The intrigue of this year’s NFL draft centered on whether or not the Giants would draft a quarterback. They gave us an answer on Thursday night.
They drafted Duke quarterback Daniel Jones as their first round pick at No. 6. They raised more questions about this selection after making this decision.
With Giants general manager Dave Gettleman making this pick, anything was possible. He outhinks himself and acts like the smartest man in the room. He is not shy of telling everyone he knows what he is doing by citing he built several championships teams when he was part of the Denver Broncos and Giants front office.
He showed hubris in drafting Jones. No one heard of the Duke quarterback. I only knew about him in a piece about him that was written in the New York Post the other day, and I figured it was a plug from Duke coach David Cutcliffe to the Giants or any team to draft his quarterback. Never thought the Giants would draft him, but they did.
If nothing else, Gettleman likes to make things interesting.
Everyone questions this pick, and understandably so. It looks like a reach considering not many scouts thought highly of Jones’ ability. No one selected him in mock drafts. No one knew who he was. From watching him play for Duke, no one thought of him as an NFL quarterback. Apparently, Gettleman does.
Here’s what confounding about this pick: The Giants drafted Jones because Eli Manning’s college football head coach David Cutcliffe worked with him at Duke as his head coach. Apparently, Cutcliffe and Manning endorsed Jones enough for the Giants to like him enough at No. 6. So if Cutcliffe was not Jones’ head coach, he wouldn’t be drafted.
Such a short-sighted thinking. The Giants should have drafted him based on what they think, not what Cutcliffe thinks or his reputation with quarterbacks. It appeared the Giants wanted to find the next Manning 2.0, which is interesting since he is such an overrated quarterback despite winning two Super Bowl championships. The Giants stink with him as much as they won with him, so this Giants’ idea does not make sense.
This draft pick raised so many questions since Gettleman claimed he would not draft a quarterback for the sake of drafting one. He apparently did. Why else would he draft Jones at No. 6 when scouts looked at him as a fringe player at best?
Keep in mind this same general manager showed no inclination to draft last year’s quarterback class when the Giants had the No. 2 pick of the first round. They settled on Penn State running back Saquon Barkley instead. Not that it was the wrong choice, but if the Giants expressed no interest in drafting Sam Darnold last season, why would they settle with Jones of all people at quarterback?
Suppose the Giants really were interested in Jones from the beginning. Why would they draft him at No. 6 of all places? They could have drafted him at No. 17 since no team was rushing to draft him whatsoever. Drafting Ed Oliver made more sense as the sixth pick than Jones. Drafting an offensive lineman would have been more prudent than drafting Jones early.
Gettleman would have received no grief if he did not draft a quarterback in the first round because quite frankly, there is not an Andrew Luck-like quarterback waiting in the wings. For all the talk about the Giants should have drafted Dwayne Haskins, it remains to be seen if he can run an NFL offense. Remember he operated a spread offense by Urban Meyer at Ohio State, and spread offense doesn’t work much in the NFL, so it’s understandable if he did not draft Haskins.
The worst part of this pick is Jones won’t be playing this year. So count this as a waste of a pick because the Giants could have addressed other needs.
Understandably, Giants fans booed the pick at the Giants draft party at MetLife Stadium. Giants fans expressed outrage about it on Twitter. Football writers and even football analysts couldn’t grasp what Gettleman was thinking.
No one doubts Gettleman made the pick to show he is the smartest man in the room. Jones gets a chance now to make the decision maker look good by playing like Phil Simms or he becomes Dave Brown 2.0 that he gets him fired.
The Giants general manager is insufferable as it is with his arrogance and aloofness.
Imagine how he would be if Jones becomes a star.
Makes a critic hopes Jones fail to make Gettleman eat humble pie.
