THE NEXT BIG THING
Eli Manning is on the clock. No one is running the franchise quarterback out of town or nudging him out of the huddle, but the Giants hope they procured his eventual replacement Friday night in the third round of the NFL draft, when, with the 87th overall pick, they selected Davis Webb, a strong-armed quarterback from California who was not supposed to last that long.
“I thought he would get drafted earlier,’’ said Giants coach Ben McAdoo, who added Webb is “a big man with a chip on his shoulder.’’
McAdoo knows all about nurturing a young quarterback with a chip on his shoulder forced to sit behind an established star. He was on the Packers staff in Green Bay when Aaron Rodgers was disappointed to get drafted late in the first round and sat for three years behind Brett Favre. Now McAdoo, as the head coach, gets to oversee this transition, with Manning, 36 and three years remaining on his contract, starting while Webb waits in the wings.
“Let me get this straight guys, we hope that Eli plays for a long time for us,’’ Giants general manager Jerry Reese said. “Eli is our quarterback and we still think that he can play at a high level, but we do know that he is not going to play forever, so we are trying to make the best decision as we move forward for the rest of Eli’s career.’’
In the second round, the Giants filled the void created when Johnathan Hankins signed with the Colts by taking Dalvin Tomlinson, a 310-pound defensive tackle out of Alabama who they expect to step in and start from day one.
The Giants seemed hell-bent to get a quarterback in this draft and they were surprised the way this played out. Three quarterbacks — Mitchell Trubisky, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson — were taken in the first round and DeShone Kizer was taken in the second. The Giants were not going to trade up or reach for a quarterback and never expected Webb to be there so late in the third round.
“We feel we have fairly equal talent in the bottom of the third to some of the [quarterbacks] who went pretty high,’’ said Marc Ross, the Giants’ vice president of player evaluation.
Four years ago, Reese took Ryan Nassib in the fourth round and famously and said he hoped Nassib never played. Four years later, Reese did not repeat that wish, but it is clear Webb is here, for now, to sit and learn.
“Obviously, we would like for him to have a couple years to be the caddie and learn the pro game and all the nuances of playing quarterback in these league,’’ Reese said. “We think that he has a high ceiling and hopefully he can sit on the sideline, hold a clipboard and learn the game.’’
Webb is aboard, joining Geno Smith and Josh Johnson as quarterbacks behind Manning on the roster, for now.
Webb is a big guy (6-foot-5, 230 pounds) with a big arm. He started his college career at Texas Tech (where he lost the starting job to Mahomes) and finished it at Cal, where in 2016, he threw 37 touchdown passes.
“We thought he had the best arm in the draft this year,’’ Reese said. “Really a gifted thrower.’’
Webb said he was “ecstatic’’ to get taken by the Giants, but he did not sound especially thrilled with the turn of events. He was surrounded by family and friends in Texas while he waited, and waited, to hear his name.
“The NFL draft’s a little weird,’’ Webb said. “You can’t predict it. Anything can happen. I’m just looking forward to being a great teammate and being a prepared quarterback.
“I don’t know what my role is on the team yet. Obviously Eli Manning is a two-time Super Bowl MVP so he’s one of the best and a Hall of Fame quarterback. I’m just excited to be in the same quarterback room as him. We’ll see what happens.’’
The Giants were so sure Webb would not be around for them — they likely had a second-round grade on him and were not going to take him that high — that Ross never saw the need to arrange for McAdoo to meet with Webb. McAdoo’s first contact with his new quarterback was a brief phone conversation after the pick.
“I’m a very goal-oriented type person,’’ Webb said. “I’m a thirdround draft pick and I look forward to being a great teammate first and being a hard worker, those are the two things I can control.’’