Last month, Giants co-owner John Mara said he doesn’t anticipate making any major changes during or after the 2024 season.
Sunday’s outcome will test his resolve. For multiple reasons. Beyond the embarrassing 30-7 home loss to the Buccaneers, multiple players called the team “soft” and questioned the effort of the team. Then, Mara got to watch former Giants running back Saquon Barkley have the best game of his career, rushing for 255 yards and adding another 47 receiving to go over 300 yards from scrimmage.
The fact that the Giants play on Thursday makes it very hard to make a change this week. However, if the Giants fail to show up on Thursday against the Cowboys, Mara might have no choice but to alter his anticipation — either when the regular season ends or on Black Friday.
However it plays out, G.M. Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll have to be wondering how things will play out. And whether one or both will be out based on how the team plays on Thursday in Dallas.
Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield might have been mocking Tommy DeVito. He might have been honoring the Giants quarterback, as Mayfield said.
It was hard to tell by Mayfield’s postgame comments.
After Mayfield hurdled Giants corner Cor’Dale Flott and scored on a 10-yard run late in the first half, he celebrated with a “Double Tommy.” DeVito, who is Italian, used his signature hand gesture last season, raising both hands and pinching his fingers together, as he quickly became a Giants fan favorite.
“It was a tribute. A tribute to Tommy,” Mayfield said with a straight face, via Jeanna Laine of ESPN. “He’s a good dude.”
Mayfield insists it was not planned.
“Most of the time, I don’t know what I’m going to do so . . . spontaneous stuff. New York fans love Tommy here, so give ‘em something they like,” Mayfield said.
Mayfield said he met DeVito at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas in February.
“He had his chain blinged out, swag walking through the casino. It was awesome,” Mayfield said. “It was like a movie scene, honestly. He’s got that swag, man.”
DeVito was unaware of Mayfield’s celebration until after the game, but he said he did not take offense.
“They were having a good game. They celebrated,” DeVito said. “It is what it is. Kind of happened last year. It’s going to happen, I guess.”
Unless someone claims quarterback Daniel Jones on waivers, he’ll become a free agent at 4:00 p.m. ET on Monday. So what will he do next?
One option, we’re told, will be to sign with a practice squad and not a 53-man roster. That approach would allow Jones to possibly join the active roster of a different team, if for example the starter gets injured.
The rules permit that. Any player on any practice squad can sign with the active roster of any other team, at any time.
It’s a great way to have it both ways. He instantly joins a new team, and he preserves the ability to go to another team, if the need arises.
The Giants were on the wrong end of another lopsided loss on Sunday and things were just as ugly in the locker room as they were on the field.
Rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers ripped the team for being “soft as fuck” in their 30-7 loss to the Buccaneers and said it was obvious that quarterback Daniel Jones wasn’t the issue with the team based on how things played out against Tampa. Some of Nabers’s older teammates shared similar sentiments.
Edge rusher Brian Burns said, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com, that he spoke to the team after a performance he described as “ass” and left tackle Jermaine Eluemunor said that he doesn’t “think everybody is giving 100 percent.” Defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence said his frustration is at a 10 and used the same word to describe the team as Nabers.
“We played soft and they beat the shit out of us today,” Eluemunor said, via SNY.
Lawrence suggested he wasn’t on board with the decision to bench Jones this week and Jones was waived on Saturday. He seems likely to wind up with a new team and it will likely be one with a lot more to play for than the Giants, who will have to balance an unhappy locker room with a short turnaround to their Thanksgiving game against the Cowboys.
Anyone hoping that benching and releasing quarterback Daniel Jones would relate in a turnaround for the Giants was given a rude awakening on Sunday.
The Buccaneers scored the first 30 points of the game on their way to a 30-7 loss that dropped the Giants to 2-9 on the season. After the game, rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers didn’t hold back the frustration that he’s feeling about the way things are going for the team.
Nabers called the Giants “soft as fuck” while talking to reporters in the locker room after the game and said he felt he couldn’t do anything to help the team avoid its sixth-straight loss because the ball never came his way before the result was in hand.
“I mean, it’s just soft man,” Nabers said, via Ryan Novozinsky of NJ.com. “I’m tired of going out there and losing. It’s just that. I mean, I don’t know bro. I go out there, first and second quarter, and I don’t get the ball and start getting targets at the end. I mean, I can’t do nothing. Start getting the ball at 30-0 — what do you want me to do?”
