NFL Week 12 Roundtable: Giants’ QB plans after Jones, NFC West race, is Bo Nix a legitimate contender for OROY?

You can officially count the New York Giants as one of the teams whose offseason will be centered around finding their next quarterback.

Daniel Jones was benched and then released, just one development in what’s happening around the league ahead of Sunday’s Week 12 game. The Giants host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and fan favorite Tommy DeVito will start.

Elsewhere in this week’s roundtable, our NFL writers Mike Sando, Zak Keefer and Jeff Howe discuss the NFC West. Will this be the most exciting division title game in the league?

How about the race for Offensive Rookie of the Year? Is the Denver Broncos’ Bo Nix (or another rookie quarterback) closing in on the Washington Commanders’ Jaden Daniels? Although Anthony Richardson has redeemed himself in Indianapolis, how will he and the Colts fare against the Detroit Lions? The 11th-ranked Kansas City Chiefs (other than Taylor Swift) visit Charlotte and the Carolina Panthers for the first time in eight years. The Harbaugh Bowl will also conclude Week 12 on Monday night.

Read more about what caught our writers’ attention this week.

The Daniel Jones era is over as the Giants host the Buccaneers. What’s next for Jones? What does the Giants’ quarterback plan look like this offseason?

Hao: They tried to move up to a top quarterback in April, and I expect a similar effort — if not a more concerted effort — this spring. The Giants are still competing for the No. 1 pick, so they may select a quarterback, but the competition is focused on Cam Ward and Shaddell Sanders. There aren’t many big-name prospects in this class, though, and some personnel executives have said they won’t rank any of the 2025 quarterbacks ahead of the six first-rounders in April. The Giants, like every team with a desperate quarterback, should be aggressive, but they can’t force it. As for Jones, he will enter the training camp vortex of competition for teams unable to find a starting quarterback in the draft. It’s worked for the likes of Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Russell Wilson recently, so I highly recommend a friendly offensive system.

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shirt: Jones projects as a backup somewhere, possibly on a team with playoff aspirations and an upgrade behind the starters. The Miami Dolphins are just 4-6, but they could use an upgrade behind Tua Tagovailoa. The Arizona Cardinals have a Clayton tune. Tampa Bay has Kyle Trask. The Minnesota Vikings own Nick Mullens. Maybe those teams like their backups, but I could see teams considering Jones in their situations.

As for the Giants, who will make the decision there? How high are their draft picks? Which veterans may be available? It’s too early to know what the Giants will do based on all the important unknown variables. They need to find a veteran who can start and potentially develop so they aren’t too reliant on the next draft quarterback — especially in 2025, which doesn’t look like the best year to draft the position.

Kiefer: Jones will make a lot of money as a capable backup player in the league, free from the expectations of being a franchise owner. I can’t see a team — barring an unforeseen injury — starting him in Week 1 next season. Not after what he’s recorded the past two seasons. This spring, the Giants will find themselves in one of the worst predicaments in football: needing a quarterback in a draft without much quarterback talent. This has led to teams hitting targets in the past and left them anxious for decades. To be safe, New York would be wise to go the veteran route before the draft. I wonder if the prospect of Justin Fields taking over would excite Giants fans.

Daniel Jones was benched Monday after the New York Giants got off to a 2-8 start in which he completed 63.3 percent of his passes for 2,070 yards, eight touchdowns and seven touchdowns in 10 games. Interception. (Mario Hommes/DeFodi Photo via Getty Images)

The Broncos face the Las Vegas Raiders on the road on Sunday and are in the thick of the AFC playoff race. Is Bo Nix (or another rookie quarterback) a legitimate contender for Offensive Rookie of the Year or is Jaden Daniels still worth losing the award?

Hao: Daniels lost the award, and Drake Meyer was better than Knicks. If Daniels and the Commanders go down and the Broncos clinch a playoff berth, the Knicks definitely have a path to that award, but I’d still take Daniels.

shirt: Daniels is destined to lose, but there’s some uncertainty about how good he and the offense will ultimately be. From a production standpoint, the Knicks are definitely chasing him. We can see this in the chart below, which shows how Daniels, Nix, and Meyer have performed over the past six games. This is a big change from the beginning of the season.

Kiefer: Mack is right — not only has Bo Knicks joined the conversation, but so has Derek Meyer , though he can’t boast of the relative team success that Daniels enjoyed in Washington and Knicks enjoyed in Denver. Voters for these types of awards often rely on turnaround stories, and for a while this season, Daniels was writing the best stories in football. He still leads the way, but his reaction to the losing streak may well end up deciding the award.

The Chiefs are 11-point favorites on the road against the Panthers and are expected to bounce back on Sunday. Did Buffalo’s loss combined with the Lions’ continued rise change your opinion of Kansas City?

