Dan Salomone: Darius Slayton, the longest-tenured Giant on offense, said it best at the end of OTAs: The 2025 quarterback room is an “interesting compilation of individuals.”
The Giants entered the offseason with the primary goal of addressing the most important position in sports and did so with only Tommy DeVito on the roster. After the first wave of free agency brought defensive backs, not quarterbacks, the ball eventually got rolling with Jameis Winston and Russell Wilson shortly thereafter. Not backed into a corner anymore, the Giants were then allowed to draft the best player available regardless of position and took All-American edge rusher Abdul Carter. They still needed to address the future at quarterback, however, leading them to trade up for Jaxson Darter.
So, the biggest takeaway from the spring is how it has unfolded in that quarterback room.
“When you have a group like we have, none of them are afraid to speak and say anything that is on their mind,” offensive passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney said. “Russ, Jameis, Tommy, who has been in the system longer than any of them, and Jaxson too is getting comfortable with that. I think when you have that group that’s willing to do that, it permeates throughout the rest of the offense, and we’ve seen that in our meetings. Guys are really willing to have those discussions that help in OTAs that lead to now we don’t have to have that discussion in training camp because we already did it.”
Wilson, who has known Tierney since his early days at N.C. State, is leading the way on that front.
“I knew him as a young kid; I was a young kid,” said Tierney, who began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Wolfpack. “We joke all the time that we came up together. Our formative years in football were side by side. So, Russ hasn’t changed. He’s the same guy he was when he was 18 years old. He still has a great work ethic, prepares every day like it’s new for him, takes notes. He is the definition of a pro.”
He is also a good example for the rookie.
“It’s impressive to see just the last couple weeks just how [Dart] has prepared and made the transition to becoming a pro,” Tierney said at minicamp. “We thought that about him, which is one of the reasons why we liked him, but he’s done a really good job of coming in here and understanding what he’s got to do to make himself a pro and approaching it the right way.”