NEW YORK — A veteran backup quarterback always made sense.
The Giants agreed Tuesday with Tyrod Taylor on a reported two-year, $11 million contract. The deal includes $8.5 million guaranteed and could be worth up to $17 million with incentives.
Taylor, 32, will back up Daniel Jones to start the 2022 season. He will be a serviceable starter if Jones gets hurt. And he would be an acceptable bridge quarterback in 2023 if the Giants moved on from Jones and drafted a rookie.
The plan is for Jones, 24, to wrest control of the franchise QB perch for good. But the fourth-year pro has struggled to stay healthy, and the Giants can’t get caught flat-footed again if he gets hurt this fall.
A year ago in free agency, the Giants actively sought a safe backup quarterback who would not threaten Jones’ job security. That led them to Mike Glennon, who was miserable as a starter in place of the injured Jones.
GM Dave Gettleman then compounded the organization’s mistake by signing Jake Fromm to back up Glennon, an unthinkable decision that ultimately got an entire coaching staff fired.
The Giants characteristically are overreacting to that blunder by signing Taylor, who has played for five teams and started 53 total games for four of them. He’s 26-25-1 in his career as a starter, including 22-20-0 with the Buffalo Bills from 2015-17.
Taylor was the L.A. Chargers’ 2020 starter until a doctor accidentally punctured his lung while trying to administer a pain-killer for his cracked ribs. Rookie Justin Herbert stepped in and never gave the job back.
The Giants do need to prepare themselves for contingency plans like a professional organization, though, rather than making roster decisions to protect incumbents. And while the team says Jones will recover in time for the season from his significant neck injury, that’s simply taking the Giants at their word.
If Taylor does start a game for the Giants, he will be only the second Black quarterback ever to do so. Geno Smith became the first and only in 2017 when the organization benched Eli Manning. The Giants fired coach Ben McAdoo and GM Jerry Reese the very next day.
The noise about the Giants pursuing Mitchell Trubisky this spring never made sense, though. It would have undercut John Mara’s promise to give Jones one more year as a starter. And it would have thrust Trubisky and Jones into a training camp competition.
The Giants didn’t want to replace Jones with this backup quarterback signing, but they didn’t want to weaken their team a second straight season by trying to avoid competition, either.
Trubisky signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers on a reported two-year deal worth $14.25 million plus incentives. He’ll compete to start.
The Giants already had their starter in Jones. Now they have a reliable veteran to support him and the offense in case he fails or goes down.
