One day after Saquon Barkley left for the Eagles, the Giants landed a quarterback who recently beat the Birds.
The Seattle Seahawks’ Drew Lock will be Daniel Jones’ new backup. GM Joe Schoen is signing Lock to a one-year deal worth $5 million guaranteed, per NFL Network and ESPN reports.
“Strong arm, very athletic,” one NFL evaluator said of Lock’s strengths.
The Giants had a vacancy behind Jones because Tyrod Taylor left in free agency to sign with the Jets.
Signing Lock has no bearing on the Giants’ plans to possibly draft a quarterback in late April, though. Schoen has said repeatedly this offseason that he would sign a veteran quarterback and also consider a QB in the NFL Draft, where the Giants hold the No. 6 overall pick.
The Giants’ search for veteran QB insurance started with a meeting with Russell Wilson, who signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers. They also showed interest in Jameis Winston, per CBS Sports, before he inked with the Cleveland Browns. But they now have Lock to learn and run the offense in the spring and compete in training camp, while Jones rehabilitates from a torn right ACL to return as the team’s planned Week 1 starter.
Lock, 27, a fifth-year pro, has played sparingly the past two seasons after starting 13 games for the Denver Broncos in 2020. But he led Seattle to a thrilling, 20-17 Monday Night Football comeback win over the Eagles in Week 15 of this season while starting in place of an injured Geno Smith.
His 10 fourth quarter points, including a game-winning, 29-yard touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba with 28 seconds to play, showed the NFL that Lock could still play. And maybe it squashed his own sliver of doubt, too.
It was Lock’s first game-winning drive in 1,142 calendar days and the fourth of his NFL career.
“It’s so hard to describe the feeling of not playing for so long, or at least what feels like a really long time to me,” Lock told ESPN on the field after the Dec. 18 victory. “You sit there, you watch games, and you wonder, ‘Can I do this still? I haven’t been out there on the field.’ That’s the human nature of it.”
“You get back out there last week [and] I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m the man still. I can go do this,’” Lock continued. “And then you got another test this week where I didn’t know if I was gonna play or not. Sure enough I ended up playing. We’re playing the Eagles, and the boys around me rallied tonight. And gosh, it feels so good. I’m so proud of everybody.”
