The New York Giants have an extensive scouting department that covers the country from coast to coast but there’s one place they seem to concentrate on the most, and that’s Ladd-Peeples Stadium in Mobile, Alabama.
That’s the site of the annual Senior Bowl where players who have completed their college eligibility get a chance to showcase their wares for NFL personnel people.
The Giants’ brass is usually there in numbers and put a lot of weight in the game when it comes to their draft board. They have selected the MVP of the game the past three years, all quarterbacks: Davis Webb, Cal (2017), Kyle Lauletta, Richmond (2018) and Duke’s Daniel Jones last year.
Webb and Lauletta, third- and fourth-round picks respectively, are no longer Giants, while Jones, taken sixth overall in last year’s draft, is the future of the franchise.
Usually, the general managers and scouts don’t stick around for the actual game, they just watch the practices and conduct the interviews. It’s difficult to gauge a player’s worth in an all-star game anyway.
Last year, Giants GM Dave Gettleman, still up in the air about certain quarterbacks, wanted to see them play in a live game, Jones in particularly.
So he stayed.
“Watching them on tape is one thing, seeing them in the environment is definitely, I think, very important. Saw Drew (Lock), Daniel, Jarrett Stidham, (Gardner) Minshew, (Trace) McSorley, all of these guys were at the Senior Bowl, so I decided to stay,” Gettleman told reporters last year.
“I made up my mind that I was staying for the game and, frankly, he (Jones) walked out there and I saw a professional quarterback after the three series that I watched. I saw a professional quarterback.”
The rest you know. Gettleman fell “full bloom” in love with Jones and over-drafted him. No one is complaining about that now.
What we do wonder is who Gettleman will be smitten with this year. He doesn’t need a quarterback and many of the big defensive players are underclassman, so it will be fun to watch his reaction during this game. That is, if he stays for it.
