Do the Giants already have their long-term answer at QB?

It’s been a weird NFL season, to say the least. 

Numerous star players have had year-ending injuries. Many coaches have been fired. And it’s also produced a sign that the apocalypse may be nigh: the Patriots are terrible and the Lions are actually good. 

Above all, it’s been the Season of the Backup Quarterback. Due to injury, bad play, or both, over half the teams in the league have used backup QBs this year.

While the meteoric rise (pun intended) of Joshua Dobbs of the Minnesota Vikings has been a fun story, there’s another backup QB who deserves some attention: Tommy DeVito. Sure, he won’t be leaving the Earth anytime soon — or perhaps even his parents’ house, for that matter — but he’s one of the few sparks the moribund New York Giants have had this year.

DeVito has so far only started three games, but the results have been promising. After getting shellacked by the Dallas Cowboys in Week 10, DeVito led Big Blue to two straight wins — something that didn’t happen when Daniel Jones was starting this season. In those two games, he went 35-of-51 for 437 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions.

Clearly, it’s way too early to talk about DeVito in the same company as, say, Brock Purdy, who also took over for an injured starter, but let’s do it anyway. Here are their numbers from their first three starts:

                        DeVito: 49/78, 523 yards, 6 TDs, 1 INT

                        Purdy: 48/69, 636 yards, 6 TDs, 1 INT

Perhaps the best part of the DeVito saga is that he’s from New Jersey — in case you couldn’t tell by his name. He grew up in Cedar Grove, which is a mere 11 miles from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford where the Giants play. Fans have embraced him in large part because he seems like he could easily be out in the parking lot with them tailgating before a game instead of on the field warming up.

DeVito doesn’t shy away from the fact that he lives with his parents. His father owns a heating and plumbing business. His mother makes sure her boy is well-fed, and is the primary reason why he’s been dubbed “Tommy Cutlets.” He’s also humble. When his name was announced in the introductions before the home game against the Patriots, DeVito said “I kinda blacked out. I didn’t know if people were cheering or booing, or what was going on. It could have been anything, but I was just locked in, enjoying it.” 

With the Giants having little to play for the rest of the season, DeVito will have his chance to prove that he belongs. Many people — including former star QB Boomer Esiason — think the potential is there. No matter how DeVito plays down the stretch, this of course won’t prevent the Giants from drafting a top QB if they get the chance or trying to get Jones back on the field because he’s a huge financial investment. But, right now, none of that concerns Tommy Cutlets.

“I’m gonna go out and try to prove myself every single time I step on the field, whether I would have been drafted No. 1 overall or undrafted as I was,” he said. “That status and all that doesn’t really mean anything, but how you go out and play means something.”