Joe Schoen Vows to Leave No Stone Unturned in Search for Ideal Giants Quarterback

Without a legitimate quarterback to run the offense, an NFL team might as well throw in the towel before even setting foot on the field.

This fact hasn’t been lost on New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen, who, for the first time since taking over the franchise's direction in 2022, is in a position where he has to find the right man to line up under center if he wants to keep his job.

“I think it’s the most important position in football,” Schoen told reporters Tuesday morning at the NFL combine. “We have one (Tommy DeVito) on our roster right now, and I think that's important where however we address it, that the play has to be better than what it’s been.

The Giants are in this current conundrum thanks to their dependence on Daniel Jones, whom Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll inherited from the previous regime when they accepted their respective jobs in 2022. They want to find out if Jones could flourish in Daboll’s offensive scheme.

To be fair, Jones looked like he had turned the corner in that first season, helping them reach the postseason for the first time since 2016. That, along with a depressed quarterback free agent market and the fact the Giants were drafting in the bottom third of the draft the ensuing offseason, resulted in Schoen giving Jones, the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft, a four-year, $160 million contract.

But Schoen, who in the past has admitted to having made mistakes after that first season (though not specifically pointing to the Jones contract as one), must have had some doubts about the long-term health of the quarterback position, given Jones’s injury history because he made sure to include an escape hatch after two years.

Jones's struggles, including a torn ACL in 2023, combined with injuries at the position in 2023 and 2024 led the Giants on a crazy, nightmarish odyssey that has probably left Schoen wishing that Eli Manning, who never missed a start due to injury before retiring after the 2019 season, could somehow find the fountain of football youth.

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Since that’s not going to happen, the Giants and Schoen can only continue to carefully investigate every possible option.

“It would be nice to have one guy out there that can give you the best chance to win games and stay healthy,” Schoen said. “Again, that is an important position. We need better play out of that position than what we’ve had.

“We’re going to look at vets. We’re going to look at the draft. We’re going to look at trade candidates. We’re going to look under every rock to find the best prospect for us going into the 2025 season,” he said.

Including Matthew Stafford of the Rams, whose agents were reportedly to assess his value as he continues discussions with the Rams about a new contract?

“You have to ask the Rams,” Schoen said, declining to discuss Stafford or whether the quarterback’s agents reached out to him to see what the Giants might be willing to pay if a trade were to be worked out. “He’s under contract with the Rams, so that would be a question for the Rams.”

Ok, so if not Stafford, then who? Shedeur Sanders? Cam Ward? Someone else?

“Whoever gives us the best chance to win right now,” Schoen said. “I don't know if one of those guys will be there or if there's one in this draft.

“I think we need to look at all those options, and in terms of which one's perfect right now, we're still working through that because of where we're picking, and we'll have a plan to address it.”

Joe Schoen Vows to Leave No Stone Unturned in Search for Ideal Giants Quarterback

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