Tommy DeVito is saving the Giants’ season, drawing origin comparisons to Tom Brady and soon could be single-handedly responsible for a spike in the sales of chicken cutlets.
Even his biggest supporters would’ve cried “Doozy pots!” to living in such a reality just a month ago.
That’s the English spin-off of the Italian phrase “tu sei pazza,” which translates to “you’re crazy” and often accompanies the old-school hand gesture that has become the cult hero DeVito’s trademark touchdown celebration.
“He’s not loud, he’s not a rah-rah guy,” agent Sean Stellato said. “He’s the Passing Paisano, the silent assassin, and he just goes about it as a pro’s pro.”
To think, eight months before he announced himself to the world Monday as more than just a local New Jersey-bred success story, DeVito hit it off with head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen for the first time as one of four draft-eligible quarterbacks invited to the Giants’ local Pro Day.
Now? Daboll and DeVito hopped up and down in lockstep embrace Monday after the rookie engineered the fourth-quarter comeback and 24-22 victory against the Packers that proved he belongs in the NFL.
“The way he’s wired, nothing really fazes him,” Tony Racioppi, DeVito’s private quarterbacks coach, told The Post. “That might come from his experiences at Syracuse and Illinois — being a highly touted recruit, playing early, playing well, then not playing well, then getting benched. If you can work yourself through those things, you develop a sense of self-confidence and thick skin, and it doesn’t really matter if it’s college football or the NFL.”
DeVito wasn’t afforded the exposure of the NFL Combine — not among 319 college invitees — or the Senior Bowl, and somehow wasn’t among the seven-year high of 14 quarterbacks drafted.
Most of the Giants’ top scouts saw him play in-person last season — Midwest area scout Brendan Prophett put him on the radar before his Illinois debut — and a few graded him at the East-West Shrine Bowl.
But honest two-way communication between Illinois head coach Bret Bielema (a Giants assistant in 2020) and his trusted former colleagues, as well as DeVito’s desire to play in front of his support system to the point where he turned down bigger free-agent contract offers became the advantages that other organizations couldn’t match.
The Jets offered only a contract-less tryout.
“An athletic quarterback who is a gamer,” one NFL scout said. “His coaches have found ways to eliminate some risk in decision-making. They are letting him know where to go with the ball and letting him use his legs if the first two reads aren’t there.”
DeVito earning Daboll’s trust wasn’t simple.
The same quarterback who wasn’t allowed to throw the ball more than 6 yards downfield in his NFL debut off the bench in an Oct. 29 loss to the Jets just became the first in 74 years of NFL record-keeping to complete 80 percent of his passes, rush for 70 yards, commit no turnovers and take no sacks, according to OptaSTATs.
Not to mention the touchdown pass squeezed into a tight window or the 4-for-4 hot streak on the 57-yard scoring drive in the final 93 seconds.
“He sees the game pretty well,” Daboll said. “For a young player, particularly at that position, [this] isn’t always the case, but when he comes off to the sideline and you are asking him questions about why he did what he did and what he saw, you watch the tape the following day and it’s like ‘Yup, that’s exactly what happened.’ ”
With each of three consecutive wins, DeVito’s profile — and those of his cheek-kissing, cutlet-making parents and fedora-wearing agent — has increased tenfold.
“I don’t think this is a fluke: He is playing the position at a high level,” ESPN NFL analyst Robert Griffin III told The Post. “Not that he’s the franchise quarterback for the Giants, but he has proven to Brian Daboll that not only is he good enough to get the job done and get them through a couple games, but now he is playing free and protecting the football.”
Teammates see DeVito staying late for meetings with coaches when they are leaving the building and no longer think of him as the minicamp arm who had to beat out veteran Jacob Eason for a roster spot or the scout-team-leading third-stringer behind Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor.
“The beauty of the NFL is that if you get an opportunity and you capitalize, anything can happen,” said left tackle Andrew Thomas, the No. 4 overall pick in 2020. “Where you were drafted doesn’t guarantee how you play or how you respond to adversity. It’s about what’s on tape — not what you did in college. He’s done a great job responding the right way.”
Daboll couldn’t have pumped the brakes any faster Tuesday when asked at what point the 2001 Patriots — for whom he was an assistant coach — began believing in unknown injury replacement Tom Brady. He interjected that “it’s been four games” for DeVito.
Some — like DeVito’s longtime trainer — have seen more than enough to believe this fairytale is real.
“He was prepared when he had an opportunity, and so much of the quarterback position is right place, right time,” Racioppi said. “If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, it doesn’t matter sometimes how talented you are or how much you have improved. You are not going to look consistent.
“He battled through [his Syracuse benching], it humbled him and he worked harder. He was pissed off that he wasn’t a combine invite. He worked harder. And he hasn’t stopped since.”
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