Is DeVito’s success a fluke or sustainable?

[BluesCruz]

There were some fans who jumped the gun in the preseason and wanted DeVito as the backup. Now we have a couple that want him as the starter next season. We get these proclamations every season with some player and most times they don't pan out and they go on to the next wild assertion, hoping to be on the cutting edge with an Itoldyouso.

At some point we will see Defensive Coordinators use disguise, stunts and delayed blitzes in the A Gap and cutting off that right roll out. At some point he's going to have to hit those short crosses and slants because at some point Corners will start jumping those Swings and Flats. Then we will see how he adjusts. To this point they have held him back from throwing Deep Posts and Go Routes. Which makes me question his deep ball but Hyatt is still not being properly utilized. Green Bay was never in a Cover Two Shell all game.

The other thing I'm expecting is some reporter will start digging up dirt on his family and in something he did in College or High School. They will strike his family as opportunistic getting his name on products and merchandise while the iron is hot.

I actually think he has what it takes to survive and to be a starter in this league. It's going to come down to how high his ceiling is and if he can continue to learn and grow at the exponential rate that he's shown this year. I remember what he looked like his first couple of days at camp and how he got better every day. I believe in his case coming into the league as a mature adult with a large body of playing experience helped him. So far he's been absorbing like a sponge.

What I refuse to do is jump on a bandwagon and make wild assertions and predictions. It's more than fair to be balanced and review both the good and what needs improvement. Those game changing plays he left on the field have to be addressed and get him to see them develop early. That's the next step along with his Coaches being proactive in anticipation of what Defenses will start throwing at him.

Ed Tommy has room for improvement

DJ on the other hand has proven to be Dave Brown II.  He has had 4 years to fix it
and has gotten worse not better.  Do you really want to see more?

He can be traded.  In a stronger offense he might actually get better.  Like David Carr he seems shell shocked.  It might not be too late for some other team to fix it

Ed

[Trench]

There were some fans who jumped the gun in the preseason and wanted DeVito as the backup. Now we have a couple that want him as the starter next season. We get these proclamations every season with some player and most times they don't pan out and they go on to the next wild assertion, hoping to be on the cutting edge with an Itoldyouso.

At some point we will see Defensive Coordinators use disguise, stunts and delayed blitzes in the A Gap and cutting off that right roll out. At some point he's going to have to hit those short crosses and slants because at some point Corners will start jumping those Swings and Flats. Then we will see how he adjusts. To this point they have held him back from throwing Deep Posts and Go Routes. Which makes me question his deep ball but Hyatt is still not being properly utilized. Green Bay was never in a Cover Two Shell all game.

The other thing I'm expecting is some reporter will start digging up dirt on his family and in something he did in College or High School. They will strike his family as opportunistic getting his name on products and merchandise while the iron is hot.

I actually think he has what it takes to survive and to be a starter in this league. It's going to come down to how high his ceiling is and if he can continue to learn and grow at the exponential rate that he's shown this year. I remember what he looked like his first couple of days at camp and how he got better every day. I believe in his case coming into the league as a mature adult with a large body of playing experience helped him. So far he's been absorbing like a sponge.

What I refuse to do is jump on a bandwagon and make wild assertions and predictions. It's more than fair to be balanced and review both the good and what needs improvement. Those game changing plays he left on the field have to be addressed and get him to see them develop early. That's the next step along with his Coaches being proactive in anticipation of what Defenses will start throwing at him.

I was a fan of Devito immediately after seeing him in preseason. I had pointed out how impressive it was to see him learn from and immediately correct his mistakes in real time. The same has happened in his few regular season games. The game is slowing down a bit for him. This is the stuff that is most encouraging about Devito in my mind (in addition to what he told Barkley after the fumble)....add to the mix his "Broadway Joe" Jim McMahon red furry coat he wore to the game last week is nice moxy. I think he can easily be a McMahon or Plunkett. The question is, athletically speaking, can he also be a Breez or Purdy?

