The New York Giants are playing a lost season. They sit in last place in the NFC East at a lowly 2-8 and recently made a change at quarterback during the bye week, officially benching sixth-year starter Daniel Jones. The Giants will be rolling with third-string quarterback Tommy DeVito to finish the season, skipping over the backup Drew Lock.
This move has been met with controversy and raised eyebrows among fans. If the Giants are still trying to be competitive and win games, why would they skip to the third-stringer to start under center? With their 2025 draft pick hanging in the balance, some are wondering if winning is still the top priority for the Giants — including star pass-rusher Brian Burns.
Brian Burns doesn’t know if winning is still the Giants’ main objective
Burns is the latest Giants player to speak out against the team’s decision to bench Jones. When he thinks the Giants are still doing what’s best for the team to win games, Burns indicated that he wasn’t so sure:
“That’s not really my call,” Burns told Pat Leonard of the NY Daily News. “I mean, they must see something. I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
Burns’s comments echo a sentiment similar to recent comments from defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. When asked to react to the quarterback’s benching, Lawrence said he still believes Jones is the best quarterback on the Giants’ roster:
“He’s the QB1. To me, he’s the best quarterback on the team,” Lawrence said, per Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports.
With the Giants choosing to start a quarterback that the roster feels is not as good as the previous starter, it seems as though the locker room is beginning to question the team’s decision-making.
The initial belief was that the Giants were making a financial decision, benching Jones in order to avoid having to pay his $23 million injury guarantee. However, a more recent report indicates that Jones offered to waive that clause in his contract in order to keep playing, but the team decided against putting him back on the field.
It’s up to DeVito to prove the Giants’ coaching staff and front-office decision-makers right. He will get his first opportunity to do so at home on Sunday afternoon against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Winning heals all and the best way for Big Blue to put this Jones debacle behind them is to win some games and get the locker room united again.
