Davis Webb can offer Daniel Jones some valuable insights
New York Giants quarterback Davis Webb answers questions from media during an OTA in East Rutherford, N.J., on June 2, 2022. Credit: Noah K. Murray
The last time Davis Webb was a Giant the quarterback position melted down into a chaotic mess from which the franchise, in many ways, still reels. He was the heir to Eli Manning, the 2017 third-round pick many assumed would one day inherit the starting job. But when Ben McAdoo benched Manning and started Geno Smith instead of Webb it created an avalanche of havoc and bad blood that led to the coach and general manager Jerry Reese getting fired, Manning reinstated in a job he would hold for another year and a half while winning only six more games and Webb leaving without having played a snap.
“We can laugh now,” Webb said of the awkwardness of the situation with so much tension and drama packed into his single year with the organization.
By the end of the following training camp Webb was cut — new coach Pat Shurmur preferred Kyle Lauletta as the backup — and sent embarking on a career largely spent as a practice squad player with the Jets and Bills, who put him on the field in a regular-season game just once.
Now Webb is back with the Giants, a team so different from the one he left in the summer of 2018 that only three teammates remain. It’s also a team that still isn’t quite sure it has been able to replace Manning as its franchise quarterback, with Daniel Jones heading into the final year of his rookie contract attempting to prove himself in that capacity.
Might Webb have a front-row seat to the next episode in Giants quarterback tumult?
He doesn’t seem to think so.
“I’m all-in on him,” Webb said of Jones after the team’s penultimate OTA practice on Thursday. “He’s the hardest-working quarterback I’ve ever been around. He’s probably the smartest quarterback I’ve been around . . . I think he’s a dang good football player and he’s going to have his best year.”
Those are strong superlatives from Webb, who has had some pretty impressive teammates throughout his career, from Patrick Mahomes in college to Manning and Josh Allen in the NFL. They are also comments that come from someone so well-regarded for his acumen with the position that the Bills offered to bring him back this season not as a player but as their quarterbacks coach.
“I can put on both hats and see the same thing,” Webb said of touting Jones both as a teammate and as a future coach. “He’s special.”
Part of Webb’s job is to help Jones reach that potential. After spending three seasons with the Bills he is the player who has the most intimate knowledge of the offense Brian Daboll has brought with him from Buffalo. And when other questions pop up he has the resources to help Jones and the rest of the room work through them.
An example of that occurred last month when offensive coordinator Mike Kafka was installing some concepts he ran when he was coaching in Kansas City. The Giants quarterbacks were watching how the plays were supposed to work but still had some questions about them so Webb reached out to Mahomes, his old backup at Texas Tech. Soon the Super Bowl champ and MVP was on the line with Webb, Jones and Tyrod Taylor talking them through the scheme.
“We watched the tape and Pat ran a lot of [the plays],” Webb said. “We wanted to talk to him, catch up a little bit, see how his golf game was . . . and we talked about some plays. Mike does a great job installing the plays but it always helps to have somebody who has run it to speak on it.
“He was awesome.”
Webb has become such an invaluable resource for the Giants that he admitted it can be difficult to know when he needs to act as a coach and when he is just a player. Leaving the building at 3 o’clock right after practice ends rather than breaking down film until late at night? That’s definitely the player part. So too is being on the practice field and working with the third-string offense. But having a young teammate come up to him with a question about a route or a blocking assignment? It’s time for Coach Webb to step forward.
“I’m a quarterback first,” he said. “If I wanted to do the coaching job I would have taken that job [with the Bills].”
Eventually he may not have much say in that. Webb is great to have around now in the summertime but once the roster shrinks from 90 to 53 at the end of the preseason he’ll likely have to either take another practice squad slot to stick around or make the jump to full-time coach.
In the meantime he’ll be pushing and pulling for Jones to establish himself in a role many once thought was being groomed for Webb, that of the quarterback who can lead the Giants to the kind of success their mutual predecessor enjoyed during his 16-year career.
The Giants drafted both Webb and Jones to replace Manning at different points and under different circumstances. Perhaps this year they can accomplish that lofty challenge together.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
