With his inspiring “rags to riches” tale, Tommy DeVito, quarterback for the New York Giants, is sweeping the tristate area. With three straight victories under their belt, DeVito and the Giants are in the running to be considered for a Wild Card position should they continue to win.
What qualities of DeVito’s do you think make him a great match for this team? And how has the brain trust of the Giants adjusted the offense to play to DeVito’s strengths? We spoke with Mark Schofield, a quarterbacks analyst who has written for SB Nation and USA Today, about all of this and more.
In the most recent episode of Locked On Giants, Scofield also discussed the upcoming quarterback class, why he believes Daniel Jones’s game has deteriorated, and much more.
What have you witnessed from the DeVito match? What qualities does he possess, what areas needs improvement, and what areas does he lack?
Schofield: I believe a large portion of it stems from the reasons he was not selected. First of all, he wasn’t surrounded by a lot of talent in the circumstances he was in at Syracuse and Illinois. They demonstrated some athleticism and a little pocket movement skills in addition to making some excellent passes for each of those teams.
However, it remained somewhat of a project scenario. He still had a long way to go before he could be considered an NFL starter, much less a backup.
Furthermore, he will need to make certain improvements if he want to be considered for this position in the future. Although I believe his arm skill to be adequate, there is always room for improvement. And I believe I’ll be sort of keeping an eye on that moving ahead.
Although we’ve discussed over the years that quarterbacks should all be able to make decisions more quickly, I believe he’s been excellent in that area and that there’s always room for improvement.
Additionally, it’s important to keep an eye on the notion of what he might do next. In a way, the teams have witnessed it. We’ve seen this before, you know. This season, Josh Dobbs of the Vikings is an example of that; when you first arrive, everything is kind of fresh.
Then, following two or three games, they say, “Oh, alright, so this is what we should search for.” This is what we should anticipate. Teams currently have a few weeks to evaluate Tommy DeVito and the conceptual work that Mike Kafka and Brian Daboll are doing with him in the passing and even run games.
How does he react, and what do they do? I’m going to be watching that as well. However, his pocket movement is something that really sticks out in my opinion. You’ve witnessed him chopping down sacks. But other from that, his movement is good. He is releasing the ball fast. He has also, in my opinion, been adequately aggressive.
What changes have the Giants made to their game plan from what they ran with Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor to better fit what Tommy does well?
Schofield: With Daniel Jones, there were some variances in the way they employed run game aspects from the previous season, but Jones appeared to be operating outside of the game plan and script at the beginning of the current one. They’ve worked with Jones extensively, and they completed some of this work with him, especially last year, but it appeared to be somewhat absent this year as well.
But considering the schemes he ran at Syracuse and Illinois, DeVito may be a little more experienced with wheel routes, leak routes, stuff out of the backfield, off of play action, or even direct to rock back. You have undoubtedly witnessed that.
I believe that they have somewhat—I hesitate to say ‘dialed down’ the game plan, but you can see it especially in the last few weeks given those sack statistics and the emphasis on either finishing strong or simply flying off.
And I believe that a big part of that is the emphasis on saying, “Okay, look, throw it away, take off, or do something different if it’s not there initially, if you don’t like your first two reads.” Because of the protection concerns we’ve encountered, we don’t expect you to make it to the fifth read of a play. In a way, look after the football and yourself.
You know, 2nd and-10 and 2nd and-9 are good, but what about 2nd and 17? We are not currently designed for that. Thus, make an effort to avoid such long, second, and third circumstances. That has, in my opinion, been emphasized, and it has undoubtedly benefited him because it leaves the entire playbook open.
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