The New York Giants shocked the football world when they selected Duke quarterback Daniel Jones in Round 1 of the 2019 NFL Draft.
Jones was considered by many to be a lower-tier quarterback, and certainly not worthy of coming off the board behind only Kyler Murray. However, Jones was extremely impressive during his rookie campaign save for some turnover issues, and he seemed to sway a lot of opinions.
Retired Dallas Cowboys head coach and current FOX Sports analyst, Jimmy Johnson, may or may not be one of those people. Either way, he’s pounding the drum for the Giants to take a quarterback at No. 4 overall if they are unable to trade down.
“I would think long and hard about taking a quarterback if I didn’t get a trade I wanted,” Johnson said. “I would take one of those quarterbacks — one of those franchise quarterbacks — because I promise you, the value of those players will go up.
“People get desperate when they don’t have a quarterback. And I promise you, they’ll get more than a No. 1 pick for that [quarterback]. . . Just be patient because it’ll pay dividends down the road.”
Johnson was suggesting the same for both the Detroit Lions and Giants in the event they stay put at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.
It’s an interesting idea and, in theory, it might pay off down the road. However, in the case of the Giants, there are entirely too many roster holes to waste a top pick on another quarterback. In fact, such a decision might be the end of the line for general manager Dave Gettleman.
Still, the Giants have poked around Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert, which caused a bit of an uproar late last week. In all likelihood however, that was just an effort to put pressure on QB-needy teams who will need to trade up.
