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The Giants went into the 2024 NFL Draft with some obvious needs under center and were even linked to some quarterbacks before the draft, but seven rounds and six picks later and Big Blue did not use one of their selections on a QB which might come as a surprise to fans and others around the league.
With Daniel Jones recovering from a torn ACL during the season and suffering a second neck injury in three years before that, many thought that New York would use the draft to dip into the wide pool of arms that this year’s class offered.
Whether it was J.J. McCarthy, Drake Maye or any of the other quarterbacks that were available to them at No. 6 overall and throughout the rest of the draft, surely the Giants – with all of their uncertainty at the position currently – would find a way to pick up a quarterback. Right?
Evidently not.
“I said it in January after the season – our expectation was Daniel would be our starter and we brought Drew Lock to be his backup and Tommy (DeVito) is a backup, so that’s where we are and that’s how we’ll move forward this season,” GM Joe Schoen said after the draft. “Daniel is still under contract for three more years. As it sits today, that’s where we are.”
While it’s true New York signed Lock as a backup plan and still have DeVito on the roster, neither figures to be in the team’s long-term future as perhaps a quarterback taken in the draft could be.
Instead, Big Blue has decided, for the time being, that they’re sticking with Jones and opted to use the No. 6 overall pick on a weapon for him in LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers. The Giants also drafted two other offensive players in Penn State tight end Theo Johnson (fourth round) and Purdue running back Tyrone Tracy (fifth round) for Jones to work with.
What adds to the surprise of not picking a quarterback is the fact that the Giants were widely linked to some of the highest rated QBs available that ended up going in the first round, holding private workouts for McCarthy and Maye (whom New York tried trading up for but was unsuccessful).
“Yeah, I could name 15 other players we did private workouts at other positions,” Schoen said. “Again, we are going to continue to do our due diligence. You get six, seven swings, you want to make sure you know as much as you can about each prospect.
“And I think being around these kids on their campus, boots on the ground, dinner, setting up Pro Days, whatever it may be, I think you can find out a lot about prospects. It’s not just quarterbacks we did private workouts with. We are always going to do our due diligence across the board.”
Now, with the additions that they did add at the draft along with acquisitions they made during the offseason, the Giants will roll into camp with more or less the team that will take the field beginning in September.
Only time will tell if the decision not to add a quarterback was ultimately the right one.
“Once we get on the field and see how the pieces work together, we’ll have a better feel,” Schoen said. “(Head coach Brian Daboll) is one of the better ones I’ve been around. It’s not his system, like we are going to run this — a square peg in a round hole. We are going to go out there and see what routes these guys can run well, what they can do. There are some new pieces. What do they do best and how can we accentuate that. How can we get them in positions where they can perform the best.”