DRAFT QUEST
Franchise reaches fork in road with future on the line
It is mid-December, the temperature is dropping, the race is heating up and it is the point in the season when time is short and the chase is on.
This, of course, has nothing to do with jockeying for position within the division or the conference or analyzing the playoff picture because that ship sailed on the Giants well before Halloween. The battle is real, though, when it comes to gaining the highest possible pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, and at the moment, the Giants are winning for losing.
At present, they own the No. 2 selection, sitting behind the winless Browns and just ahead of the Colts. The Giants (2-12) are in the driver’s seat here, one game ahead of the Colts (3-11), with the previously moribund 49ers (4-10) out of contention now that quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has come onto the scene. The Bears (4-10) also are too good to be the worst.
The Giants at No. 2 can sit back and watch the Browns take whichever quarterback they want and simply take the other one, be it Josh Rosen of UCLA or Sam Darnold of USC. Or there is another scenario that could be fascinating but also daring.
What happens if the Eli Manning everyone saw slinging it 57 times in a tight 34-29 loss to the Eagles, the best team in the NFC, is once again starting at quarterback for the Giants in 2018? He gets to throw to a fully healed and raring to go Odell Beckham Jr. He gets to throw to Sterling Shepard, one of the most feared slot receivers in the league. He can toss it to Evan Engram, already one of the NFL’s top pass-catching tight ends. And when a handoff is required, Manning puts the ball in the gut of rookie Saquon Barkley, who dances and prances with it as he makes defenders miss, just as he did at Penn State. When Barkley needs a rest, bigger Wayne Gallman pounds up a defense Barkley already has tenderized.
To address the shaky offen- sive line, Nate Solder can be signed in free agency to start at left tackle, moving improving (ever so slowly) Ereck Flowers to right tackle, where he should have been all along. If Solder is good enough to protect 40-year old Tom Brady, he can protect 37-year old Eli Manning. Justin Pugh can be resigned to play left guard and Brett Jones can be resigned to play center. With the extra second-round pick the Giants would acquire trading down from No. 2, they would be in position to select the best guard in college football to start immediately at right guard.
Manning is backed up by Davis Webb, who bides his time, knowing the organization likes him and wants him to be Manning’s successor, possibly as early as 2019.
Manning got his pitch count up pretty good, attempting 57 passes against the Eagles, amassing 434 passing yards and three touchdowns. He said Monday his arm “feels fine” and jokingly dismissed any arm fatigue.
“Feels good as new,’’ he said, smiling.
Is this an offensive plan that could lead the Giants out of their current abyss and back into the playoffs?
There are two drastically different routes for the Giants to decide upon. There will be a new general manager, a new head coach and most likely an entirely new coaching staff. In keeping with that theme, it could be time for a new quarterback, part of the “wholesale changes” Mara only a few weeks ago stressed as required — even though Mara also has said he wants Manning back in 2018. The Giants could look at the No. 2 pick in the draft as an unnatural place to be and accept this unforeseen gift as a sign they need to move on and take Rosen or Darnold and hope he is their next Eli Manning.
Or they could trade out of the No. 2 pick — there will be plenty of takers, with teams scrambling for a quarterback — and attempt to solve several problems with the extra picks they receive. There is not a franchise left tackle in this draft, certainly none worth the No. 2 pick, but Barkley could be make an Ezekiel Elliott-type impact (on the field) in the NFL.
Sticking with or moving on from Manning is the fulcrum on which everything pivots. The Giants messed up everything thus far to get to 2-12. They cannot mess up the rebuild.