Hao: A little bit, yes. If the Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills with a subpar performance, that might be the end of it, but the Lions and Bills are definitely better right now. While everyone is waiting for the Chiefs to get better as Patrick Mahomes gains experience with his skill players, we shouldn’t overlook that Josh Allen and the Bills will do the same fact. No one who has watched the playoffs over the past five years will deny the Chiefs, but they are objectively behind Detroit and Buffalo heading into the most critical stretch of the season.

shirt: The way the Bills offense handles the Chiefs defense should be of concern to Kansas City. Kansas City can improve as the season progresses because it has good coaching and will develop key players as Isaiah Pacheco returns, Xavier Worthy gains experience, and more. Factor, this feels like a great year for Detroit or Buffalo. The Chiefs are good, but not as dominant as their record suggests.

Kiefer: I learned my lesson last year. The regular season doesn’t matter at all for the Chiefs. They transcended football norms during their dynastic reign. While many of their wins this season have been unconvincing, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that Travis Kelce takes a step back. Patrick Mahomes has looked mediocre or worse for a while, but that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that they failed to finish the bill last week. They are absolutely still a legitimate Super Bowl contender and can beat any team in the playoffs. Remember, as Kansas City proved last year, it’s not the team that looks best in November and December, but the team that performs best in January. It knows how to do this better than any team.

The Harbaugh Bowl will be played Monday night. The Baltimore Ravens are trailing in the AFC North title race. The Los Angeles Chargers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 7-3 last week. There are a lot of storylines in this one. Which one fascinates you the most?

Hao: Before the season, coaches and executives around the league predicted that Justin Herbert would make the jump with Jim Harbaugh, who would prioritize the ground game and high-level defense to complement his quarterback. Harbaugh continues to run a conservative offense, but he’s given Herbert more opportunities lately to let the offense tear apart. If Herbert beats the Ravens, he’ll earn serious consideration for MVP.

shirt: I’ll be interested to see if the Chargers’ much-improved defense can slow down Lamar Jackson with any inside information it gets from coordinators Jesse Minter and Greg Roman, who are on the Ravens’ staff It took a lot of time. Is this a game the Chargers can go their way? What would happen if this game continued from the Chargers-Bengals game? In this case, will Justin Herbert keep up with Jackson?

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Kiefer: The Chargers-Bengals game was one of the best games of the season – Herbert was crazy in the first half, and then Joe Burrow played some of the best football I’ve ever seen in the second half. The most interesting thing about Monday night’s game against Harbaugh is how Lamar Jackson bounces back from last week’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers (his -0.21 EPA per dropback and 66.1 passer rating were both season lows ). Jackson typically shines against teams outside of the AFC North, and Monday’s statement win against an elite defense — the Chargers lead the league in scoring defense, allowing 14.2 points per game — — will put him back in front of the MVP race.

It’s time for bi-weekly temperature checks in the NFC West. The Los Angeles Rams (5-5) host the favored Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night. The San Francisco 49ers (5-5) will take on the Green Bay Packers on the road. The Cardinals (6-4) and Seattle Seahawks (5-5) meet. Which team has the best chance of winning the division?

Hao: I liked the Cardinals because they were an interesting surprise team this season, but I didn’t expect them to be a serious threat in the division, even if injuries to their opponents were a big reason why. I’m going to stick with the Cardinals because they’re playing the best and will continue to get better. I do like the Seahawks and think they’re right up there with Arizona, so their two games over the next three weeks will likely tell the story of this divisional race. Seattle needs more focus on the running game, though, and O-line injuries have been an issue. The Niners still have the highest ceiling in the division, but they’ve given up so many games that I’m not ready to assume that the pattern is about to magically break. The Rams have been too inconsistent, although I can’t rule out the possibility of Matthew Stafford flipping the switch and keeping them in the mix.

Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals could be one of the surprise teams in the league, sitting atop the NFC West with a 6-4 record. (Stacey Revere/Getty Images)

shirt: Competitor‘s model gives the Cardinals a 58% chance of winning the division, followed by the Rams (23%), 49ers (12%) and Seahawks (8%). Is it really so one-sided? I think this division will go into its final week when San Francisco visits Arizona and the Rams visit Seattle. All four teams have a chance to tie the game at 9-8. Any team that goes 10-7 could win the division title. I don’t see a huge advantage for either team, but I doubt the 49ers can stay healthy enough to win.

Kiefer: The Cardinals are the best team in the division, and as Jeff pointed out, these two games with the Seahawks could ultimately determine the NFC West title. (San Francisco and Los Angeles have been too inconsistent.) But what matters this time of year are the teams showing clear signs of improvement, and the Cardinals fit the bill: Arizona has won four straight, including the last two, a total of The score is 45 points. In three of those wins, the defense allowed less than 16 points. Offensively, Kyler Murray has been outstanding. By mid-January, I expect the Cardinals to win their first division title since 2015.

(Top Photo of Bo Nix: Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)