The New York Giants hold the sixth overall selection in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft in Detroit and the odds are that they will not make a trade up or back and will use the pick to take a top player.
With that pick, Brendan Donahue — the most accurate mock drafter over the past five NFL seasons according to The Huddle Report — is predicting the Giants will select LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers.
Donahue, in a mock draft for Sharp Football Analysis, predicts the Chicago Bears will take USC quarterback Caleb Williams with the top pick followed by the Washington Commanders taking LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels at No. 2 overall.
The New England Patriots end all speculation of a possible trade by standing pat and selecting a quarterback of their own in North Carolina’s Drake Maye. At No. 4, the wide receiver-starved Arizona Cardinals select Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. before the Los Angeles Chargers trade the fifth overall selection to the Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings have made it no secret that they covet Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy, and take him right before the Giants are on the clock. The pick takes away Giants general manager Joe Schoen’s trade leverage while saving him the anguish of whether to take McCarthy himself.
It’s actually a stroke of luck for Scheon as Nabers — considered by some experts to be the best player in this draft — falls into his lap.
The Giants have already met with the top three consensus receivers in the draft including Nabers, who may be WR1 on some draft boards.
After some recent comments Nabers made regarding the current situation at quarterback for the Giants, his odds have moved to +160 from +130 to be the sixth overall pick, but his talent is too good to pass up.
The comments Donahue is referring to were regarding the Giants’ unsettled quarterback situation. Several weeks back, Nabers had this to say in an interview with CBS Sports HQ:
“That’s a decision that’s going to have to be placed when I hear my name called…I don’t know where I’m going. Going to New York, it wouldn’t be a bad idea. The quarterback situation, I know they’re going to figure it out, especially if they have a caliber receiver coming like me. They’re going to want to get me the ball, so I’m sure they’re going to want to have a quarterback that can do that.”
Nabers crushed his pro day down in Baton Rouge and may end up being off the board before the Giants make their pick. But Donahue believes he’ll be there to rescue Schoen, who has had two lukewarm drafts thus far as the team’s general manager.
Note: Eddie Brown of the San Diego Union-Tribune, who is tied with Donahue in points over the past five years, also mocks Nabers to the Giants.
