I think thats whats separating this draft from a few recent ones and making it really, really, interesting and intriguing. Speaking of the Giants, do you think they go QB and are they full-speed ahead on giving up on Jones? EDIT; Im slow, I see you already answered my question in getting in front of the Giants.
And if the Giants dont trade some of the mockers have them going after McCarthy if he's there, thats why its imperative the Vikings move up ahead of them.
When Gettleman was in charge and even before while Chris Petite was on staff the Giants leaked like a sieve. I am not really sure we can believe any draft rumors anymore because they seem to have removed most of the problem children. (Schoen deserves credit for that if nothing else....) The Giants *could* go QB. I want them to. And that is why if the Vikings really want McCarthy I think they need to get to 4 or 5. They can't afford to take that risk and go into next year with Sam Darnold as your starter... There has been a ton of speculation that last season Mara may have put his finger on the scale and coming off a playoff appearance forced the GM's hand in bringing back Jones and Barkley. The thing is we have very little evidence Mara actually does get involved. (Now he has underqualified family in the personnel department but that's a different story entirely...) But when you really look at the contract they gave Jones it was a 2 year deal that looked, essentially, like they were making him an overpaid bridge QB because they didn't really have a lot of good options available to them at the time. The beat reporters and the national guys appear to be in conflict here. National guys think the Giants are done and ready to move on. The beats are all saying the Giants are serious about Jones being the starter next year, serious about still believing in his talent and the only concern is the injury history. No one, team nor Jones, has ever really explained the nature of his two neck injuries and the concern is that the risk of re-injury is significant. In the past when there was been conflict between beats and national -- the national guys have been right. The Giants PR guy is a media force and during the Gettleman era beats were traded access in exchange for as Kim Jones put it "carrying water for Gettleman." So I think they still are controlling the narrative beat reporters get. Bottom line is this. I think if the Giants have a chance of getting Maye they will try their damnedest to pull it off. If pick #3 is on the table I don't think the Vikings will beat the Giants to it. Otherwise they sit tight at 6 and see how the board falls. I would be shocked if it's anything other than WR or QB at 6 and I don't think they want to trade down in this class either - though they have been calling around to see what going up or down might result in. I like the Giants WR room better then most people do but even I have to admit adding Nabers or Odunze takes it to a different level.
Couple other questions I'm pondering this morning... Do the Jets really need to even consider going after Brock Bowers with that #10 pick? Rodgers didn't exactly light up the TE position in Green Bay, they already have a full room with a possible breakout candidate and you could easily argue WR is a far bigger issue on that side of the ball With the retirement of Aaron Donald, does a player like Michael Hall Jr. become a serious target for the Rams earlier in the draft than what some would anticipate? Considering the Steelers moves so far this offseason, could this be the first year since the Santonio Holmes pick that they go after a receiver in round 1? If the Eagles are as 'all in' as it appears they may be, would they be willing to make a leap up the board into DEN's pick to get a big name CB? What about the Packers? Did they build enough confidence down the stretch that they think they are a player away from reclaiming the North? Like Philly, they have a need at CB and the draft capital necessary to make a significant charge up the boards. Do the Cardinals feel like they are two marquee players away from challenging for the NFC West? Because they could take a crack at possibly Harrison at the top and still maneuver back into that top half for a second pick. They have a need at every level on defense and a pick in that top 16 would go a long way towards reshaping at least one aspect.
I think the compensation from the Vikings would be higher than the Giants at such a clip that it would basically price Minnesota out. Best case scenario for the Giants would be that they are the only team trying to really jockey into that #3 spot (if the Pats are selling) and the Vikings are content with taking whichever passer is still available at #5. Otherwise, the auction for that pick may be something that hamstrings NY for more than this draft. I'll repeat my opinion on this again because it still infuriates me that it wasn't blatantly obvious to the Giants front office.. The move was to sign Saquon for 3 years and non-exclusive tag Jones in the hope that someone made an offer that got you those high picks in return. I know I'm getting redundant with posting that, but I'm not joking when I say it still pisses me off with how they approached it. lol
You are not the only one lol. I'll be honest I was fine with walking away from Barkley last year. I would have been ok letting them both walk. (Apparently letting Jones walk was the right move considering how much more interesting the offense looked with Tyrod Taylor and even Tommy Devito...) Tagging him and signing Jones to that deal only delayed the inevitable and no one should have fallen for the hype that the Giants were a good team after 2022 when they had an easy schedule, coaching produced the best year of Jones career and he was still mediocre at best, and they beat the biggest fraud team in the NFL in the playoffs. They are the two faces of a failed regime and a dark period of Giants history. They both caused a massive divide among the fan base and both player careers have gone almost exactly the way naysayers and realists predicted. It was too easy to see where this went and it stopped Daboll and Schoen from moving the team in the direction they wanted to. Schoen boxed himself in a corner when he said "Jones will be back" in his end of season presser. Jone's agent squeezed every tiny bit of leverage he could out of it and waited until the last possible moment handicapping the Giants ability to do much of anything. The Giants had also made very reasonable offers to Barkley who didn't want to sign what they were offering. He massively misjudged his value and ended up firing his agent over the ordeal. He thought he was going to get a bigger deal in 2023 then he signed with the Eagles this offseason. I sort of understand how they ended up where they did, but I do think it wasn't particularly smart strategy. Schoen is definitely doing some learning on the job right now. His use of the cap is really conservative and it took him 2 years to say "Screw it I need to try and build this my way." (Some of that was the reality of cleaning up Gettleman's mess though.) I like Schoen and I think he has a chance to be a pretty good GM. But some of his early moves were unsophisticated to downright bad. I like the strategy shift we see happening now though. They are clearly moving to a pass first offense post Barkley and are trying to build through the trenches. The Giants have failed more times then I can count at attempting to build an offensive line since 2008 so we will have to see if his attempts pay off or not...
