Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence became the darling of college football with his performance in the Tigers' 44-16 national championship victory over Alabama on Monday.
The long-haired, 19-year-old freshman completed 20 of 32 passes for 347 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions and had NFL fans salivating at the thought of him playing quarterback for their team.
Yet Lawrence is not eligible for the NFL draft until 2021, but that did not stop some fans and analysts from suggesting teams should put themselves in position to take Lawrence.
Giants fans, in particular (not all, but enough), were among this group thinking that they should continue to hold off on finding a franchise quarterback and tank the 2020 season -- two years from now -- to grab Lawrence.
Let's take a deep breath and break down why this is ridiculous:
Giants cannot keep procrastinating
Quarterback is the most important position in the game. Eli Manning will be 38 and is, at best, treading water and has put together just one winning season in the last six years. The sooner the Giants can find a successor for Manning, whether it be via the draft, trade or free agency, the quicker they will be able to build a Super Bowl contender again. It is not a position they can continue to ignore and expect to become a better team.
Plus, two more losing seasons is certainly not the culture Pat Shurmur is trying to build and would make the Giants a less-than-desirable destination for potential free agents and add difficulty in retaining valuable players.
There's no guarantee it would work
Unless the Giants could solidify the No. 1 overall pick, there is no guarantee they would even land Lawrence. They could trade up, too, but if he as as good as advertised, they will not be the only ones looking to made a deal. And that is assuming the top pick does not need a quarterback, either.
It would be an awful lot of losing for the Giants to continue to do for something that may not even pan out. It could potentially put the Giants in "quarterback hell," which GM Dave Gettleman desperately wants to avoid.
It would waste Saquon Barkley and Odell Beckham Jr.'s prime years
The Giants have the weapons to win now on offense and they need to take advantage of that. By 2021, Beckham will be 29 years old and it is entirely possible his best years will be behind him. Barkley will be 24 and in the final year of his rookie contract. While they can still win and be productive at those ages, no rookie quarterback has ever started a Super Bowl, so the odds would be stacked against them.
Could it happen? Maybe. But there are a lot of variables in place that could happen in two years. Plus, could anyone envision Beckham sticking around if the losing continues?
It's one game
Lawrence played great in the national championship game. He has been described as a "once in a generation" quarterback, drawing comparisons from scouts and analysts to Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck. But remember, much of the hoop-la right now is a knee-jerk reaction. Lawrence has two more years of collegiate ball to play and weaknesses could be exposed. Injuries could happen and change the trajectory of his potential. There is a lot of unknown in football and banking on something two years down the road is just a flat out silly thing to do.
The best course of action for the Giants to do is to address their problems now and continue on working toward getting better. Trying to tank to set up a high draft pick in the 2021 draft would only deter the team and waste the current talent that is on the roster now.