NY Giants must find viable backup quarterback in 2021 | Best options
Despite pulling off the 17-12 upset of the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday’s offensive performance was a great reminder of the importance of a backup QB and why the NY Giants need to find a better one.
There is no denying how huge last week’s victory was for the NY Giants.
Going on the road against Russell Wilson and the Seahawks is no easy task, yet the Giants’defense and offensive line paved the way for a 4th straight win to move to 5-7 on the year.
Not enough can be said about Patrick Graham and the defensive performance. From the first possession to the last, the Giants dominated the line of scrimmage, disguised their coverages, and made life extremely hard for Seattle all game long.
D.K. Metcalf was held to just 80 receiving yards – his 4th lowest output of the season, while Russell Wilson posted his second lowest QBR of the year (78) and just 1 touchdown pass.
When it was all said and done, the Giants recorded five sacks, forced two turnovers, and held the Seahawks to just 4-13 on 3rd down and 0-2 on 4th down. The 12 points scored was Seattle’s lowest offensive performance since scoring the same amount in Week 14 of 2019.
The offensive line and run game also deserve a great deal of credit, because without them this offense would have not scored more than 3-6 points.
Alfred Morris found the endzone twice, Wayne Gallman became the first Giant to eclipse 100-rushing yards in a game this season, and the offensive line wore down Seattle to the tune of a season-high 190 team rush yards and 6.1 yards per rush.
The combination of a strong defense and overpowering run game wins a lot of games in the NFL, and that proved to be the case last Sunday. However, those performances don’t mask how ineffective and limited the Giants were in the passing game with Colt McCoy leading the offense.
The Giants were completely spoiled for 15 years having Eli Manning trot out with the offense for every snap, series, and game of his career. Never once did we have to worry about his availability or deal with injuries and backup quarterbacks.
This privilege becomes even more apparent considering that Daniel Jones has now missed three games in his first two seasons. There’s no question that Jones is tough, but Eli Manning’s don’t grow on trees. Injuries are inevitable and are going to be more frequent with a running/mobile quarterback (as we saw with this latest injury where Jones seemed to pull his hamstring on a designed QB run vs Cincinnati).
While Colt McCoy was serviceable these last two weeks, it is very apparent that he is not going to single-handedly win any games leading this offense. And while that may not have been needed these last two games with how the defense and run game have performed, the Giants are playing with fire rolling him out there with the offense when Jones can’t go.
He’s a great veteran mentor, but at the end of the day, McCoy is a low-end backup that has thrown just 30 touchdowns in 10 seasons.
So, if there’s a decent chance Daniel Jones is going to miss 1-2 games a season due to injury, why not plan ahead? While there are obviously more pressing needs to be addressed this off-season, the front office should take a good look at available free agent quarterbacks that could run the offense if/when Jones is unavailable.
Let’s take a look at a few options to consider:
(Disclaimer: I am only looking at QBs who will be free agents following the 2020 season who might be reasonably priced.)