Tommy DeVito’s Up-and-Down College Career Makes His NFL Success Even More Surprising
Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito has taken the NFL by storm, stepping in for the injured Daniel Jones to lead the team (5–8) to three straight wins and the fringes of the playoff picture.
DeVito, an undrafted rookie, hasn’t posted gaudy numbers for New York, but the team is undoubtedly playing its best football of the season with him under center. In six games (four starts), DeVito has a 3–1 record, and is completing 65.9% of his throws for 855 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions. He also has 154 rushing yards and a score.
In a year largely defined by injuries to starting quarterbacks and the play of their backups, DeVito’s quick success at the NFL has turned heads. That is certainly the case for those familiar with his college career, which began at Syracuse before he transferred and played his final season at Illinois.
After three seasons at Syracuse, Tommy DeVito finished his college career at Illinois.
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A four-star recruit out of New Jersey’s Don Bosco Prep, DeVito began his college career as a highly touted prospect with Dino Babers’s Orange. After redshirting in 2017, he made his college debut in ’18, throwing for 525 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions in seven games. He notably filled in for the injured Eric Dungey and led the team to a double-overtime win over North Carolina, 40–37, throwing for 181 yards and three touchdowns in the process.
Despite an encouraging start to his college career, DeVito struggled to put it all together once he was handed the reins following Dungey’s graduation. He threw for 2,360 yards, 19 touchdowns and just five interceptions in 2019, but the team fell short of expectations, going just 5–7. Injuries hampered DeVito, who faced significant pressure behind a struggling Syracuse offensive line, over the next two seasons. From 2020 to ’21, he made just seven total starts, and was ultimately supplanted by Mississippi State transfer Garrett Shrader.
He entered the transfer portal in ’21, landing at Illinois under Bret Bielema. There, he put together his most complete college season—2,650 passing yards, 15 touchdowns and four interceptions to lead the team to an 8–5 record and bowl appearance. The successful season featured a six-game winning streak, including October wins over Big Ten West rivals Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska. The team would struggle down the stretch, however, losing four of its final five games.
Even with a solid senior year, it wasn’t enough to land him an NFL scouting combine or Senior Bowl invite. Per the New York Post, Bielema’s familiarity with the Giants staff and Brian Daboll helped earn him an offer from New York, one he leapt at largely because of its proximity to home.
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His private quarterback coach, Tony Racioppi, believes the young QB’s up-and-down college experience has made him more resilient and serves him well in the pros.
“The way he’s wired, nothing really fazes him,” he told The Post. “That might come from his experiences at Syracuse and Illinois—being a highly touted recruit, playing early, playing well, then not playing well, then getting benched. If you can work yourself through those things, you develop a sense of self-confidence and thick skin, and it doesn’t really matter if it’s college football or the NFL.”
With every solid performance and surprising win, DeVito looks more likely to carve out a solid pro career and leave his college struggles in the past.
After beating a surging Packers team on Monday Night Football, DeVito is the toast of the town. He’ll look to guide New York to its fourth straight win next Sunday against another sub-.500 team looking to stay alive in the playoff hunt: the Saints.
