New York Giants Roundtable: Revisiting Daniel Jones draft selection a year later

Ed Stein

The devil opened up his (computer) case and he said, “I’ll start this show.'” And fire flew from his fingertips as he rosined up his er keyboard. – Paraphrased from The Devil Went Down to Georgia.

I’m on record as absolutely hating this pick. There was no reason for the New York Giants to draft Daniel Jones with the sixth overall pick. Call it what you will, but Giants General Manager Dave Gettleman got snookered by misinformation about other team’s regard for Jones. All of his “I fell in love with him at the Senior Bowl and had to draft him as soon as possible” is crap. A glorified justification made by someone who thinks he’s smarter than the entire league, to explain his error.

I wrote this after it happened, and I stand by it today, Jones could have gone 17th overall. If GMDG really thought someone would have drafted the former Dukie, before then, he had enough draft capital to move up a few spots. They still could have gotten a cornerback DeAndre Baker or Greedy Williams in the second round so the argument that they need the extra pick to trade up for Baker doesn’t hold up. The way this draft should have gone is sixth – Josh Allen, 17th – Daniel Jones, either 31st or 38th – a cornerback.

To clarify one misconception, I don’t have a problem with Daniel Jones. I like the kid (except his constant fumble-itis is killing me). He says the right things, makes nice throws, has an NFL arm, and his mobility is probably the best Big Blue has ever had. Selecting Jones sixth, put unneeded pressure on him. If he was selected 17th, half of it wouldn’t exist and we wouldn’t be having this roundtable. That’s also on Gettleman.