Lights, camera, draft
Best. NFL. Draft. Ever. Now this doesn’t mean that this week’s draft has the best quarterbacks ever, or the best players. There have been much better quarterback drafts than this one, all the way back to when Dan Marino fell past a lot of other ones and ended up falling all the way to Don Shula in South Florida. You have to say the draft in the old AFL when the Jets ended up with first pick and J.W. Namath was a pretty important one. So was the year when George Young picked LT. So was the one in 2004 when Ernie Accorsi walked away with Eli Manning, even knowing that Ben Roethlisberger wasn’t such a bad consolation prize
“There are no one hundred percent guarantees in this business,” Ernie has always said. “But I was pretty sure I couldn’t go wrong with either one of those guys.”
But when you look ahead to this week’s draft, you have to say that we are, hands down, looking at the most compelling — and unpredictable — first hour any draft has ever had. It is because nobody knows anything, to quote the great William Goldman, about where any of the top prospects might fall. Or who might get traded in the run-up to this draft. Or who might get traded the night of.
“This is the first time I’ve been this excited about a draft since I retired,” Ernie said Saturday morning. “I’m not missing this thing.”
Once it was set that the Giants had been so awful last season that they ended up with the second pick in this draft, we were so sure they would take a quarterback, and this would be the chance to set them up for the next decade, or more, the way they once did with Eli. It would be Sam Darnold, if the Browns didn’t take Sam Darnold, or Josh Rosen or Josh Allen. I don’t think it was ever going to be Baker Mayfield, on whom the Jets are supposed to be pretty sweet right now, just because Dave Gettleman, the new Giants general manager, and a tough smart old football guy, likes big guys, all over the field, and Mayfield isn’t one.
Gettleman held a pre-draft press conference the other day and he seemed delighted that no one has any clue about what he might do with the second pick on Thursday night.
“Like it? I love it!” he said. “Are you kidding me?”
So maybe he’s about half-in-love with Saquon Barkley, the Penn State running back who might be the most talented guy available on Thursday night. And maybe he’s not. Or maybe he is wondering, the way all Giants fans are wondering, just when the Giants might pick No. 2 ever again and have their pick of all the quarterbacks in this draft, other than the one the Browns might take ahead of them.
Or maybe he is wondering this: What if the Browns take Barkley, knowing they can still get a quarterback at No. 4?
And then we have the Jets, whose general manager is Mike Maccagnan, who is going to take a quarterback, who moved up so he could take a quarterback, and who might get fired eventually if he doesn’t draft the right one. When Maccagnan made this move up the board, I just assumed that while he must like one of these quarterbacks better than the others, he must also like all of them enough to grab the third one if both the Browns and Giants go for quarterbacks ahead of him.
But now, if the Giants really are thinking about taking Barkley,
and rolling with Eli for another year or two, then the Jets might get the second quarterback in the 2018 draft. And who knows? Maybe they don’t care about Mayfield only being six feet tall — a Jets fan I know wants to know when a six-foot quarterback turned into the football equivalent of Gary Coleman — and think he has the game, the arm, the flair and even an old-fashioned thing called moxie to flourish at MetLife Stadium, and in New York.
The Bills need a quarterback and want a quarterback and may move up to get one. John Elway has the fifth pick in the draft, and as much as Elway needs a quarterback, he has announced to the whole wide world that he is open for business, and if you want that pick, make him an offer, just make sure it’s a good one.
What is as compelling as anything about this draft, and even understanding all the strategic lying that goes on in the NFL at this time of year, is that everybody with a high pick does seem to have a different favorite at quarterback. Nobody seems to agree on any of them, Mayfield or Darnold or Josh Rosen or Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson, the Heisman Trophy quarterback before Mayfield, and a young man who happens to have a world of talent, and might have been a more complete quarterback for Louisville last season than he was the one before.
Usually, and especially with quarterbacks, there is a clear favorite by the time somebody has to make the first pick, or second, or third. Just not this time. I’ve never been a big draft guy. I am this year. From the time the season ended, I was certain the Giants would take a quarterback. Not certain anymore. Not even certain Dave Gettleman takes one even if the Browns take Barkley ahead of him. Won’t even be shocked if Gettleman trades out of No. 2. Honestly have no idea whom Maccagnan, who has put himself on the line here, likes best among the quarterbacks. Best. Draft. Ever.