New York Giants rookie quarterback Tommy DeVito has burst onto the scene this year by leading Big Blue to three straight wins and possibly saving the jobs of many of the Giants’ offensive coaches, primarily that of coordinator Mike Kafka.
DeVito went undrafted this past spring and signed with the Giants as a free agent. He made the team as a member of the practice squad after a solid showing in training camp and the preseason.
DeVito spent much of the season watching from the sidelines until starter Daniel Jones suffered a knee injury and backup Tyrod Taylor went down right after that. The Giants turned to the rookie to bail them out.
So far, so good.
On Thursday Kafka recounted how DeVito became a Giant this spring.
“We did our evals of all the guys whether we had visits, or draft guys or guys for local pro day,” Kafka told reporters. “We detail all that stuff out and watch as much as we can on those guys and put reports together of things that we liked. Tommy was one of those guys that was in our building actually for the local pro day, so we had the opportunity.
“It was different than a lot of other pro days. You get the opportunity to meet with them, have them in the meeting room, go out here and run our plays, and then see them kind of throw it around a little bit, kind of get more a live picture of them. He certainly stood out and so that’s why we’re happy to have him.”
Kafak was asked what specific trait of DeVito’s made him stand out to the Giants.
“When you have young quarterbacks, there’s always that growth process and so you’re always figuring out what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are,” Kafka said. “I think Tommy, on tape looking back, he was very comfortable in the pocket. He had a very nice, compact throwing motion. He can get out in space and run around a little bit, he’s athletic.
“So, the things you saw in college, you try to take some of things, how they fit into the offense and as a young player, you’re just constantly learning and learning and growing. For him, it was the mental side of it, so building our routine with him and how we can build and help him be a professional quarterback.”
What is most unexpected is how well DeVito is navigating the pocket and scrambling his way out of trouble. The team is confident enough to actually entrust him now with some Jones-like quarterback draws.
“We’ve kind of always had that element of the quarterback run game,” Kafka said. “You saw it with Daniel, you saw it with Tyrod and now Tommy’s had a couple snaps of that as well, so it’s part of what we have on offense. On a given week, some weeks we like it a lot, some weeks we don’t. It just kind of goes back to each week.”
We’ll see how far the DeVito wave lasts. He continues to improve and shows more and more poise with every passing week. This could be the start of something big.
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