I don't remember saying Devito should be the backup early on because I like Tyrod a lot....but I was extremely worried about losing him to another team by not having him make our roster. I got hit hard on that one and was proven totally wrong as the posters here were 100% correct and he thankfully made our practice squad. On the other hand, some felt he shouldn't even be in the NFL. Bottom line is most of us here are 50/50 on evaluating players. I was all in on Sills and down on Thibs. Appears I was wrong on both (although I'm still hoping Sills gets a chance). The best part of Tommy Devito is what we learned about Jones as a result of Tommy's play and our Oline and WR who weren't as bad as some thought.

This is a wonderful story and it's nice to have something to play for in December. Let's hope Cincinnati can beat the Vikings today!

[Ed Vette]

Ed Tommy has room for improvement

DJ on the other hand has proven to be Dave Brown II.  He has had 4 years to fix it
and has gotten worse not better.  Do you really want to see more?

He can be traded.  In a stronger offense he might actually get better.  Like David Carr he seems shell shocked.  It might not be too late for some other team to fix it

Ed

He can only be traded if some team picks up a Giant portion of his Dead Cap hit. He's not going anywhere in 2024. If he doesn't play well next season, there will be no team that will want him.

Daniel Jones is better than he showed this season. With a decent oline he can win a lot of games. My issue with him is in high stakes games, he folds. I was the first person to shout that out years ago before all you others jumped on the bandwagon. Still I kept an open mind and balanced approach. No hype, no bashing.

[Ed Vette]

I was a fan of Devito immediately after seeing him in preseason. I had pointed out how impressive it was to see him learn from and immediately correct his mistakes in real time. The same has happened in his few regular season games. The game is slowing down a bit for him. This is the stuff that is most encouraging about Devito in my mind (in addition to what he told Barkley after the fumble)....add to the mix his "Broadway Joe" Jim McMahon red furry coat he wore to the game last week is nice moxy. I think he can easily be a McMahon or Plunkett. The question is, athletically speaking, can he also be a Breez or Purdy?

I don't remember saying Devito should be the backup early on because I like Tyrod a lot....but I was extremely worried about losing him to another team by not having him make our roster. I got hit hard on that one and was proven totally wrong as the posters here were 100% correct and he thankfully made our practice squad. On the other hand, some felt he shouldn't even be in the NFL. Bottom line is most of us here are 50/50 on evaluating players. I was all in on Sills and down on Thibs. Appears I was wrong on both (although I'm still hoping Sills gets a chance). The best part of Tommy Devito is what we learned about Jones as a result of Tommy's play and our Oline and WR who weren't as bad as some thought.

This is a wonderful story and it's nice to have something to play for in December. Let's hope Cincinnati can beat the Vikings today!

I think Tommy has a higher ceiling than some folks here give him credit for. He's never had a Brian Daboll and Tommy's growth day one to today is incredible. He absorbs like a sponge apparently and has good football instincts. I cross my fingers.

[Jclayton92]

I think Schoen and company would lose a ton of the good will they currently have built up if the put Jones out there again next year.

I think they could easily sell wanting to not draft a Qb inorder to continue building the team to see what Devito has for a year.

If however by some chance they don't see Devito as the longterm answer then I still think you can't put Jones out there for year 6 of him taking unnecessary sacks and refusing to throw beyond 5 yards.

[Torus34]

Replying to the thread title.

If we measure by wins, Mr. Thomas DeVito's first win set the fluke vs. sustainable percent at 50.
Two wins in a row changed it to 75%
Three and it's upped to 87%
If today's [12/17/23] game's a win for Mr. DeVito, the sustainable value rises to a whopping 94%.

Somewhere along the line, and five wins in a row would boost the probability to 97%, you would have to conclude that Mr. Thomas DeVito's the real deal.

Go flag-free, Big Blue!

