NASHVILLE, TN – APRIL 25: Daniel Jones of Duke speaks to the media after being selected as the sixth pick in the first round of the NFL Draft by the New York Giants on April 25, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
It has being assumed the New York Giants could have waited to draft Daniel Jones, but that’s not what general manager Dave Gettleman is saying.
The New York Giants made no secret of their desire to draft quarterback Daniel Jones as Eli Manning’s successor, and with two first-round picks they were well equipped to do so. They took Jones with the first of those two picks, No. 6 overall, and wide-ranging scrutiny has come in its wake.
General manager Dave Gettleman has defended not waiting to take Jones, and there is something to be said for seeing someone as “your guy” and making sure you get him. It may well have been too late to get Jones at No.17, the pick acquired from the Browns in the Odell Beckham trade.
After the draft’s completion on Saturday, Gettleman dismissed any lingering assumptions Jones would have been available at No. 17. According to Tom Rock of Newsday, Gettleman knows “for a fact” two teams would have taken the Duke product before the Giants’ next turn.
Who were those two supposed teams Gettleman feared would take Jones? According to Ralph Vacchiano of SNY, they were the Denver Broncos (No. 10 overall) and Washington Redskins (No. 15).
The Broncos traded out of the 10th pick, perhaps due to Jones being gone as Gettleman tells it, but they did take Drew Lock at No. 42. The Redskins also drafted a signal caller, taking Dwayne Haskins at 15.
It’s hard to trust the Broncos or the Redskins as astute evaluators of quarterbacks, so Gettleman somehow attaching himself to them is a bad look. Mike Klis of 9 News in Denver has also refuted the inclusion of the Broncos, citing Lock as the top quarterback on that team’s draft board.
Jones can put all the doubt about his early selection aside by coming in, whenever he gets the opportunity (since Gettleman has also suggested he might sit for three years), and playing well. But right now, the Giants’ general manager sounds more and more foolish each time he speaks about his new young quarterback or the process that landed him.