New York Giants: Quarterback Battle Can Vindicate Jones Selection

Much of the narrative for the New York Giants vs the Washington Redskins is about tanking – both teams are in the running for the second pick and the Giants will lose out on that pick if they happen to beat the Redskins. There’s been less focus on analyzing the game itself, and for good reason – the Giants obviously aren’t in the running for anything but draft position right now and most fans are ready to be done with the season and move onto more interesting things like the draft.

But that doesn’t change the fact that there’s one very important position battle in this game: the clash between Daniel Jones and Dwayne Haskins Jr. at quarterback.

Both players were, of course, linked to the Giants in the leadup to the draft. The Giants took Jones over Haskins with quite a bit of controversy, and Haskins ended up falling o the Giants’ division rival, ensuring that the Giants would get to see two times this year whether or not they made the right decision passing on him.

The first game against the Giants wasn’t kind to Haskins. In fact, it was his first regular season game and he threw for three interceptions in it, even against a struggling Giants defense. That game against the Redskins was one of the only three games the Giants actually won.

Still, Haskins has more experience now and is coming off his best game yet. The Giants will be tested in this game not under normal circumstances, but for their draft pick.

Haskins had a pair of touchdowns and a passer rating of 121.3 last week, compared to 74 in the game prior an 69 in the game before that. Haskins has improved with each game for the past few weeks when it comes to statistics and it’s unlikely that he’ll perform the same as he did in his first appearance.

He has five touchdowns and seven interceptions at this point… But three of those interceptions came in one bad game, the one against the Giants specifically.

The point is, the Giants are dealing with a player that they could have had. They chose Jones instead, and if Jones is bested by Haskins, there will likely be some eyebrows raised about the pick. While Jones has brought the most wins to the Giants this season compared to Eli Manning, who played in the first two games of the season and appeared again closer to the end when Jones was injured, he hasn’t done enough yet to put himself above questioning.

If Haskins has another poor performance against the Giants while Jones shines, the front office can say that, despite all of the other mistakes that have been made with the team, taking Jones over Haskins isn’t one of them – for now, anyway.

The truth is, it’s too early to make a permanent ruling on either quarterback. But that doesn’t mean Gettleman’s pick getting bested by Haskins after the Giants passed on him wouldn’t be another headache for a Giants front office that’s experienced enough of those this season.