[Stringer Bell]

Bob

I disagree entirely. Yes, he may well end up being a 'fluke' but he has already won 2 games, a lot more than any other QB on the team. WHY is that? Are teams not prepared for him?
He is a real unknown but he also has no experience. Maybe if he were in his third year as a backup and then entered and did what he has done, what would you say then?
If he proceeds to lose the remaining games then he was a fluke--I hardly doubt it. In reality, looking at our schedule, no one really expected us to win any more games starting with GB yet we did. Was that a fluke win? He pulled an Eli Manning, drove the team sown the field with less than 2 minutes left, and that, my friend, was no fluke.

In 4 starts, he's averaging 170 passing yards / game. In his 3 wins, the defense has forced 12 turnovers and given up 16 points / game.

He's most definitely a fluke. Fun story, easy to root for, but still a fluke.

[uconnjack8]

Maybe I am getting into semantics here but if by "Devito's success" we are talking about can his current performances of 170 passing yards/game, then yes I am confident he can continue to do that. 

If we are talking about whether the wins will continue, that's another story and Devito is only part of the answer.

If we are talking about ii he is able to improve his passing game, I think he can, but not sure how much or how little.

[DaveBrown74]

Maybe I am getting into semantics here but if by "Devito's success" we are talking about can his current performances of 170 passing uards/game, then yes I am confident he can continue to do that. 

If we are talking about whether the wins will continue, that's another story and Devito is only part of the answer.

If we are talking about is he able to improve his passing game, I think he can, but not sure how much or how little.

The wins we have been getting recently remind me a lot of the wins we got when we started 6-1 last year: bad and often very banged up opponents, a training wheels style offense for us, smart game plans, generally solid defense, and a LOT of luck going our way. Consider the absurd number of opponent turnovers we have enjoyed during this stretch. Sure, our defense deserves credit for some of that, but there have also been muffed punts, fluky fumbles, silly INTs, missed chip shot field goals in big spots, and other things that weren't really the D so much as they were ineptitude by the opposing offense or special teams unit.

On offense, we have employed the same type of approach that Daboll did with Jones last year. So far, it has worked, and that's great, but I don't view it as a long term platform.

Still, the DeVito situation is fluid to some degree. To be clear, I am not in the camp that he is the long term answer at starter, but I am also guessing the main naysayers never would have predicted back in August when people were hyping him in the preseason that he might be a long term solution as the team's backup, which he now appears to be the potential base case assuming he holds his own for these last four games.

As I said in another thread, right now I'm just enjoying the ride. I see no point in being a dour, cranky scrooge about this DeVito story provided we continue to win games. On the other hand, if he starts to falter noticeably and we start losing, I am also not going to just cling to the three game winning streak and ignore all the other less flattering data, as I suspect some might do under those circumstances.

We have the whole spring and summer to ponder this team's short, medium, and long term QB situation. People can obviously contemplate whatever they wish, but right now I'm just being a fan, and that has been refreshingly enjoyable recently, especially compared to most of the last decade.

[uconnjack8]

The wins we have been getting recently remind me a lot of the wins we got when we started 6-1 last year: bad and often very banged up opponents, a training wheels style offense for us, smart game plans, generally solid defense, and a LOT of luck going our way. Consider the absurd number of opponent turnovers we have enjoyed during this stretch. Sure, our defense deserves credit for some of that, but there have also been muffed punts, fluky fumbles, silly INTs, missed chip shot field goals in big spots, and other things that weren't really the D so much as they were ineptitude by the opposing offense or special teams unit.

On offense, we have employed the same type of approach that Daboll did with Jones last year. So far, it has worked, and that's great, but I don't view it as a long term platform.

Still, the DeVito situation is fluid to some degree. To be clear, I am not in the camp that he is the long term answer at starter, but I am also guessing the main naysayers never would have predicted back in August when people were hyping him in the preseason that he might be a long term solution as the team's backup, which he now appears to be the potential base case assuming he holds his own for these last four games.

