The Giants' incompetence to pick Daniel Jones actually shows why Dwayne Haskins dodged a bullet
If you feel bad for Dwayne Haskins after what he endured on Thursday night, don’t. Feel bad for Giants fans.
They’re the ones who have to live with the reality that their front office determined the future of their franchise after watching a few series of Daniel Jones in the Senior Bowl.
Meanwhile, Giants general manager Dave Gettleman based his Haskins evaluation on what he saw from Ohio State in the Big 12 Championship, or so he said.
Hold up. The Big 12 Championship? Didn’t Gettleman mean to say the B1G Championship?
Uh, no.
“During the season, I had gone to see Dwayne at Ohio State. I had seen Kyler (Murray) and Will (Grier) play each other in that Friday night game Thanksgiving weekend that was in West Virginia … I’d seen Dwayne play in the Big 12 — is that the Big 12 anymore? I don’t even know. The championship game in Indianapolis,” Gettleman said in the Giants’ post-first round press conference on Thursday night. “To me, it’s really important that you see quarterbacks play.”
That’s a real quote. If you don’t believe me, go to about the 5:30 mark of the Giants’ post-draft press conference. First things first.
SOMEBODY TELL DAVE GETTLEMAN THAT OHIO STATE HAS BEEN IN THE B1G SINCE 1912.
It’s no wonder that kind of incompetence was behind the decision to draft Jones over Haskins with the No. 6 overall pick.
And Haskins’ reaction to that? Well, it was like what you or I would do when you watch someone do something idiotic.
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Dwayne Haskins has been picked at No. 15 by the Washington Redskins!
… This was his reaction after the Giants picked Daniel Jones at No. 6 😬 pic.twitter.com/KS9SVG4mQE
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) April 26, 2019
Or maybe that’s the laugh of a man who realizes that he just dodged a bullet.
Don’t get me wrong. The idea of going to a big-market team and playing alongside Saquon Barkley sounds like a blast.
You know what doesn’t sound like a blast, though? Going to a team who still believes Eli Manning is 26. It also wouldn’t be fun to go play for the team who just traded Odell Beckham Jr. in his prime a year after giving him a massive new contract, only to decide that it’s worth taking a $20 million cap hit to get him off the books.
To be honest, playing for that team sounds pretty awful. At a position where you absolutely NEED your front office to make competent decisions to add the right positions around you, I would have zero trust in the Giants to do that after what we’ve seen from them this offseason.
Actually, this really dates back the last 3 years with the Giants and evaluating the quarterback position. It really isn’t much of an evaluation. It’s pretty simple. All they do is take a trip down to the Senior Bowl, find a quarterback who looks good in one exhibition game and draft him.
Why do I say that? Because Jones was the THIRD STRAIGHT SENIOR BOWL MVP THAT THE GIANTS DRAFTED.
Dang. No wonder the Giants didn’t draft the guy who only started 13 games in his college career. Gettleman admitted he knew the Giants were taking Jones after the Senior Bowl. Gettleman also admitted that the Giants could do what the Packers did with Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers but, as he said, who knows?
Only one problem with that plan — DANIEL JONES ISN’T AARON FREAKING RODGERS.
Shoot, Daniel Jones might not even be Jordan freaking Rodgers.
But hey, you do you, Giants.
The funny thing was apparently it didn’t even come down to Jones vs. Haskins. It was actually Jones vs. Drew Lock, according to Adam Schefter. He reported that the Giants had Lock as “1A” among their favorite quarterbacks. So all of those mock drafts with Haskins going No. 6 to New York basically had no chance of happening.
Because, well, nobody could’ve predicted just how incompetent the Giants would be.
Actually, maybe the Redskins predicted that. They didn’t even have to trade up to get Haskins. Instead, they watched him fall all the way to No. 15. Perhaps the Redskins realized that Haskins set all of those records against B1G defenses and not Big 12 defenses (I still can’t believe Gettleman said that).
Now, of course, it’s the Haskins and the Redskins who will see the Giants twice a year. That means they’ll get semiannual reminders of their Jones-over-Haskins decision.
If you don’t think Haskins will take that to heart, you’re crazy. He said after the Redskins took him that he’s “more motivated than ever” and that “the league done messed up.”
That’s interesting because one of the pre-draft knocks on Haskins was that he might lack motivation and that he’s “too into his personal brand.” I’m pretty sure Haskins’ new personal brand is just trying to humiliate the Giants on a twice-a-year basis. And quite frankly, I don’t blame him.
Although, the Giants probably don’t need any help getting humiliated. We’re talking about a franchise that has 1 playoff appearance in the last 7 years, and it was a 25-point loss in the Wild Card Round to, ironically enough, Aaron Rodgers. It’s the same franchise that watched their 38-year-old quarterback lead the Giants to an 8-23 record the last two years and Gettleman argued after the fact that Manning “proved he has a lot left.”
Man, it’s a good thing those aren’t the people who will evaluate Haskins. Clearly, they don’t know an emerging young star from a washed up veteran. But if that doesn’t sell you on Gettleman’s lack of understanding of quarterbacks, this will.
He went to the B1G Championship (not the Big 12 Championship) and allegedly watched Haskins throw for 499 yards and 5 touchdowns with 83% accuracy in a game in which Ohio State’s playoff hopes were on the line. But what sold Gettleman on his next quarterback was going to the Senior Bowl and watching a few nice series from Jones playing in an exhibition game against base defenses.
Laugh it up and thank your lucky stars, Dwayne. You dodged the bullet of all bullets.