Giants seem poised to make another massive Draft Day mistake

The Giants should spend a first-round pick on a quarterback in this year’s draft. If that quarterback is Daniel Jones then Dave Gettleman should be fired.

When Giants General Manager Dave Gettleman took Saquon Barkley with the second pick in last year’s draft he was widely criticized for failing to understand the economics of the modern NFL. He seems poised to make a worse decision in this year’s draft.

Gettleman and the Giants have long been rumored to be big fans of former Duke star Daniel Jones. Now it seems their interest in Jones might go well beyond a healthy dose of fandom. Charles Robinson of Yahoo recently intimated that the Giants are the one team in the NFL who believes Jones is the best quarterback in this class. If Gettleman really believes that, it’s time for the Giants to admit they’ve chosen the wrong man to be their general manager.

Jones is a decent quarterback prospect, but rating him over guys like Kyler Murray, Dwayne Haskins and even Drew Lock shows a serious inability to scout the position by Gettleman and his staff. It’s all well and good that Jones was molded by David Cutcliffe at Duke, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to turn into the same player that Eli Manning was in his prime. Gettleman’s belief that Jones is going to turn into that kind of player is nothing more than a fantasy.

The simple facts are that Jones had a nice career with the Blue Devils, but he never really showed a clear ability to elevate the talent around him. He completed a shade over 60 percent of his passes during his final season under Cutcliffe, but his average of 6.8 passing yard per attempt is a clear sign that he struggled to throw the ball downfield.

When you watch Jones on tape he really struggles to throw receivers open on intermediate and deep routes. That’s something the next Giants quarterback needs to excel with given the lack of talent on the team’s receiving corps after dealing Odell Beckham Jr. to the Browns.

Jones also struggled to stay healthy during his time at Duke. The Giants have upgraded their offensive line, but you’d like to see a lot more durability from a guy who checks in at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds.

If the Giants stay put at No. 6 and take Jones, Gettleman should be fired as soon as he turns the card in. There’s no rationale explanation for rating and taking him that high. There’s a much better argument to be made that he has no business being a first-round pick than claiming he should go anywhere in the top 10.

Even with the Giants’ second first-round pick of the draft it would be a very questionable selection. Gettleman should be aiming for an immediate starter with the No. 17 pick. This roster has plenty of holes to fill. Spending such a valuable draft asset on a player who won’t start in 2019 and doesn’t project to be anything more than an average player in his career should also lead to Gettleman’s dismissal.

Unfortunately for Giants fans, Gettleman seems to be operating a dictatorship in the Big Apple. If left to his own devices he looks ready to blow this draft. The longer Gettleman is left in place the further behind the rest of the NFL the Giants are going to fall.