Should Giants Pursue Mitchell Trubisky as a Backup Quarterback?

In January, New York Giants co-owner John Mara told reporters he'd be surprised if quarterback Daniel Jones isn't the team's starter come September.

Jones, as is widely known, is still recovering from a sprained neck that cost him the final six weeks of last season. While there remains a lot of optimism that he'll be good to go by the start of their 2022 campaign, until such time when Jones gets the green light from the medical staff to resume contact activities, is still very much a question mark.

That alone makes the need to get a solid "backup" quarterback into their facility an even higher priority than what might have been the case in recent years.

Assuming Jones does get the green light, there are enough signs that the team will move forward with him as the starter if he is healthy.

As Mara also noted during the round of introductory press conferences in January, Jones hasn't exactly been put into the best possible environment to succeed.

Not only has he not had a stable offensive line and reliable (and healthy) playmakers, but he's also gone through two different offensive systems, both of which were vastly different from each other since turning pro.

And Daboll, in trying to put an offensive scheme together, invited Jones to provide his input regarding plays he likes to run dating back to his time at Duke.

Thus unless Jones's neck doesn't cooperate, the plan does appear to move forward with him as their starter this year.

During last week's combine, word began to swirl that the Giants might make a run at Trubisky, who spent last season backing up Josh Allen in Buffalo, where general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll worked last season.

But would such a move make sense for the Giants, who are expected to have competition for Trubisky, including the Steelers, a team that can likely promise Trubisky a starting job and the money that goes along with it?

That all depends on where Trubisky views himself at this point in his career. Is he content with being a backup, or does he aspire to be a starter again?

And let's talk about money. For the Giants to potentially make something work with Trubisky, they could harken back to the 2004 off-season when they signed quarterback Kurt Warner to keep the seat warm until Eli Manning was ready.

Warner's deal was for one year and $3 million. But he also had a second-year player option worth $6 million in which if he satisfied several easily attainable conditions, he'd activate the option.

The signing bonus Warner received was prorated over the two years, which helped the Giants with the cap and enabled them to pay Warner low-level starter money.

So if the Giants wanted to make it work with Trubisky money-wise, they could, though if Trubisky wanted assurance he'd be the starter, that's where things get a little sticky.

If the Giants are not convinced that Jones is the guy or if his neck is an issue, then signing Trubisky for low-level starter money does make sense for the Giants, who by the way probably don't want to have to go down that road given all the other pressing needs they have.

Having to pay Trubisky around $8 - $10 million for 2022 would be a luxury the Giants really can't afford, even if they included the player option year or playing time incentives to help boost the deal's value.

While there would be nothing wrong with giving Jones a little nudge in the competition department--he hasn't been challenged for his job since being drafted--it's all in how the Giants were to handle such a competition.

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