ORLANDO, Fla – John Mara meddles, at least that’s what some believe. This makes John Mara laugh because it couldn’t be further from the truth. He’s privy to all conversations, sure. When it comes to football decisions, though, he lets the men he hired to make those decisions, in fact, make those decisions.

Like the team’s future at quarterback, for example. Mara loves and believes in Daniel Jones, but if general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll come to him before April’s draft hell bent on their conviction that a franchise passer is within reach, they just need to move up, well that’s no problem with Mara.

“I certainly would support that,” he said from the NFL’s annual meeting. “I’m certainly not going to stand in the way of them.”

Good.

Because if the Giants want a quarterback that’s likely what they’re going to have to do.

The Giants, sources told SNY, have loosely inquired with the teams picking one through three about moving up. The problem is that none of those teams are overly interested in doing that. The Bears are locked on Caleb Williams. The Commanders and Patriots will take some variation of Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels. There are people within the Giants building high on all three players – getting them is nothing more than pipe dream.

The buzz around the NFL Combine dating back to the Combine has linked the Giants to Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy. That’s only grown louder over the ensuing weeks. Back then, though, he figured to fall to the Giants organically, allowing them to use the No. 6 pick on him. That is no longer the case.

This is smoke season, indeed, but there’s enough now legitimizing the Vikings are interested in moving up for a quarterback. If the Cardinals (selecting fourth) or Chargers (selecting fifth) are inclined to fall back, Minnesota could easily jump the Giants for McCarthy. Bo Nix (Oregon) and Michael Penix (Washington) are not believed to be in the same class as the aforementioned four.

The only way for the Giants to guarantee themselves one of those players is by creating their own fate – moving up to prevent another team from leapfrogging them. A trade for a franchise quarterback isn’t uncommon with this franchise. The Giants did a variation of it when they added Eli Manning.

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