As I said in another thread, right now I'm just enjoying the ride of all this. I see no point in being a dour, cranky scrooge about this DeVito story provided we continue to win games. On the other hand, if he starts to falter noticeably and we start losing, I am also not going to just cling to the three game winning streak and ignore all the other less flattering data, as I suspect some might do under those circumstances.

We have the whole spring and summer to ponder this team's short, medium, and long term QB situation. People can obviously contemplate whatever they wish, but right now I'm just being a fan, and it's been very enjoyable recently.

The team has eked out 3 wins with a +9 t/o margin. 

Like you said, I am enjoying watching the games and I have no need to rush to judgement in either direction.   I am happy the play of the backup QBs has been better than what we saw a couple of years ago and we have the rest of the season to watch Devito grow as a player. 

I get the excitement as the team is now playing meaningful games in mid December.  Further, it will be nice to end the year with things moving in the right direction rather than the opposite.

[Ed Vette]

I felt bad for Jake Fromm with that dysfunctional coaching staff and abysmal Oline. I think he would have had some success under Daboll.

[Trench]

The wins we have been getting recently remind me a lot of the wins we got when we started 6-1 last year: bad and often very banged up opponents, a training wheels style offense for us, smart game plans, generally solid defense, and a LOT of luck going our way. Consider the absurd number of opponent turnovers we have enjoyed during this stretch. Sure, our defense deserves credit for some of that, but there have also been muffed punts, fluky fumbles, silly INTs, missed chip shot field goals in big spots, and other things that weren't really the D so much as they were ineptitude by the opposing offense or special teams unit.

On offense, we have employed the same type of approach that Daboll did with Jones last year. So far, it has worked, and that's great, but I don't view it as a long term platform.

Still, the DeVito situation is fluid to some degree. To be clear, I am not in the camp that he is the long term answer at starter, but I am also guessing the main naysayers never would have predicted back in August when people were hyping him in the preseason that he might be a long term solution as the team's backup, which he now appears to be the potential base case assuming he holds his own for these last four games.

As I said in another thread, right now I'm just enjoying the ride. I see no point in being a dour, cranky scrooge about this DeVito story provided we continue to win games. On the other hand, if he starts to falter noticeably and we start losing, I am also not going to just cling to the three game winning streak and ignore all the other less flattering data, as I suspect some might do under those circumstances.

We have the whole spring and summer to ponder this team's short, medium, and long term QB situation. People can obviously contemplate whatever they wish, but right now I'm just being a fan, and that has been refreshingly enjoyable recently, especially compared to most of the last decade.

If he can win today and somehow pull off a Christmas miracle against Philly I have a hunch many will see it differently.

Ultimately, it's amazing what a difference a week or couple wins can make in the NFL.

[Slugsy-Narrows]

Regardless of what happens today!

If he beats the Eagles at least once, and the Eagles don't have the B team out there I think he becomes more legit than fluke.

A win today and against the Eagles and we would have to ask to see more and want more as we haven't beaten the eagles in forever!

Regardless I'm just enjoying a few more wins and hoping for the best!  This is a JS and Dabs issue to figure out as us fans have no say anyway.

[BluesCruz]

In 4 starts, he's averaging 170 passing yards / game. In his 3 wins, the defense has forced 12 turnovers and given up 16 points / game.

He's most definitely a fluke. Fun story, easy to root for, but still a fluke.

when did passing yards per game become the gating factor?
If so Kerry Collins who did everything else wrong is a lock for Canton

[President Rick]

Ed:   Forget last year's playoff game vs. Philly...they were monsters.  DJ was in a playoff game vs Minny..  Remember his stats and the result. He still has not had a solid cast on O, esp. the OL.  Jury still out on him, and we won't know until someday he gets a full season with a decent O and OL.  That may or may not be in NY.