Unpacking the Giants Pivoting Away from Quarterback in Round 1

The Giants didn't take a quarterback in the first round of the draft. So now what?

The New York Giants didn’t take a quarterback in the first round of the 2024 draft.

Not like they didn’t try. The Giants were heavily reported to have their sites set on trading up in the draft order with the New England Patriots to select North Carolina’s Drake Maye, who ultimately became the Patriots’ pick when the Giants declined to pay a reported asking price of two first-round picks plus their second-rounder this year.

Since rejecting that offer and pivoting to LSU receiver Malik Nabers, six top quarterbacks have gone off the board in the first round, leaving quarterback-needy teams with primarily true developmental prospects who may or may not ever achieve full-time starter status.

What does the turn of events mean for the Giants and their future at quarterback? Are they now locked in with Daniel Jones for the long haul?

Yes and no. General manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll have repeatedly said that Jones, recovering from a torn ACL, will be the team’s starter once he is healthy this year. 

They have pledged their confidence in the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft and pledged to continue building around the quarterback position. They started that process in free agency with the addition of five offensive linemen, three tight ends, and now first-round draft pick Malik Nabers.

However, the concerns about Jones’s injury history aren’t going away anytime soon—they can’t, certainly not with a $12 million injury guarantee in his contract next year if he can’t pass a physical. That’s one major reason why there was hope among a segment of the fan base and the media that the Giants would move heaven and earth to get a new quarterback whom head coach Brian Daboll could develop and have ready if a) Jones got hurt again or b) he hit his ceiling in 2022.

That the Giants didn’t move heaven and earth to get Maye doesn’t necessarily mean that they weren’t full bloom in love with him in the way that former general manager Ernie Accorsi was back in 2004 when he gave up a king’s ransom to the San Diego Chargers to acquire Eli Manning. 

Instead, it means that the Giants have built up a roster that is still lacking in several key areas (which will hopefully be addressed with the remaining draft picks).

(And the fact that the Giants were reportedly so heavily invested in getting Maye should tell you everything you need to know about how they  feel about the quarterback position moving forward.)

So what do the Giants do at quarterback moving forward with the top talent off the board? Coach Gene Clemons presented three potential scenarios covering prospects who remain available as of the start of Day 2. Still, there is another possibility here that isn’t being discussed but needs to be.

Drew Lock.

Yes, Lock, himself once a first-round draft pick, is signed to a one-year deal. Yes, he was unable to develop into a solid starter in Denver and then couldn’t wrest the starting job from Geno Smith in Seattle.

But now that he has Daboll in his life, who knows? Maybe Daboll will do for Lock what he did for Josh Allen of the Bills, or, if you want something more realistic, what he did with Tyrod Taylor and Tommy DeVito. Both of them seemed to accelerate their respective developments to the point where Taylor continues to live a nice life as a top backup in the league, and DeVito, the “afterthought” by many in last year’s draft, played well enough to spark “Tommy Cutlets Mania.”

To be clear, even if he takes a giant leap in his development, that doesn't necessarily mean anything for the long term. But as a placeholder in the event disaster strikes Jones yet again? 

Why not? It’s not as though 2024 was the last chance for the Giants to add a quarterback. And considering how the franchise errored with Jones in not giving him a solid supporting cast when he first joined the team, maybe the Giants have finally learned from that mistake moving forward.

• Follow and like us on Facebook.
• Submit your questions for our mailbag.
• Follow Patricia Traina on Instagram.
• Check out the Giants Country YouTube Channel.
• Subscribe and like the LockedOn Giants YouTube Channel