The New York Giants had a great win on Sunday against the Washington Redskins, but what wasn’t great was the appearance in the second half from backup quarterback Kyle Lauletta, who didn’t exactly impress and help himself in the starting quarterback race for next season. Lauletta only threw five passes during the game, and one of them was an interception that didn’t look good on film or on the stat sheet.
But the Giants staff aren’t giving up on the Richmond rookie just yet and head coach Pat Shumur recently confirmed that the team will continue to work with him.
“There’s a lot of guys that go in, especially at the quarterback position, and don’t do well in their first outing, so we’re just going to keep working with him and keep him going. As I’ve mentioned all along, I do feel confident in both guys that could potentially back up.”
Shurmur confirmed that Lauletta will remain the backup against the Titans, but did state that it’s possible the staff will change its mind. If they do, the other option on the roster would be Alex Tanney, who has never seriously been expected to compete all season long. Shurmur did warn reporters two weeks ago, however, that they shouldn’t overlook Tanney and assume that the backup is Lauletta.
Lauletta only made his first regular season appearance less than a week ago and despite entering the season with some optimism around him in the fanbase, it’s been a rough year for him. Not only did he spend most of the season listed as inactive each game, but an arrest for dangerous driving earlier in the year put his hopes of getting playing time into further jeopardy. A bad debut with no completions and one interception didn’t help Lauletta’s case, either.
Still, good quarterbacks have had bad debuts and with the team’s playoff hopes remaining very slim, it makes sense to continue evaluating the current talent on the roster and seeing just how much quality or lack thereof the Giants will have at the quarterback position in 2019.