You do not always get what you want in the NFL draft, but it sure feels as if the Giants prefer to come out of this week’s three-day talent grab with a new quarterback they can groom as Eli Manning moves ever closer to the big 4-0.
Manning, 36, is under contract for three more years. The Giants do not want to go through a reprise of the dark days after Phil Simms retired following the 1993 season, when they wandered through the desert with Dave Brown, Kent Graham and Danny Kanell until finding a temporary oasis with Kerry Collins before taking a one-year flier on Kurt Warner as a babysitter to the rookie Manning.
Sure, the Giants last month signed Jets castoff Geno Smith, who is coming off knee surgery, and coach Ben McAdoo made a few headlines not long ago saying perhaps Smith can be Eli’s successor. No one associated with the Giants is really banking on that, and the desire to get a young quarterback in this draft is hotter than ever.
“He can’t play forever,’’ a source familiar with the Giants’ draft strategy said. “You’d like to get a young guy in there to groom him for two, three, four years, so if Eli plays three more years to 39, that guy sat like Aaron Rodgers.’’
McAdoo got to Green Bay in time to witness one of the great quarterback handoffs of all time. McAdoo arrived as an assistant in 2006 for Brett Favre’s final two years of gunslinging. Then it was goodbye Brett, hello Aaron. As a result, the Packers are heading into a third decade of superlative play from a franchise quarterback.
Rodgers sat for three full years behind Favre. It was an apprenticeship that was once the norm in the NFL, a rite of passage that now seems ancient and dated at a time when rookies step in as immediate starters, learn on the job and sometimes thrive despite their inexperience.
The Giants hoped Ryan Nassib might be the next in line when they took him out of Syracuse in the fourth round of the 2013 draft. Nassib did not show the progress the coaching staff wanted to see out of him, and the Giants allowed his contract to expire.
Reese, in what for him was a stunning snippet of pre-draft candor, admitted, “I’ve probably looked at more quarterbacks this time than I did at other times.’’ The ideal scenario for the Giants is they find a No. 3 and stash him on the roster, allowing Smith and journeyman Josh Johnson to compete for the backup job.
This year’s quarterback crop is more suspect than most. The two highest-rated players, Mitchell Trubisky and Deshaun Watson, are eye-of-the-beholder sort of prospects. They should be gone when the Giants pick at No. 23. The Giants absolutely love Watson’s makeup, intangibles and body of work, but view Trubisky as having a higher ceiling and shorter learning curve.
Next up: Patrick Mahomes and DeShone Kizer, players with wildly polarizing grades. Mahomes is a fastballer, which makes sense, considering his father, Pat, spent 11 years as a major league pitcher. Mahomes has the best arm in the draft, but played in a system at Texas Tech completely foreign to NFL passing offenses.
“All those guys with super-strong arms that play in that spread, they don’t transfer their weight, it’s all arm, they don’t use their lower body, their footwork is terrible,’’ the source said. “They’re all works in progress.’’
Kizer is a big, strong pocket passer who won and then lost the starting job at Notre Dame. Ready or not, he decided to hit the draft.
“He still should be in college,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said recently on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “The reality is he needs more football. If you want to draft him and say come on, turn it over to him, you’re going to have to support him with great leaders around him and great leadership. But if you’re going to give him time and get a mentor for him, you’re going to have a great guy.’’
Further down the line, the Giants could take a stab at Josh Dobbs of Tennessee, a solid-as-a-rock leader who has the smarts (he’s an aerospace engineering major) to sit and learn from Manning. Brad Kaaya operated a pro-style offense at Miami and was a prolific college passer, but is skinny and not very athletic.
Nathan Peterman (Pittsburgh) has been likened to Tony Romo as far as charisma and feel for the game and is a mid-round projection.
“It is our job,’’ Reese said, “to have somebody waiting in the wings.’’