It’s a far cry from how things were when the New York Giants first drafted Kyle Lauletta. At first there was a bit of an optimistic feeling as the Giants took a player that looked pretty good and appeared to be undervalued because of playing for a school that few would have followed, one that plays in the FCS Division of NCAA football. It looked like Lauletta had some potential and had been undervalued, and with Eli Manning struggling, a lot of fans were quite willing to see Lauletta hit the field quickly.
That, however, didn’t go as planned. Lauletta did manage to get on the field during his rookie season but the outcome wasn’t what anyone expected. Not everyone thought Lauletta would be good, but most didn’t think it would be as bad as it was. Five incompletions, one interception, and a passer rating of zero. It doesn’t help that roughly a month or so earlier, Lauletta severely hurt his reputation with the team by being involved in a dangerous driving incident.
But a lot of quarterbacks have bad rookie seasons and rookies usually get another season or more to prove themselves, right?
Well, it doesn’t look like the Giants are going to be that patient with Lauletta, who wasn’t drafted with a high enough pick to justify that patience.
The most obvious sign of this is that the team spent the number six overall pick on Daniel Jones, meaning they want to try again with finding Eli Manning’s successor. And after that pick, Lauletta seems somewhat forgotten.
No one is talking about a quarterback competition between Daniel Jones and Kyle Lauletta. But everyone is talking about Jones sitting behind Manning and eventually starting. In some ways, that’s just how these things work. The player drafted in the top ten is always going to be expected to become the starter eventually.
However, that’s not the only sign. Depending on how things go, Lauletta might not even end up the third string quarterback. The Giants didn’t just draft a quarterback, they’ve also signed a relatively notable one as an undrafted free agent. That’s Syracuse quarterback Eric Dungey, who recently helped lead Syracuse to a 10-3 season and a win in the Camping World Bowl.
Dungey was highly rated after the draft and according to Syracuse.com had offers from five teams at the time that he finally agreed to join the Giants.
It looks like Dungey will be in the mix to be the one behind Daniel Jones and Eli Manning in the order of quarterbacks, and if that’s the case, it’s hard to see Lauletta remaining a legitimate option. Is giving up on Lauletta completely the right move? Maybe, maybe not. There’s not really much chance for Lauletta to compete when Jones was drafted with the sixth pick and is expected to start at some point, to prevent the pick from being wasted.
And if the Giants go into the season with three quarterbacks, Dungey looks like the more likely option to be the third one than Lauletta does.
It’s mildly frustrating to see the Giants spend a pick on a quarterback who received a small amount of hype and then see that quarterback drop out of the standings completely the next season, essentially meaning the pick was a complete waste, but in the NFL Draft, no team is perfect. Busts happen. And after one season, it looks like Kyle Lauletta will go down as one of the early draft busts in the Gettleman era.