Ralph Vacchiano | Facebook | Twitter | Archive
The Giants have made it very clear, over and over again the last few years, that they will not force a decision on their Quarterback of the Future if they don't see one they love. They are comfortable putting it off indefinitely. They might even be on the verge of doing it again.
But that would be a mistake, no matter how good the class of quarterbacks looks in the 2020 draft. They can't keep punting this issue into the future. It's time to settle down, even if it means settling at the most important position in sports.
They need to find their Quarterback of the Future now.
They are in a great position to do it, too, with two picks in the first round (Nos. 6 and 17), a high second-rounder, and the possibility that Josh Rosen could be available in a trade. They have many options - take a quarterback with either pick, package picks to trade up, make a bid on Rosen who was a Top 10 pick last year.
But the worst option, by far, is to wait for next year while dreaming of Oregon's Justin Herbert, Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa or maybe even Georgia's Jake Fromm. And it's not just because Eli Manning is 38 and unsigned beyond the end of this season.
It's because a lot can happen in a year.
For example, what if the Giants had passed on a quarterback with the second pick last year assuming they'd have a shot at Oregon's Justin Herbert in this year's draft? That wasn't part of the equation, but at the time they surely assumed that Herbert would be one of the top picks in 2019. Instead, Herbert shocked everyone by returning to Oregon for his senior season.
What if Tagovailoa decides to do that next year too?
Or what if Tagovailoa, a 21-year-old who has only 15 career starts in college, doesn't play well next season? What if the more scouts see of him, the less they like? It seems impossible now, but in 2013, Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater entered his final collegiate season as the expected No. 1 pick in the 2014 draft.
In the end, he went 32nd - the final pick of the first round, long after Blake Bortles and Johnny Manziel were off the board.
So things can change. Players can get hurt, too. Just saying, 'Wait for Tagovailoa and Herbert' doesn't mean the Giants are going to love them 12 months from now.
And even if they do, who says they can get them? The Giants had the second pick last year and the sixth pick this year - prime quarterback-taking positions. What if they go 9-7 next year, which doesn't seem like too big of a stretch. That could have them drafting in the 20s. It's likely none of the top quarterbacks in 2020 will get that far.
Trade up, you say? Sure. Sounds easy. But the price could be expensive. It's a fair argument that there's really no price too high for a franchise quarterback that could maybe one day lead your team to a Super Bowl. But it still takes a willing partner to make a trade. And what if the teams holding the top three picks in next year's draft all need quarterbacks and don't want to move?
What then? Would the Giants just punt again, bring back Manning at age 40, and set their sights on Clemson's Trevor Lawrence in 2021?
The point is, the future is a big unknown. And they can't keep putting their quarterback situation off without knowing their options. The more they do, the longer this could drag out, and the closer they could get to the kind of Quarterback Hell they're trying to avoid. Manning, no matter how many "years" the Giants think he has left, is inarguably close to the end of his career. And if the Giants don't have a replacement ready when it's over, if they haven't enacted their "Kansas City model" plan, they'll doom themselves to years of jumping from journeyman to journeyman, hoping some young quarterback somehow falls into their lap.
That was the argument for taking a franchise quarterback like Sam Darnold over running back Saquon Barkley last season, and that's the argument for taking one now. They have multiple chances. They probably could get their pick of several top ones at No. 6 - someone like Ohio State's Dwayne Haskins. They might get a shot at Duke's Daniel Jones at No. 17. They could even take a shot at West Virginia's Will Grier at the top of the second round.
Are they in love with any of them? It doesn't seem that way. Are they perfect prospects? Probably not. And if this were two or three years ago they would've been justified in passing on them because time was still on their side.
That is not the case anymore. Time is now their enemy. And the clock is running out on Manning, which means it's running out on the Giants too. They may not see their ideal franchise quarterback in front of them, but they have multiple shots at getting one that could be good enough. And that has to be good enough. That's the reality of the situation they've put themselves in by waiting this long to find Manning's replacement.
They can't afford to wait any more.