New York Giants cannot be weak minded when drafting a QB

The New York Giants slow walk toward replacing quarterback Eli Manning won’t help them in the long run.

As much as general manager Dave Gettleman wants to be deliberate in what he does for the New York Giants, there’s always a high degree of risk involved dealing with the quarterback position in the NFL. That’s not to say we’re encouraging high-risk behavior in this endeavor, we’re clearly not.

But even with a high level of due diligence, draft pick quarterbacks run the gamut. The quarterback class at the 2004 NFL Draft featured Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers. That’s the gold standard, even though none of these guys won a Heisman Trophy.

Fast forward 11 years, when two former Heisman winners went No.1 and No. 2. Florida State’s Jameis Winston was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Marcus Mariota got scooped up by the Tennessee Titans.

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As their five-year rookie contracts reach the conclusion of their initial terms, it’s a distinct possibility that their draft teams say “enough is enough” by declining to re-sign these players. Top draft picks, who won Heisman Trophies, washing out, who could have predicted that?

Right now, the New York Giants are demonstrating a tear down of high proportion by ridding themselves of a number of big money contracts. Still, they are hedging against their win-loss record by still accumulating good, but not great, NFL talent.

The distinct purpose for Gettleman to do this is simple – he wants to show progress off of a disappointing, at many levels, 2018 season. Another dip into the 5-11 pool,and NFL Draft top 10, won’t satisfy enough True Blue fans.

Nor should it.

This year, multiple first-round draft picks, and a high second-round selection means that Gettleman and company has assets in order to get a QB on board at the draft. The other side of the coin is that this quarterback draft class remains very pedestrian.

Understand that the New York Giants aren’t going dismantle their offense in order to fit diminutive Kyler Murray into the fold. That assumes he’ll be available with the No. 6 selection. So, that’s probably not going to happen.

It seems like every mock draft on the face of the Earth has the G-Men selecting Dwayne Haskins with their initial first-round selection. But Haskins ran a slower forty-yard dash than Eli Manning did at his combine, and his clear lack of foot speed, makes him a huge question mark entering the increasingly mobile NFL.

Personally, I think someone jumps into the top 4 to grab Haskins. If the Giants trade assets in order to get the Ohio State signal-caller, that’s a bad move. The Miami Dolphins seem to be the most quarterback desperate team in the league right now. But discount the Cincinnati Bengals or Carolina Panthers from this discussion.

Would Jon Gruden’s Oakland Raiders consider another deal that nets him more draft picks?

If the strategy is to wait another year, Gettleman works at cross purposes by inking guys like Golden Tate, Antoine Bethea and Markus Golden to contracts. Getting into the Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert sweepstakes will require teams to ante up the No. 1 and No. 2 draft selections in 2020.

Gettleman can always place a $2.00 show bet by targeting guys like Ryan Findley (N.C. State), Daniel Jones (Duke) or Jarrett Stidholm (Auburn) past the first-round. If they go this route, then they get the benefit of suggesting to their fan base that they took a “flier”.

Except this franchise has taken way too many fliers, using second, third and fourth-round draft picks, when accumulating very good and productive NFL players would have done just fine.

The ultimate gamble, for which the franchise probably doesn’t have the stomach, is honing in on Drew Lock (Missouri). He would cost a first-round pick, yet he comes with more questions marks than the 5-10 (barely) Murray.

He also could turn out the be the best of the pack in 2019.

Former New York Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi pushed all the chips to the middle of the table, when he traded for Eli Manning in 2004. Since then, two other general managers have benefitted from Accorsi’s gutsy move.

Former GM Jerry Reese always wanted to catch lightning in a bottle with late draft picks and failed veterans (Josh Johnson, Geno Smith) at the quarterback position. But Reese was not staring down the barrel of a gun like Gettleman is with the continued declining play of Manning.

The only solution is to make a decision and support that decision, which may spawn a fair amount of uneasiness at 1925 Giants Drive. Part of the reluctance in moving away from Manning is fear of the unknown.

But if the New York Giants don’t exhibit some guts, they’ll certainly get no glory.