If General Manager Dave Gettleman is to be believed, the New York Giants will take the best player available in the NFL Draft. Now, this doesn’t sound like a controversial statement at first glance, but taking the “best” player rather than a player at a position of need can sometimes be anything but expected. The Giants did just shock many people around this time last year when they drafted Saquon Barkley instead of a quarterback, going for the best player over the one that plenty of experts believed they needed.
Could they do that again and take a player on the offensive line or at a defensive position instead of using the number six overall pick to take Dwayne Haskins or maybe Drew Lock?
Gettleman appeared on Good Morning Football this Wednesday and spoke about the chances of that happening.
“We’re going to draft the best player available. My theory on free agency is: If you do it right, it puts you in position where you can take the best player available in the draft. You’re not in a situation where I have to have a [certain position] and then fill in the blank,” said Gettleman.
The Giants, however, aren’t in a position to find Eli Manning’s successor in a free agent. Not this year, anyway. Could this mean that Gettleman doesn’t see the team as needing an immediate successor for Manning, or that the Giants don’t think they’ll have to use their top pick to get a quarterback? Could the front office believe that the best player available will be a quarterback?
Any of those answers could be true, but many fans will be hoping that this is just a case of a quarterback being valued by the team as the best player. While going for the “best” option rather than addressing team needs worked out for the Giants with Saquon Barkley, they might not be able to afford to make the same move again and go into another season without having someone lined up to eventually take the reins from Eli Manning.