New York Giants Took Daniel Jones At No. 6 To Avoid Losing Out To Redskins

The New York Giants drafted
Oct 20, 2018; Durham, NC, USA; Duke Blue Devils quarterback Daniel Jones (17) runs with the ball during the second half against the Virginia Cavaliers at Wallace Wade Stadium. The Cavaliers won 28-14. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports

For many, the fact that the New York Giants took Daniel Jones with the number six overall pick is baffling. The team didn’t just pass on the chance to take higher rated quarterbacks such as Dwayne Haskins Jr., but they also passed on other players that could have a larger and more immediate impact such as Kentucky pass rusher Josh Allen, who might be the best pass rusher in the entire draft and was in a lot of conversations about the number one overall pick.

The Giants had the chance to draft this player, or even Haskins, and they passed on both of them in order to take a player that was only mocked to the team by most as the possible number 17 overall pick. What made the Giants take Jones so high, leading most fans to accuse the team of both making a bad decision and bad pick management for overdrafting the player?

According to SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano, the Giants made the pick because they felt like Jones was going to get drafted by the Redskins if they didn’t. Of course, the Redskins ended up going for the higher rated player instead, landing Dwayne Haskins with their first round pick. But the Giants believed that Haskins wasn’t actually the player on the top of Washington’s board.

But the Giants were absolutely convinced that if they wanted Jones, they couldn’t wait that long. If they did, they might be facing him twice a year instead. That was at least part of why the Giants jumped early on the 21-year-old Duke quarterback – a fear that several teams, including the Washington Redskins, were interested in him as well, according to a team source.

The real question, however, is why the Giants believed that Jones should be valued high enough to select him at number six to prevent the Redskins from getting him instead.

The decision to draft Jones is likely what Dave Gettleman’s job is going to hang on. Jones will be expected to enter contention for the starting quarterback job around the time of the 2020 season, and if Jones does anything but come in and make an impact during that time, the decision to spend the number six overall pick on him is going to be looked back upon as a major hindrance to the team’s development going forward.

One can hope that Jones proves everyone wrong and that the decision to use a top ten pick on him is justified, but just going by odds, it doesn’t quite look like that will be the case.