants with a big-picture decision: keep playing DeVito (or one of their other bottom-end QBs) or activate Taylor off IR despite the latter not being in the team’s long-term plans.

As Jones will be back in 2024, The Athletic’s Dan Duggan adds Taylor is likely to be too pricey for the Giants next year (subscription required). Taylor signed a two-year, $11MM deal in 2022, helping the Giants rectify the mistake they made in replacing 2020 QB2 Colt McCoy with Mike Glennon. It would seem the Giants will have a call to make following their bye week, but as of now, Taylor is on track to be back on the 53-man roster in December.

Giants Add Jacob Eason To Practice Squad

The Giants’ season is currently circling the drain as a 2-7 start has now been compounded with the season-ending ACL injury of starting quarterback Daniel Jones. With Jones out and primary backup passer Tyrod Taylor still on injured reserve with a rib cage injury for the next three games, at least, New York is adding an arm to their stable in the form of young journeyman Jacob Eason on a practice squad deal, per Dan Salomone, managing editor of Giants.com.

Eason has been on the Giants’ radar for a while now, working out with them in minicamp back in June, according to The Athletic’s Dan Duggan, and returning for a tryout today, as well, per ESPN’s Jordan Raanan. Despite having been rostered by four other teams since being drafted in the fourth-round by Indianapolis four years ago, Eason has only appeared in games for the Colts and Panthers. In one game each for either team in the past two seasons, the 25-year-old has seen extremely limited time completing just 5 of 10 pass attempts for 84 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions in just 12 offensive snaps.

Eason likely isn’t coming in to save the day as a starter, or at least not right away. According to Pat Leonard of New York Daily News, head coach Brian Daboll told the media that, with Taylor not certain to return at any point this season, the current plan at quarterback is undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito as the starter, along with getting practice squad veteran backup passer Matt Barkley “up to speed.” Daboll also plans to communicate more with general manager Joe Schoen about possibilities at the position.

The sum of DeVito’s NFL experience has come in the past two weeks as he served replacement duty for both Taylor and Jones in consecutive games. After only completing two of seven pass attempts for -1 yards in his debut, DeVito showed more poise this weekend, going 15 of 20 for 175 yards, while throwing one touchdown and two interceptions. Barkley hasn’t appeared in an NFL game since 2020 and hasn’t made a start since 2018. Over his career, Barkley holds a completion percentage of 58.4 and a touchdown-interception ratio of 11-22.

Neither option likely provides Giants fans with much hope for turning around their season. Nor does Eason, probably, for that matter. Regardless, in comes Eason to provide some depth and experience at the most important offensive position.