LOCKER ROOM DRAMA: Daniel Jones and Giants Had ‘Awkward Ties’ Before His Stunning Benching.Cau

The New York Giants made the move to bench Daniel Jones coming out of its Week 11 bye in favor of Tommy DeVito, a move that likely foreshadows the end of the Jones’ era with the organization.

Even before that decision, however, the relationship between the sides reportedly had grown “a bit awkward,” multiple sources told Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports, “especially with the organization publicly exploring other quarterback options, including during Hard Knocks this past offseason.”

“It was like flirting with someone new while your date is still at the table,” a source told Schultz.

It was very clear on Hard Knocks that the Giants were interested in adding a rookie quarterback had they been able to move up in the draft:

The Giants, of course, stayed put at No. 6 and ended up selecting wide receiver Malik Nabers, who looks like a star-in-the-making. But the Giants toyed around with prospective trades up the board enough that it was easy to speculate that the front office wasn’t sold on Jones as the long-term answer.

Awkward for relationships within the building, perhaps, but that context made the decision to ultimately bench Jones entirely predictable.

Publicly, the Giants can justify the decision based on his 2-8 record this season, 24-44-1 record in parts of six seasons and his mediocre stats in 2024 (2,070 passing yards, eight touchdowns, seven interceptions, 63.3 completion percentage), which largely mirror his generally mediocre play throughout his career.

Internally, the front office was almost assuredly swayed by financial reasons, ensuring he never triggers an injury guarantee in his contract:

Head coach Brian Daboll maintained that the decision was a football one.

“The coaches and I met every day last week and into the weekend and we evaluate the performance of the players,” he told reporters. “We made a decision based off that to go with Tommy.”

But if DeVito—who has thrown for 1,101 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions in nine career games, completing 64 percent of his passes and leading the team to a 3-3 mark in his six starts—really gave the Giants the better chance to win over Jones, why has he spent the majority of the season inactive as the third-stringer while Jones started and Drew Lock served as his backup? Why move Jones all the way to QB3 instead of keeping him as DeVito’s backup?

It’s impossible to separate the business implications of Jones’ benching from the decision to do so. If he had been excellent this season and the Giants weren’t already out of the playoff picture, there might be some hope yet that he could be the franchise quarterback going forward and he’d still be starting. But the Giants now seem resigned to a changing of the guard at the position this offseason, making it illogical to risk incurring his injury guarantees in a campaign that is already lost.

From the offseason until now, it’s a decision that has felt inevitable.