The Giants’ abysmal quarterback carousel failed to step up in loss to Eagles

The New York Giants have reached historic lows this season and they crossed a new milestone in Sunday’s 34-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.

For the first time in 29 years, New York has started three different quarterbacks in a single season as Jake Fromm got the start under center over Mike Glennon (and in place of Daniel Jones, who is out for the rest of the season with a neck injury).

In 1992, Phil Simms, Jeff Hostetler, and Kent Graham all started under center for the Giants.

The Giants also became the sixth team in the league to start three quarterbacks this season, joining the Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets and Washington Football Team.

Prior to today’s game, Fromm’s first career start, he was fired up.

“I was ready to go,” Fromm said. “Obviously I wish the ball would have been exactly where I wanted it to be, but I was amped up and ready to go. I guess maybe the first couple got away from me.”

With a passer rating under 25.0 against the Dallas Cowboys, Glennon did not deserve to start Sunday’s game. But Fromm, a 2020 fifth-round draft pick by the Buffalo Bills, was in over his head. He finished 6 of 17 for 25 yards with one interception and a 19.4 passer rating.

“I would say it’s not ideal,” Fromm said of his performance. “I wish I would have played better. It’s not the way I wanted to have represented myself, my family, or, of course, this organization. It’s tough, but I’m going to learn from it. I don’t think it gets much worse than that. I’m going to grind. I’m going to work my tail off to get better and play better like I know I can. I’m going to give everything I can to the guys on offense, to this team, and be the best me I can be from here on out.”

After an interception in the third quarter, Fromm was replaced by Glennon.

“I just got told by the quarterbacks coach that they were going to switch it up and put [Giants QB] Mike [Glennon] in there,” Fromm said. “That’s just frustrating for myself. I wish nobody – any of the coaches – would have been put in that situation. I wish I would have gone out and handled my business, led us to victory, and we’d be having a nice ride home.”

Going forward, Fromm said that he is going to work on both his physical and mental preparation prior to games.

“The goal I had in mind was to start fast,” Fromm said. “We didn’t do that and I have to get better at doing that whenever the opportunity rises – seizing the opportunity and starting fresh.”

Joe Judge, who’s record as coach of the Giants dropped to 10-21 following the loss, said after the game that he would deliver the following message to Fromm:

“You’re a young player and you have to learn and develop. This is the early part of your career, so you have to learn from what happened today and you have to make improvements. You have to make improvements on execution and obviously your decision-making will improve over time. But he has to come back to work on Wednesday just like everyone else.”

Glennon also had words of encouragement for Fromm.

“It just felt like it was tough to get something going,” Glennon said. “Tough to get in rhythm. First start, it’s not an easy job, a player in the NFL. Obviously there’s some things that I’m sure he’ll want back, but all-in-all he handled himself really well this week. He prepared really well. I felt his maturity and presence. It’s been great working with him so far. Unfortunately it didn’t go as we wanted.”

Despite the poor performance, Glennon said that he would remind Fromm that he does belong in the NFL.

“He’s had a lot of success leading up to this point,” Fromm said. “There’s a reason why he was such a decorated player coming out of Georgia and all the wins he had there. I just told him he’s here for a reason, that he belongs, and should go out and have fun. You know, obviously, it didn’t go as planned.”

Glennon also did not have any success in turning the game around. He finished 17 of 27 for 93 yards with one touchdown and one interception. The Giants have now lost four games in a row and were officially eliminated from postseason contention on Sunday.

“You know what, it’s not what you, you put in all this work and you want to win,” Glennon said. “But at the end of the day it’s our job to show up again and put our best foot forward every single week. When we come to work, we have to be all-in and that’s what I see. Although the results aren’t what we wanted, the preparation and mindset I don’t think has fallen off at all which is good to see.”

Though the quarterback play was abysmal at best, the entire Giants offense as a whole played poorly on Sunday. The Giants had 192 total yards, 15 first downs and were just 8-of-20 on third down chances. The only points scored came off of a stellar 54-yard kick by Graham Gano.

“We have to execute everything better,” Judge said after the game. “Offensively nothing was really good enough today. We have to make sure that we come back to work and give ourselves a chance. We have to capitalize on the opportunities that are in front of us. When you watch the tape and you sit there and you’re watching the sideline and you’re talking through different plays and scenarios, you say, ‘Okay we’ve got this, this, this. We’ve got to get back to this and give ourselves a chance and make sure we don’t lose an opportunity on this again.’

The emphasis has to be on getting back to something when it’s there, but you have to capitalize on the opportunities when they give them to you. Most teams in this league are not going to give you a second swing of the bat. When something is there the first time, you have to make your shot.”

As far as who will get the start when the Giants travel to Chicago next week to play the Bears, Judge said: “We’ll see.”