Brian Daboll responds to Dexter Lawrence publicly disagreeing with Giants benching Daniel Jones

The New York Giants decision to bench Daniel Jones coming out of the Week 11 bye in place of Tommy DeVito isn’t a universally beloved call from those inside the locker room. Recently, star defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence offered his dissenting position, acknowledging his belief that Jones is still the best quarterback on the roster. 

Going out and publicly critiquing the decision made by head coach Brian Daboll has the potential for things within the organization to unravel even further than where the 2-8 club finds itself. That said, it does seem like Daboll understands where Lawrence is coming from. 

“I got a lot of respect for Dex,” the head coach told reporters on Wednesday. “Dex has been a teammate of Daniel’s for a while. There’s a pretty good relationship with there. Look, everybody’s not going to agree with the decision, and I understand that. We make the decision we feel is best, and then we move forward and get ready to go for practice here.”

Daboll further relayed that he doesn’t believe there’s any cause for concern about losing the buy-in of a player like Lawrence or the rest of the locker room.

“Dex and I have a good relationship, and I respect Dex a great deal,” he said. “We were just talking a little while ago, not about that. But again, everybody’s going to have certain opinions. I got a lot of respect for all our players. I think we’re focused, we’ll be focused, and do what we need to do to play our best against Tampa.” 

He added: “I got a lot of confidence in our locker room. We got a close-knit group. Obviously not where we want to be with the record, but I have a lot of confidence in the players and the coaches and the chemistry that we have. We got to have a good week and get ready to play Tampa.”

At 2-6, the Giants find themselves in last place in the NFC East, and the hope that this switch to DeVito helps conclude the season on a positive note before an offseason that is expected to see seismic changes, particularly under center.