With prospects like Devin White, Quinnen Willians, Josh Allen, and others potentially falling to the No. 6 spot in the upcoming NFL draft, the New York Giants have an extremely difficult choice to make. Ideally, general manager Dave Gettleman could find a way to address the quarterback position with a top option and also allocate significant resources towards the defensive unit.
The New York Giants can take the easy route in terms of value guarantee:
Selecting a player like White or Williams with the 6th overall pick would immediately install a top-tier player to impact the future of the defense. With the acquisition of Kevin Zeitler and departure of Olivier Vernon, the Giants’ defense is lacking resources, which makes the potential for a first-round allocation likely.
The question is – who should the Giants take, and is it more important than grabbing their choice at quarterback?
It all boils down to Eli Manning and if the Arizona Cardinals are set on retaining Josh Rosen. The second-year player was pummeled in 2018, being sacked 55 times behind the league’s worst offensive line. Acquiring him might be difficult, but his price tag shouldn’t be anything less than a second-round pick.
The Giants currently have the No. 37 pick in the draft – second round. They could utilize it to potentially grab Rosen, who’s only going into his second year as a professional. The down-side to this move would be his rookie contract. Head coach Pat Shurmur would prefer to find a quarterback to succeed Manning “sooner than later.”
Pat Shurmur would like to find Eli Manning’s successor “sooner than later” and would prefer to have that QB spend a year leaning behind Manning.
— Ralph Vacchiano (@RalphVacchiano) March 26, 2019
Having him learn behind Manning for a season would be influential, but this would theoretically rule a potential Rosen trade out. However, we cannot expect anything with the new management, after all.
Moving forward, I expect the Giants to draft a quarterback in favor of trading for a player like Rosen, simply because it allows them to utilize a new QB on their rookie deal for longer, additionally, it allows them to mold him from the very beginning.