To many, it’s a foregone conclusion that the New York Giants will be selecting a quarterback in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft.
That may be the case should they find themselves in the top five come draft night next April. But recent events, and statements made by general manager Joe Schoen this week, have some believing the Giants aren’t quite ready to move on from Daniel Jones — yet.
“He’s in there rehabbing right now. He’s going to attack it,” Schoen said of Jones, who underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL last week. “You guys all know Daniel and his work ethic; probably a guy we’re going to have to pull back. But the expectation is when Daniel’s healthy that he will be our starting quarterback.
“Again, we don’t have a crystal ball in terms of how the rehab’s going to go; different patients respond differently to these surgeries, and then whether there’s going to be swelling in the knee or any setbacks. Nobody has a crystal ball on this, but that’s the expectation moving forward.”
Not exactly what Giants fans wanted to hear. Many have seen enough of Jones and believe they’ve experienced the best of him. They want the Giants to go in a new direction.
Don’t count on that to happen this offseason. Schoen knows he has locked himself into Jones for at least another season. But he also knows something has to be done after the team was left with emergency options at quarterback (rookie Tommy DeVito) after injuries to Jones and his backup, Tyrod Taylor.
“I think we’re going to have to do something on the quarterback, whether it’s free agency or the draft,” Schoen said. “I mean, just where we are, Tyrod’s contract is up, DeVito is obviously under contract, and Daniel, we don’t know when he’s going to be ready. So, just from an offseason program standpoint, I think that’ll be a position that we’ll have to look at. There are different avenues — free agency or the draft — but we’ll have to address it at some point.”
Schoen is being realistic more than anything else. The Giants are currently outside the top five (they are sixth) in next year’s draft order. They may not be in a position to take a top quarterback such as USC’s Caleb Williams or Drake Maye of North Carolina.
Darryl Slater of NJ Advance Media believes the Giants may wait until 2025 to find their quarterback of the future.
Let’s say Schoen picks somewhere outside the top five — and both Williams and Maye are gone. Schoen would then need to determine what he thinks of the next quarterback tier (Bo Nix, Jayden Daniels, Michael Penix). Would Schoen feel OK drafting, say, Nix at No. 7?
It’s also possible Schoen could draft a quarterback in Round 2, where he has an extra pick because of the Leonard Williams trade with Seattle. Or maybe Schoen uses that extra second-rounder as ammo to trade up into the bottom of Round 1 for a quarterback.
Slater goes on to say that Schoen’s options are limited and will continue to decrease should they keep winning (the Giants have won two straight to bump their record up to 4-8).
It’s unlikely they will win many more games this season with their final five games all against playoff contenders, including the Philadelphia Eagles twice.
The Giants will likely finish right in the thick of the order where they can get one of those three quarterbacks not named Williams or Maye. Schoen would have to consider taking one of them or run the risk of having a repeat of 2023 on his hands.
At the very least, he can select a quarterback in Round 1 and have him sit a year (or less) behind Jones. Waiting until 2025 to secure their future at quarterback seems a bit risky.
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