Graduate-level question surrounding Giants is who drafts in 2025, not Tommy DeVito

Move past the Drew Lock contract and tanking/selling-tickets conspiracy theories surrounding the Giants’ decision to bench Daniel Jones and start fan-favorite Tommy “Cutlets” DeVito. Here’s the graduate-level question if you’re president and CEO John Mara: Do you give Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll the opportunity to draft in 2025?

Assuming that happens after Daboll gets his DeVito spark and the Giants finish the season with promise, starting Sunday against Tampa Bay (4-6) at MetLife Stadium (1 p.m. ET, CBS), then what? Robert Mays and Conor Orr debated that scenario Tuesday on The Athletic Football Show.

“If I was Joe Schoen, what I would be trying to sell is, ‘Listen, we got a little bit ahead of ourselves with the Daniel Jones thing, collectively, us as an organization,” said Mays. “’We were not in a position where we should’ve given him the contract. But it’s not going to really hamstring us that much moving forward.’”

Mays said the Giants have accumulated a coveted core of rookies in wide receiver Malik Nabers, nickelback Dru Phillips, safety Tyler Nubin, running back Tyrone Tracy and tight end Theo Johnson. And the worst thing that happened to Schoen and Daboll might’ve been raising expectations by going 9-7-1 in 2022, their first season.

“‘Listen, we’re now on a timeline we probably should’ve been on after that 2022 season,’” Mays continued as Schoen. “’Give me a chance to find a quarterback that I can pair with Brian that’s his guy, and let’s see where we can take this thing because it is pointed in the right direction.’”

Orr said the Giants are considered one of the league’s best organizations because Mara learns from mistakes, while other owners are “caricatures of themselves.” The team’s Quest Diagnostics Training Center is also attractive for future quarterbacks – veterans, rookies or both.

“I think you would do both,” said Orr, who reminded listeners that the Giants brought in Hall of Famer Kurt Warner as a bridge for Eli Manning. “You would have to do both. Why wouldn’t you do both?

“And I don’t think it would be the worst thing in the world to pair New Quarterback X with, I don’t know, Sam Darnold. I think that’s totally understandable and workable.”

But here’s the downside of keeping Schoen and Daboll: The Giants risk becoming the Chicago Bears, who’ve fallen into a decade-old pattern of firing their coach soon after drafting a rookie quarterback. The Giants could be in that position should Schoen and Daboll finish 2025 with a losing record after they draft a quarterback high in the draft.

For now, though, the Giants look to end a five-game losing streak on Sunday against the Buccaneers, and New York has many more questions. Daboll explained the decision to bench Jones, who’s likely taken his last snap in a Giants uniform.

“We’re obviously not playing the way any of us want to play and that’s on all of us,” he said on Monday. “But felt like this was a decision that we needed to make here and try to spark things, change things up and we went and did it with Tommy.”

Despite the timing, the universal feel within the media seemed to lean in the same direction.

“What took so long?” ESPN’s Shannon Sharpe said on First Take Monday morning when the news broke. “I mean, it took the Giants like two to three years to see what everybody else has been seeing for the last three to four years: Daniel Jones isn’t it.”

Since the beginning of 2023, Jones is 3-13 over his last 16 starts, with 10 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions. Offensively, the Giants have been stuck in the mud, but DeVito added a slight spark last season. In his second start, DeVito threw three touchdown passes in a 31-19 victory over Washington. He also earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week after a Monday night victory against Green Bay.

For more information on the Giants and Buccaneers, visit the N.Y. Giants and Tampa Bay team pages at ProFootballPost.com.