Perhaps the biggest question of the offseason for the New York Giants is whether or not the team will take their quarterback of the future in the 2019 NFL Draft. Eli Manning can’t play forever and the question is going to be looming in the distance until the Giants either reach a resolution or are forced to make a change at QB before they’re ready.
Many think that this year’s draft class provides a good chance for the Giants to find their future starter before it’s too late for a new player to come in early and train under Eli Manning. But that opinion isn’t just shared by fans. There’s also executives who think the Giants are going to spend the sixth overall draft pick not on a defensive player, but on a quarterback.
“It’s fascinating for me from the amount of people I’ve spoken with who now are convinced — convinced — the Giants take [a quarterback] at six. A week to go, this one is going to be very interesting,” said Ian Rapoport last Thursday.
Draft takes frequently change once there’s only days, rather than months and weeks, to go. At first, a lot of analysts were sure that the Giants were going to use the sixth pick for Dwayne Haskins, possibly the most ‘obvious’ choice to make a good transition from college to the professional level.
But there’s every player one year that seems to benefit massively from hype just before the draft, and it looks like that player this year could be Daniel Jones, the Duke quarterback who doesn’t have a great track record of college success but has still attracted scouts for other reasons.
“I have to say this carefully: When you watch him and you go back [20] years and watch Peyton Manning, you are watching the same guy. He’s athletic. He doesn’t have a rocket for an arm, but neither did Peyton. Very smart,” said Hall of Fame talent evaluator Gil Brandt on Sirius XM when speaking about Daniel Jones.
Jones was considered a fringe prospect but now it looks like if the Giants take a quarterback, Jones is one of the two possible options along with Dwayne Haskins.
Regardless of which quarterback the team does prefer, though, the writing on the wall seems to be shifting once again during draft week towards the idea that the team is going to take someone at the position. It’s possible that it’s a smokescreen, which wouldn’t be the most surprising thing in the world based on the unpredictability of the Giants offseason so far, but drafting a quarterback would address a major need.
Still, we won’t know that the team is doing for sure until draft day. If there’s one thing they’ve proven so far, it’s that the Giants under Gettleman are one of the harder to read teams in the league.