I really wonder how much faith GM's have in taking a TE early anymore? Pitts had bad luck going to the Falcons and then getting injured. But early TE selections haven't exactly paid off for the investment in recent years. Bowers may pay the price and slide down boards a bit. I mean how far in do you have to get before you can't pass on the talent of a TE?
Yup there you go. At what point is he too much of the BPA to override positional value? I'm not going to pretend I watched a lot of Bowers so I legit don't know.
And I can see that point of view. Where I'm coming from - Jones ain't it, and I'd rather have to be bridgeless at passer but with a sound run game and a (hopefully) improving defense over a 3 year stretch. Better that than to sort out quarterback after I chained myself to an anchor and dove into the Saquon-less abysssssssss...........
Yeah... if that's the case then top 10 was probably always inflated. And in a draft where 4 QB's go in the top 10... "Nice player but not a huge game changer" feels like 20+ to me.
I could see that. Indy at #15 is intriguing, because they are definitely going to find ways to get Richardson easier looks in his second season.
Oh yeah that could be a nice fit. Probably at least 4 WR's off the board there. Get AR a nice security blanket.
With the way the board falls they are taking a WR if they don't go QB. It will be BPA when they are on the clock and they don't have a "true #1 WR," but rather a bunch of guys that are pretty good to OK. They don't want to give up on Neal as the RT yet. He has only played 20 games and most of those he was banged up for. They think he has more to offer and they brought in Eluemenor to compete with him just in case. So I think tackle is off the board. The dark horse position is CB. They have Banks and not much behind him at this point and after letting McKinney walk in Free Agency the entire back end of the defense is young and inexperienced. I could see them trying to add to that group early. I'm just not sure that value and need align for them at 6 overall.
Good stuff guy's. I could see WR Harrison Jr, going at 5 to the Chargers and WR Odunze at 6 to the Giants (Nabers looming also)... It would be an easier world for the top 10 if CB Quinyon Mitchell didnt exist, lol. Throw in a couple really good lineman like, Alt and Faultanu and what we have is mass confusion in a positive form. The top 10 has their work cut out as after some glaring QB holes are filled early, its still a bevy of talent on the board.
Yup there are two schools of thought on this matter: 1) The Giants are serious and would love to get their hands on one of these QB's. 2) This is all smokescreen and the Giants have set everything up for Jones to get one more chance and REALLY want Nabers or MHJ to be available at 6. There was a report out today from a Giants beat writer that the front office is pissed they are being linked to McCarthy of late. Schoen keeps things pretty close to the vest though so this really could all be smokescreen. I tend to believe QB is the most important position in sports and you should always be looking to upgrade so I am hoping it is option 1. But the very real possibility exists that they are tied to Jones this year either way and so they are setting up to try and make it work.
The top three teams in the 2024 NFL draft — the Bears, Commanders and Patriots — are widely expected to take quarterbacks Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye with the top three picks. Which makes the Cardinals’ pick at No. 4 a major focal point. Cardinals General Manager Monti Ossenfort said the Cardinals are already getting calls about the possibility of trading out of the fourth overall pick, although he doesn’t expect to actually make a trade any time soon. “I’d say those phone calls are starting to pick up a little bit. I would say they’ll probably continue into next week when we go down to Florida for the owners’ meetings,” Ossenfort said. “I think most teams are in a similar spot to us, starting to finalize their boards, and the pro day pieces are the final on-field pieces for evaluation purposes. So I would imagine some of those conversations will continue to pick up, but honestly they probably will not get real serious until we get right up until the week of the draft, similar to last year. They have definitely picked up, but I would expect that to continue here for the next month.” If Williams, Daniels and Maye go 1-2-3, a team trading up to No. 4 would probably be looking to draft Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy at No. 4. The Vikings, by trading up to acquire the Texans’ first-round pick, have already shown that they’re a team that could be looking to move up. Other teams are surely calling the Cardinals as well, and Ossenfort said they’re interested in hearing from any team with an offer. “We’re always going to be listening,” Ossenfort said. “I think we’ll always have the conversation. If the Cardinals stay put at No. 4, Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. is the betting favorite to be their pick. But Ossenfort noted that the draft often doesn’t go as planned. “We pick at four. That means we don’t know what’s going to happen at one, two and three,” Ossenfort said. And by the time the Cardinals are actually picking on draft night, they may not be picking at four at all. PFT