Nabers finished the day with six catches for 64 yards and said he doesn’t know why the team is in such a bad place. He did share that he doesn’t think it has anything to do with Jones or Tommy Devito.
“Obviously it ain’t the quarterback,” Nabers said. “Same outcome we had when DJ was the quarterback. Take a look. Take a look: It ain’t the quarterback.”
The Giants have six more games to go and it looks like they have a lot to figure out if they want to keep things from falling apart off the field as well.
Benching Daniel Jones didn’t end the Giants’ losing streak, but it did help the Buccaneers put an end to theirs.
The Bucs ran for four touchdowns and shut the Tommy DeVito-led Giants offense out for the first 30 minutes of play at MetLife Stadium. The second half saw the Giants find some offensive momentum, but the game was already in Tampa’s pocket and it ended as a 30-7 Bucs win.
The victory came after four straight losses for the Bucs and it leaves them with a 5-6 record with a trip to Carolina on deck. They have the Raiders at home after that, so the Bucs have a real chance to right the ship heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
Baker Mayfield playing like he did on Sunday would help that cause. Mayfield was 24-of-30 for 294 yards and he ran for a touchdown late in the first half. Mayfield suffered a stinger in the fourth quarter, but returned to the game after a quick trip to the sideline medical tent.
Rachaad White, Bucky Irving, and Sean Tucker also ran for touchdowns and the Bucs piled up 450 yards of offense on the way to the win. Mike Evans caught five passes for 68 yards in his return from a hamstring injury and Irving had six catches for 64 yards to go with 12 carries for 87 yards.
DeVito was 21-of-31 for 189 yards and he ran seven times for 32 yards in his first start of the season. He also took some serious hits while being sacked four times over the course of the afternoon, but only missed one snap after needing medical attention in the fourth quarter.
That should leave him on track to play against the Cowboys when the Giants try to end their six-game losing streak on Thanksgiving.
Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield gave the team an injury scare during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s rout of the Giants.
Mayfield tried to recover a fumble after a botched handoff and his head hit Buccaneers right tackle Luke Goedeke’s leg. Mayfield went to be checked out in the sideline medical tent and was called questionable to return with a stinger, but he returned to the game without missing a snap.
The Buccaneers lead 30-7 with less than six minutes to play in the game.
The Bucs saw wide receiver Chris Godwin suffer a season-ending injury while playing late in a lost cause against the Ravens, but Mayfield’s quick return may keep head coach Todd Bowles from answering too many pointed questions about keeping stars in games that have already been decided.
The Buccaneers are rolling toward a win, but they did suffer a blow to their defense.
Safety Jordan Whitehead has been ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Giants with a pectoral injury. Whitehead suffered the injury while tackling Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito on the 1-yard-line in the fourth quarter of the game.
It looked like a tear and Whitehead being ruled out almost immediately also hints at that outcome.
Giants running back Devin Singletary ran for a touchdown one play after Whitehead left the game. That score cut the Buccaneers’ lead to 30-7, so it seems likely that they’ll be able to close things out without the help of the safety.
It’s been all Buccaneers through 30 minutes of play at MetLife Stadium.
Baker Mayfield capped a sparkling first half with a 10-yard run into the end zone that ended with him leaping over a tackler to secure the touchdown. That made the score 23-0 and it stayed that way because Caleb McLaughlin missed the extra point.
That was just about the only thing that went wrong for the Bucs in the first half, however.
Mayfield celebrated his touchdown by mimicking Tommy DeVito’s pinched fingers hand gestures to a crowd that booed the Giants off the field at the end of the half. DeVito was sacked three times and he completed three passes while guiding the team to 45 total yards.
Mayfield is 19-of-23 or 230 yards and he’s completed passes to nine different targets. Mike Evans has four catches for 53 yards in his return from a hamstring injury and Bucky Irving has 87 yards from scrimmage on a day that’s seen everything go Tampa’s way.
The Buccaneers are rolling in the Meadowlands.
Bucky Irving ran six yards for a touchdown with 6:23 left in the first half and the Bucs are on their way to a blowout. It is 17-0 Bucs and the Giants have just 19 yards of offense.
Irving has five catches for 32 yards and six carries for 23 yards so far.
Tommy DeVito’s ascension to the starting lineup has been a dud. The quarterback has two completions and he’s been sacked twice behind a line that lost left tackle Jermaine Eluemunor to a quad injury.
The Giants have also lost defensive end Azeez Ojulari to a toe injury while the Bucs are without edge rusher Joe Tryon-Shoyinka because of an ankle injury.
