Giants’ Cannot Afford to Botch Quarterback Situation

The New York Giants brass is largely responsible for why the team’s quarterback situation is up in the air. And the brass has virtually no room for error in fixing it.

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen needs to get the team's quarterback situation right; if he doesn't, it will set the franchise back even further. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Life tends to be full of “what ifs,” particularly when it hasn’t gone well of late. And such has been the case for the New York Giants, who, in coming off a franchise-worst 3-14 season, have had a bunch of “what ifs” catch up with them after team co-owner John Mara made it crystal clear that he’s quickly running out of patience with the false starts and stutters in the team’s quest to climb the NFL mountain.

While even general manager Joe Schoen will admit to making mistakes in his first three seasons in charge, the what-ifs have put the Giants in a precarious situation.

The biggest one involves the quarterback. Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll inherited Daniel Jones from the previous regime, and in trying to be fair to the team’s first-round pick in 2019, they spent almost three seasons hoping that Jones would finally live up to his draft pedigree.

As we know by now, that didn’t happen. After a decent season in 2022 that resulted in a postseason berth (and which some critics will argue was also largely driven by a healthy Saquon Barkley, who alone accounted for 29% of the Giants' total yards on offense), Jones received the four-year, $160 million contract, which the Giants exited out of after ten games last season due to the quarterback’s struggles due to his ACL injury and a regression.

What’s particularly frustrating, though, about how the Giants have handled the quarterback situation is why, after clearly showing they were looking to upgrade the position during the 2024 offseason (this revelation courtesy of the now ill-advised inside look at the franchise’s dealings courtesy of Hard Knocks), the Giants didn’t take a gamble on a Spencer Rattler or an undrafted free agent from what was a talent-rich quarterback class in last year’s draft.

Fast forward to the present. The Giants quarterback room has only Tommy DeVito under contract. The 2025 quarterback draft class is sorely lacking in first-round talent. The Giants, who pick third in this year’s draft, are, again, at a crossroads where if whatever plan Schoen and Daboll presented to John Mara about how they intend to fix the franchise doesn’t pan out, they are, for what it’s worth, finished here in New York.

The Giants brass proclaimed Daniel Jones the starter once he was over an ACL injury instead of holding a competition, which they should have done in retrospect. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Here’s the biggest problem of all. By putting their eggs in the basket of Jones, they now have a dire need which, when compounded with the unspoken mandate to start winning more games, creates a pressure situation to where the temptation will be great for Schoen and Daboll to settle on a quarterback that may or may not end up being the best fit.

Unlike last year, when they at least had Jones to fall back on (based on the assumption that he’d fully recover from his ACL, which he ended up doing), the Giants, with all due respect to the scrappy DeVito, have nothing to fall back on at the position.

Making matters worse is the Giants' 2025 schedule of opponents, which, in addition to the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles (twice) and the up-and-coming Commanders (also twice), includes the NFC North, which put three teams (Lions, Vikings, and Packers) in the postseason, and the AFC West, which also put three teams (Chiefs, Chargers, and Broncos) in the postseason, one of which (Chiefs) was the other Super Bowl participant.

Add it all up, and the Giants' 2025 opponent schedule represents the most difficult of all 32 NFL teams (.574) based on last year’s results.

All of these circumstances and how they have unfolded mandate that the Giants, who have to come out with more than three wins against that slate of opponents,  will need a veteran quarterback who not only has experience winning games and performing in clutch situations but who can potentially be a part of the franchise’s fabric for at least a couple of years.

Jan 13, 2025; Glendale, AZ, USA; Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) practices before the NFC wild card game against the Minnesota Vikings at State Farm Stadium. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

That path leads to Matthew Stafford. While there is understandably some trepidation among the Giants' fan base about the Giants potentially having to part with premium draft capital and invest financially in the Rams quarterback, the Giants' current brass appears to have reached a point where past mistakes have boxed them into a corner when it comes to jumpstarting a rebuild that should have started right from the get-go and continued.  

Of course, the wild card here is just how much more patience team ownership has with the plan Schoen and Daboll presented. This year is not the best one for a team to need a quarterback in the draft, as the pickings in the first round are slim.

Then again, an argument could be made that not all first-round quarterbacks develop into long-term franchise options.

But make no mistake about it. The Giants, by basically running it back with Jones last year and not at least opening the job up to competition, created this conundrum. And if they can’t get themselves out of it, another long season will be ahead. 

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