The 2019 NFL Draft has now passed and, as usual, there were several surprises in the first round, none bigger than the Giants selecting Daniel Jones at No. 6 overall.
The backlash was swift and fierce from many in the New York/New Jersey media and from a vocal portion of the Giants fan base after general manager Dave Gettleman chose the Duke quarterback over players projected by draft analysts to go higher — including Ohio State's Dwayne Haskins (No. 15 to the division rival Redskins) and Drew Lock, who lasted into the second round before Denver took him.
A vast majority of Giants fans on hand for the draft in Nashville booed the pick and the social media reaction was overwhelmingly negative. The New York Post headline screamed "Blue's Clueless."
BENDER: Redskins turn up pressure on Giants, Jones with Haskins pick
Friday’s @nypost. pic.twitter.com/y4SSGRgPh8
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) April 26, 2019
The prevailing opinion was that Jones would have been available with the Giants' No. 17 overall choice, when they picked Clemson defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. And that outstanding edge rusher Josh Allen from Kentucky, chosen one pick after Jones by Jacksonville, was the better choice at No. 6.
I say what's done is done and let's give this time to play out.
In my 20-plus years of sitting in draft rooms and participating in the draft as a GM or team president, I've seen plenty of draft picks get panned by analysts and fans only to wind up as Pro Bowlers. And vice versa — picks that were praised and turned into duds. There have been first-round QB busts such as Ryan Leaf and Heath Shuler and third-round success stories like Joe Montana and Russell Wilson. That's the inexact science of any pro sports league draft with the NFL Draft the most highly publicized and scrutinized.
I've sat in Gettleman's seat as Vikings GM and I faced some media and fan questioning of our drafting Randy Moss in 1998 after he had fallen to No. 21 in the first round due to off-field issues. That turned out pretty well with Moss catching 17 touchdowns in his rookie season for our 15-1 team. Of course, he would up in the Hall of Fame.
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But what I never did when faced with post-draft criticism was to react as Gettleman has this week with his overly defensive public posture. He doesn't have to justify the Jones pick to anyone except Giants owner John Mara. All he had to say to the fans via the media was, "Let it all play out."
Instead, in the face of the furor he's faced, Gettleman told Peter KIng of NBC Sports, "I've been a part of organizations that had pretty good quarterbacks — Jim Kelly, John Elway, Kerry Collins, Eli Manning, Cam Newton. I know what good ones look like. Resumes matter. I wish the people taking the shots would take a minute to look at my resume.
"I've been a part of teams that went to seven Super Bowls. I had a hand in some of them. In three years, we'll find out how crazy I am."
Gettleman's defiance extended to making this questionable statement: "I know for a fact there were two teams that would have taken him in front of 17."
Sorry, Dave, nobody knows that for a fact. The teams he's talking about could have changed their minds and taken someone else.
A big part of the problem for Gettleman and the Giants is the team's 3-13 and 5-11 records the past two seasons (with only last season on Gettleman's watch after he was hired in December of 2017). Patience runs thin when a team has been losing, especially in New York.
Even though the Giants got a good return in the recent Odell Beckham trade, the move was not overly popular, especially after Gettleman had signed Beckham to a massive contract and famously said, "I didn't sign Odell to trade him." Which is precisely what he did, incurring a massive and unnecessary dead money hit against the Giants cap of close to $20 million due to the large signing bonus in the deal. I advocated for the Giants to trade Beckham, but that was long before they gave him the massive contract.
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More angst came when Gettleman let star safety Landon Collins walk in free agency after trading away several vets, including still-productive defensive tackle Damon Harrison, overpaid defensive end Olivier Vernon and underproductive corner Eli Apple. And even though he picked an outstanding running back in Saquon Barkley last year, there was plenty of second-guessing due to the strong 2018 QB draft class (with Sam Darnold available; he now resides as a potential future star with the neighboring Jets).
It seems logical that Jones would have made it to No. 17 or the Giants could have used the third-round pick from Cleveland in the Beckham trade to move up a few spots to nab Jones. But I am not going to say it was a mistake to take Jones at No. 6 until I see how Jones' NFL career with the Giants unfolds. How can we sit in judgment of a draft pick who hasn't had a chance to show his stuff?
I never wanted to wait for a player to fall if I really believed he was the right pick, especially at the most important position of quarterback. If Jones was the QB that Gettleman and his scouts felt was the best fit for the team at that spot, then they were right to select him and not take what perhaps was a minimal risk of losing him before pick No. 17 or a trade-up from there.
But the flip side is they better be right. If Haskins develops into the much better player or Jones is just average while Josh Allen turns into a 20-sack man, the heat will be turned up even more on the team and their GM.
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I've always said that grading a team's draft right after it takes place is absurd. As Gettleman correctly points out, it could be several years before we can say that Haskins or Lock was the better choice.
It's similar to saying Patrick Mahomes would have been the better choice for the Bears two years ago instead of Mitchell Trubisky at No. 2 overall. That's obvious today with Mahomes the reigning league MVP but Trubisky did win a division title last year once the Bears got more weapons around him. What if he wins a couple Super Bowls in Chicago while Mahomes' shining star fades for whatever reason (no Kareem Hunt and quite likely no Tyreek Hill will be a hindrance for him to overcome)?
The positives for Jones are that he is very smart, has a good enough arm and better mobility than one would think for a big guy (6-5, 220 pounds). GMs and scouts have to evaluate a quarterback — and any player's abilities — and consider his supporting cast so as to not put too much emphasis on their college stats.
Thus it's unfair to compare Jones' 2018 passing stats (2,674 passing yards, 22 TD passes, nine interceptions) to Haskins (4,831 passing yards, 50 TDs, nine interceptions), who had a much better supporting cast at the college football powerhouse that is Ohio State. That Jones led Duke to winning records the past two seasons is a nice achievement.
The drafting of Jones reminds me of the Giants' great GM George Young picking a relatively unknown quarterback from Morehead State in Phil Simms at No. 7 overall in the 1979 draft. Giants fans booed that day, too, but later cheered Simms as a Pro Bowl QB and a two-time Super Bowl champion.
Who's to say that Jones may not wind up having a better career than Kyler Murray, Haskins or Lock? Give the young guy a chance, let it all play out and stop defending the pick, Dave Gettleman.
