Up until recently, the New York Giants were a perceived lock to draft one of the top quarterbacks in the 2024 NFL Draft with the No. 6 overall pick. Even with their professed interest in keeping current starter Daniel Jones around next season, that hasn’t shut the door on the Giants taking whichever of the top three quarterback talents fall to them.
One former Giants legend believes that, regardless of talent, it’s “impossible” to get a solidified feel for how a passer’s talent will effectively translate to the NFL gridiron.
Giants great Kurt Warner finds it hard to get a read on college QB’s
Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Kurt Warner recently spoke on the scouting process ahead of this year’s draft, which is set to begin on April 16. Warner had some interesting comments to share regarding collegiate talent today and their readiness for the bright lights out of the gates, saying this on X (h/t Yahoo Sports’ John Fennelly):
“I know many of you LOVE college football, but as I start to dive into these college QBs, it’s hard for me to even watch: very few play on schedule, the pass concepts are a mess most of the time, they run the same play over & over, a million bubble screens, can’t find many concepts that translate to next level,” Warner asserted.
Who better to know, than the former two-time league MVP who went undrafted out of Northern Iowa in 1994? Warner entered the pro ranks when passing games weren’t as emphasized in today’s game. Quarterbacks ran varied attacks with a greater balance between the pass and the run.
The driving force of the Los Angeles Rams’ “The Greatest Show on Turf” made a bold statement, one that he’s entitled to, even though pro scouts evidently didn’t get a good read on him and the NFL passing yards leader he’d wind up evolving into once over.
Giants heavily scouted their top QB prospects in 2023
The Giants invested much time and manpower to scout this year’s best, particularly UNC’s Drake Maye, whom they sent a collection of talent evaluators to assess during his midseason matchup against the Clemson Tigers.
Going off of the last five years, there’s been a mixed bag of elite collegiate talent that has been boom or bust in their entry into the league. C.J. Stroud made waves in 2023, while 2022’s top QB selection Kenny Pickett has had his ups and downs. Trevor Lawrence’s game translated well at the pro ranks in 2021 out of Clemson while the fluctuation of standout and letdown performers follows a consistent trend in that time frame.
Warner is not alone in his convictions about the college game and its alleged diminished schematic structure. Though, we’ll have to wait and see if Daniels, USC’s Caleb Williams, and UNC’s Drake Maye, among the wealth of other QBs in this year’s class, can rise to the occasion wherever they land.