Action Will Speak Louder Than Words for Giants on Quarterback Decision

The Giants have tried to downplay the need for a quarterback, but there are too many signs to ignore that suggest otherwise.

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen is in his third year of playing the word game with the media regarding personnel plans centered around the draft.

Schoen has been meticulous in trying to create a smoke screen to mask the team’s intentions, especially regarding perhaps the most important position on the roster: quarterback. And he was doing so again on Thursday when he spoke at his pre-draft press conference, where he was asked questions about the position.

Schoen, who has never had a bad word to say about anyone, at least publicly, didn’t deviate from his history. He praised incumbent Daniel Jones for his work ethic, especially these days as Jones pushes himself to get back as quickly as possible from a torn ACL.

He reiterated that Jones will be the starter once he is healthy, even stating that he would be comfortable going into 2024 with Jones, Drew Lock, and Tomy DeVito as the quarterbacks.

Of Jones, he said, “One of the things, when you go back, and you watch the 2022 season or all of his throws in 2022 like he was a 25-year-old player that played at a high level, and we won 10 games and won a playoff game. I'm still confident in Daniel, the way he's wired, and what he showed us in 2022. 

“Again, did we have the best start to the season last year? Absolutely not. Anything that could have gone wrong, it seems like it did early on between injuries and some other things. I've still got a lot of confidence in Daniel.” 

Schoen, who mentioned that the team needs to score more, failed to mention that the Giants averaged just 21.5 points per game in 2022, a figure that dipped to 15.6 points per game last year. 

But as the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. The Giants have reportedly done in-depth work on at least six quarterbacks in this year’s class, quite a task for a team whose general manager says is not “one or two” players away.

And Schoen, remember, comes from the Brandon Beane school up in Buffalo, Beane having once told Albert Breer of SI.com that not only is the quarterback the most important position on a team, but one a team establishes consistency at the position—something the Giants haven’t had during the Jones era—it becomes easier to fill in the gaps around that signal caller and give your roster a chance to be a consistent contender. 

So, would the Giants put all their eggs in the basket of an oft-injured quarterback who, other than for two quarters in the Week 2 game against the Arizona Cardinals, looked lost?

If the Giants are going to remove players from their draft board whose injury histories are concerning, how can they sit there and convince the world that they have confidence that a quarterback who has had two neck injuries in three years and who is coming off a torn ACL to boot?

They can’t. But if the injury argument isn’t enough and you’re of the school of thought that Jones got a raw deal because he didn’t have Saquon Barkley, tight end Darren Waller, or a consistent offensive line (which underwent its most extensive renovation this off-season, including the hiring of a new coach in Carmen Bricillo) last season, what's going to happen this year if Jones is at the helm of the offense and if struggles again?

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