If you saw the way the Giants flocked to see Dwayne Haskins, it would be logical to expect him to be chosen to succeed Eli Manning as the next franchise quarterback.
The Giants’ power brokers last month assembled in Columbus, Ohio, for Haskins’ Pro Day, and the way honchos such as head coach Pat Shurmur and Chris Mara, the senior vice president of player personnel, chatted up Haskins with such ease and comfort, it sure looked as if the groundwork were being laid for a partnership to follow.
Last week, the Giants’ brass was in Durham, NC, to put Duke quarterback Daniel Jones through a private workout. The next day, Drew Lock of Missouri was at the Giants’ facility for one of the team’s top-30 visits.
Every step of the way leading up to the draft, the Giants are poking, prodding, studying, conversing with and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the top quarterback prospects, finding out what makes them tick and what makes them viable, or not viable, to take the ball from Manning, either at some point during the 2019 season or in 2020.
It is entirely fitting there is no consensus around the league about which quarterback is best or in what order the top four or five should line up. There is widespread belief the Cardinals and first-year coach Kliff Kingsbury adore diminutive Kyler Murray of Oklahoma and will kick off the draft the night of April 25 by taking him with the first-overall pick. If that is the case, quarterback Josh Rosen, the 10th-overall pick in 2018, is expendable and becomes another option for the Giants to consider.
What do we know about how the Giants view these quarterbacks? Well, there is no evidence yet to suggest the team is salivating about taking any of them with the No. 6 pick in the first round. There is a sense they are attracted to Haskins’ personality — he is down to earth — but no sense the Giants view Haskins above all others as far as potential.
There is a sense the Giants like Jones’ pedigree as a protégé of David Cutcliffe (Manning’s college coach) and his low-key, easygoing, Manning-esque temperament. There is also a sneaky athleticism to Jones’ game.
There is a sense the Giants are intrigued by Lock’s athletic versatility — he was an accomplished basketball player — and his ability to move inside and outside the pocket. Lock, though, misses on plenty of his throws.
Will Grier of West Virginia could be an option early in the second round — the Giants have the No. 37 pick — though there is not much strong opining about him being a franchise-type quarterback.
The safe money continues to be on the Giants going defense at No. 6. The tricky part is at No. 17 — the first-round pick acquired in the trade of Odell Beckham Jr. to the Browns — where it is highly unlikely the Giants would have their pick of two of the three top-rated quarterbacks after Murray. They might not see any of them on the board at No. 17, with the Broncos (No. 10), Dolphins (No. 13), Redskins (No. 15) and possibly the Bengals (No. 11) in the mix at quarterback in the first round.
If the Giants have a conviction on one of them, they would not want to give up their second-round pick. Their third-round pick (No. 95), gained in the trade with the Browns, is the last pick in the round and not ideal as far as trade fodder.
General manager Dave Gettleman has said he believes if you need a starting quarterback, you almost always have to find him in the first round. There are exceptions, of course, but a scenario in which the Giants eschew a quarterback with their two first-round picks, then view a player as a potential franchise quarterback at No. 37, is not particularly likely.
As much as the Giants — from ownership on down — are eager to put an intriguing body behind Manning to set up a plan of succession, the available talent and timing might not coalesce this year. It is plausible the Giants punt here and look to find their next in line out of the 2020 draft, with a more fertile crop of quarterbacks to sort through.
“I think, at the end of the day, you can’t say to yourself, ‘I’m gonna get ’em next year,’ ’’ Gettleman said. “You evaluate the Qs, and you take the guy when the time is — when you believe he’s the guy and it’s at the right spot. You can’t worry about the future, because now someone else is gonna say, ‘Well now in two years there are a couple college quarterbacks coming out that are really amazing.’ Who knows?”