When it comes to predicting who the New York Giants will take with the sixth overall pick in the NFL Draft, a quarterback is the most popular answer, but not everyone agrees with that line of thinking. Some think that the Giants need to go with a defensive pick to actually take a step forward this season, and one of those people is former Giants center Shaun O’Hara, who played with the team from 2004 to 2010 and was on the Super Bowl XLII squad.
“You heard what Dave Gettleman said after the season. ‘We scored more points than any other team in our division, and yet we didn’t win the division,'” O’Hara told Good Morning Football. “This team needs to get better on the other side of the ball as well.”
It is true that there were some games this season where the Giants offense performed at a level that could have brought a victory, but the team was dragged down by a defense that couldn’t stop the opponent. The team suffered a number of close losses, losing to Dallas and Indianapolis by a point, and Philadelphia and Atlanta by three in the second half of the season. Had the Giants defense been able to perform just a little bit better, the narrative this offseason might be a little bit different.
Could the Giants really pass on a QB in the top 10… again? @ShaunOHara60 says they should. @PSchrags and @KyleBrandt try figuring that one out. pic.twitter.com/6RhSU9Vul4
— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) February 15, 2019
“When you’re sitting at the sixth pick, and you’re the general manager, you can’t just look at it and say, ‘We’re just going to take a quarterback because everybody thinks we should take one.’ I don’t think you can make that decision based on just that,” continued O’Hara.
There certainly is outside pressure on the Giants to take a quarterback this year, both from fans and from the media. But there’s been plenty of cases in the past of teams completely defying the expectations with their draft picks. The Giants might just become one of those teams this year, if they make any selection other than the most expected one, a quarterback. After all, making tough decisions like that is what general manager Dave Gettleman has been paid to do, and it’s something Gettleman has done a good job with so far.