Giants agree to terms with Tyrod Taylor as backup QB, source says
Texans quarterback Tyrod Taylor scrambles in the first half of an NFL game against the Jets in Houston on Nov. 28, 2021. Credit: AP/Justin Rex
The Giants still don’t know for sure if Daniel Jones is their quarterback of the future.
But they do know what the team looked like in the final six weeks of the 2021 season when they were without him.
Jones was sidelined by a neck injury, replaced by Mike Glennon and Jake Fromm, and it wasn’t pretty. Six straight lopsided losses wound up costing almost the entire coaching staff and many in the front office their jobs.
The new regime is intent on it never happening again.
That’s why one of their priorities this offseason was to find a viable backup who could play at a functional level in place of Jones should the presumed starting quarterback have to miss any more games (he has been sidelined by injuries at least two games during each of this three NFL seasons). On Tuesday they found one.
Tyrod Taylor, the 32-year-old, 11-year veteran of the NFL who has played for five different teams during his career, agreed to terms on a two-year deal with the Giants, a source confirmed. NFL Network was first to report the agreement, which is expected to become official on Wednesday with the start of the league year.
"I think the backup quarterback is one of the more important positions in the league," general manager Joe Schoen said at the combine earlier this month. "It’s something we’re going to look at it and we’re going to address."
Taylor does not come cheap. NFL Network reports that the value of the base contract will be $11 million -- $5.5 million each of the two years – with incentives that could push its overall value toward $17 million. That’s a little less than Mitchell Trubisky, the former Bears starter and Bills backup who was believed to be atop the Giants’ wish list at the start of the free agency negotiating window, agreed to with his two-year, $14.25 million contract with the Steelers. Trubisky has a chance to earn $27 million in those two years with incentives should he win and maintain the starting job in Pittsburgh.
The Giants don’t necessarily want Taylor to start for them – they’d be tickled if Jones emerged from 2022 as the no-doubt-about-it starter – but they did want a quarterback who could push Jones from behind during this season in which his future with the organization will be determined. Taylor also gives the Giants a player who can start for them in 2023 should they decide to move on from Jones and possibly draft a new quarterback next year.
The Giants believe Taylor will give them a mobile quarterback with skills similar to Jones’, which will minimize overhauling the playbook should he be needed. He has rushed for 2,001 yards and 19 touchdowns in his career. As a passer, he has 59 touchdowns and 25 interceptions in his 78 regular-season games. His teams are 26-25-1 in his career starts.
Taylor has been a solid stopgap for several of his teams in recent years, including as the opening day starter for the Browns in 2018 before he was replaced by rookie Baker Mayfield and for the Chargers in 2020 before he was replaced by rookie Justin Herbert. He also spent time with the Bills from 2015-17, overlapping one year there with Joe Schoen. He was named a Pro Bowler in 2015 and started a playoff game for the Bills at the end of the 2017 season, leaving the offseason before new Giants head coach Brian Daboll arrived in Buffalo as the offensive coordinator.
Taylor was originally a sixth-round pick of the Ravens in 2011 and was on the 2012 Baltimore team that won Super Bowl XLVII. He spent last season with the Texans, playing and starting six games.
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.
