The Daniel Jones era is unofficially — and perhaps mercifully — finally over. The Giants made the expected move of benching the quarterback they once hoped would lead them into brighter days, turning to the former undrafted New Jersey native Tommy DeVito on Monday as they began preparing to host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next Sunday. “After evaluating a bunch of things and looking at a lot of tape, and being around Tommy last year where he created a little bit of a spark for us, that’s the reason why we’re going with Tommy,” head coach Brian Daboll said. The decision became a no-brainer when you consider that the Giants are 3-13 with Jones at quarterback since they signed the former first first-round pick to a four-year, $160 million extension after the 2022 season. The 2-8 Giants are on a five-game losing streak including an overtime loss to the previously 2-7 Carolina Panthers on Nov. 10 in Germany, so making a change after the bye week became a natural outcome. Somewhat surprising is that the Giants are bypassing Drew Lock, the sixth-year NFL veteran who signed a one-year, $5 million contract in March and has been the backup all season. DeVito went 3-3 as a starter last year when Jones and ex-backup Tyrod Taylor suffered injuries. “We’ve been with Tommy here for a little bit. He’s done a nice job, I would say, throughout practices here, but also, we have something to lean on by going back and watching him operate some of our stuff from last year,” Daboll said. “This is no indication on Drew whatsoever. He’s been excellent for us. It was more about what I felt Tommy gave us.” The Giants structured Jones’ contract such that he can be cut after this season and save them $19.3 million on their salary cap while eating $22.2 million in dead cap space (instead of a $41.6 million cap hit). But if Jones were to get injured and not be able to pass a physical by next March, the team would owe him $23 million next year. That likely played a role in the Giants demoting Jones to No. 3 on the depth chart rather than No. 2. There’s no reason to turn back now. Barring DeVito and Lock both getting injured, Jones has likely played his final snap as a Giant. Daboll spoke to all three quarterbacks Monday morning. “I don’t want to get into the particulars of the conversation,” Daboll said when asked why Jones is now the No. 3 quarterback. “I think Drew has been doing a good job. Again, we’re shaking things up, obviously putting Tommy there at the 1 and we’ll do the same thing here keeping Drew at the 2 and keep working with him.” It’s unlikely, at least for a long time, that we see another quarterback with such a long leash of losing. Jones has posted a 24-45-1 record since being selected sixth overall in the 2019 NFL Draft including an abysmal 1-15 mark in primetime games, with his signature moment being a playoff win in Minnesota in January of 2023. The Giants kept trying to make it work with Jones because of coaching changes, injuries and around failures around him. He played for three different head coaches, three different offensive coordinators and four different play-callers in six years. The team has often had a poor offensive line and lacked a true “No. 1 receiver” for Jones until drafting Malik Nabers this April. The excuses are over and there’s enough of a sample size showing that Jones is the common denominator. Despite staying healthy this year after sustaining a knee injury and tearing his ACL last year, Jones passed for only eight touchdowns with seven interceptions in 10 starts. DeVito may not prove to be more productive than Jones in the final seven games, but the Giants have nothing to lose at this point by continuing to develop the Don Bosco Prep product before deciding how to proceed at the position in the offseason. “We have a lot of football in front of us,” Daboll said. “I think we all need to be committed to doing everything we can do to close out the season the right way and just take it one week at a time. That’s where really our focus is going to be is with Tampa.”