'Treat every game like the Super Bowl': Door opens for Tommy DeVito with Drew Lock injury

EAST RUTHERFORD - Tommy DeVito has moved up on the Giants' depth chart. How long that lasts, and what he can do as Daniel Jones' backup in a quest to force team brass into keeping him on the active roster remains to be seen.

The opportunity for DeVito comes because of a hip injury suffered by Drew Lock in Thursday night's 14-3 preseason victory over the Detroit Lions. Lock started the game and played most of the first quarter before taking a hit to his left side, and the injury forced him to the sideline with DeVito replacing him.

Lock suffered a deep contusion to his oblique and a hip pointer, an individual familiar with the situation told NorthJersey.com, and the injury is expected to cause the veteran backup quarterback to miss some time. There is no official timetable

One year after making his professional debut in the preseason against the Lions, DeVito took the field with increased expectations - both for himself and for the Giants, who now have the 25-year-old essentially one snap from again starting games for them.

Daniel Jones has taken every first team snap in practice since training camp began and he is expected to make his preseason debut Saturday when the Giants visit the Texans in Houston.

"Last year was a little bit of nerves. First NFL game, so there was a lot of excitement that went into it," DeVito said. "But now I kind of get the gist of it, played in some actual games that are a little different than preseason. But treat every game like it's the Super Bowl. So, you go out there and try to play everything and put your best foot forward."

DeVito stared down the NFL odds as an undrafted rookie last season and, for all intents and purposes, defied them.

A year later, DeVito is well aware that the deck was yet again stacked against him. So as he goes through the summer with the Giants, this time much more of a proven commodity in league circles - especially around here - the pride of Cedar Grove and one of North Jersey's favorite sons in the NFL has embraced this undeniable challenge.

DeVito is under contract, but Daniel Jones is the starter. Lock received $5 million guaranteed to leave the Seahawks and come here to serve as Jones' veteran backup. So DeVito beating him out straight-up for the No. 2 spot is improbable, given the financial implications,

From fans to the players — heck, the entire organization — the Giants embraced DeVito's story last season.

It's been a wild and unexpected ride for one of North Jersey's own, from his high school days as a star at Don Bosco to the NFL as a long shot, becoming a hero for the salute to his Italian heritage with his "finger purse" touchdown celebration, leading to cult status at local delis and sandwiches named in his honor.

Beyond the emojis, sandwiches and locally crafted beer named for "Tommy Cutlets," and all those memes from "The Sopranos" and "Goodfellas," DeVito played the position better than he should have been capable of doing at that stage of his development. He spent months fighting for scraps on the practice field, his reps limited to a share of scout team work until Tyrod Taylor was injured Oct. 29 against the Jets.

The Giants saw DeVito's grind. His personality was engaging, his swagger contagious. In what had been a lost season for the Giants to this point, the investment in the local kid from Jersey who was not supposed to be there was real, as DeVito won three games as a starter before heading back to the bench over the final three weeks of the campaign.

That's what Lock was up against when he headed to the sideline, wincing in discomfort as a half-empty stadium - a preseason game with few starters on the field and in a driving rain will do that - cheered when the Giants' No. 15 jogged toward the offensive huddle.

The most significant change in where he is today: DeVito has officially moved out of his parents' home in Cedar Grove. Tommy Cutlets has also broadened his palate, even though Tommy Sushi likely won't sell as well.

And for all DeVito accomplished, completing 114 of 178 passes for 1,101 yards with eight touchdowns and three interceptions, the Giants seemingly entered this offseason with the intention to build their quarterback depth chart with the undrafted local hero on the periphery of any plans.

The Giants claimed Nathan Rourke in the spring, and the speculation from outside the organization was that he was coming here to push DeVito down the roster and maybe out. Because of the way DeVito has continued to develop in his second year, throughout the spring and now into training camp, he survived his first challenge of this year when the Giants waived Rourke two weeks ago. Rourke has since signed with Atlanta, meaning if the Giants want to add a quarterback to serve as QB3 as long as Lock is out, they'll have to look elsewhere.

"It could be longer than a couple days, but I don't want to give you one answer and then it's not," Daboll said Friday, adding that he had yet to meet with the team's medical staff prior to his video call with reporters. He did acknowledge the Giants could be in the market to add an arm with Jones and DeVito the only two healthy quarterbacks on the roster.

It's a fluid situation, but with four practices on tap this week heading into Houston, the Giants would be best served not overusing Jones and DeVito at this stage of the summer. Jacob Eason spent time on the Giants' practice squad last season, and he was released by the Packers this past week, so he could be an option.

Asked what he believed he showed the NFL through the ups and downs of his rookie season, DeVito said: "That I can play. That I belong."

Only time will tell if DeVito can convince the Giants of that again.

If the Giants only keep Jones and Lock, deciding to waive DeVito later this month, the other 31 teams will get the chance to claim him, potentially forcing a new chapter in his story in which he is forced to leave home. He would be subject to waivers, and if he went unclaimed, then the decision would likely be his again: either stay with the Giants on the practice squad or entertain offers from somewhere else, which he did last August before turning down Bill Belichick and the Patriots to stick here.

"I'm going to continue to play and do what I need to do," DeVito said. "But, let's see how everything unfolds."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Tommy DeVito: Drew Lock injury opens NY Giants' door at QB2