Eli Manning won’t be the starting quarterback of the New York Giants forever. The Giants may be able to find Manning’s future replacement in the 2016 NFL Draft.
The days of Eli Manning starting at quarterback for the New York Giants aren’t yet over, but one can see the exit gate of this ride without squinting these days.
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Manning, who has been in the New York lineup every game since he took over for Kurt Warner all the way back during the 2004 National Football League season, should still have several good years left in the tank. He did, however, turn 35 years old in January, and the undefeated foe that is time will probably notch a victory over Manning before the decade comes to an end.
The Giants may already have Manning’s replacement picked out. New York grabbed Ryan Nassib out of Syracuse in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL Draft, and Nassib has been just fine as Manning’s backup. Nassib tossed the first touchdown of his NFL career this past December in mop-up duty when the Giants were being blown out by the Minnesota Vikings. Perhaps new head coach Ben McAdoo, who coached Nassib while serving as the offensive coordinator of the Giants, views Nassib as the team’s future QB.
The problem with such thinking, of course, is that Nassib is probably going to become impatient sooner rather than later. Nassib will turn 26-years-old in March, and he is likely not going to be sold on having zero chance of starting at any point over the next several years unless Manning goes down to an injury.
Another way things could go is that McAdoo and the Giants could work under the assumption that Nassib will not be worthy of ever replacing Manning on a long-term basis. Nassib is an unproven commodity as a pro quarterback, but McAdoo has been able to see and work with Nassib for a long enough amount of time to, at the very least, have an idea of what Nassib could become if he was given the keys to the offense this fall.
We’re going to proceed under the premise that McAdoo will never be ready to go all-in on Nassib if for no other reason than not doing so would make for a rather short piece here. The Giants have plenty of holes that need to be filled via good draft picks if the club is going to contend for a Super Bowl with Manning on the roster and on the field. With that said, it is no longer too early for the Giants to look ahead at what life will be life once Manning rides off into the sunset.
The Giants, of course, have no business taking a quarterback in the first couple of rounds of the 2016 NFL Draft. Doing so would be foolish for a club that has a possible future Hall-of-Fame inductee under center. Things could get interesting, though, once the third round of the NFL Draft rolls along.
The latest Walter Football NFL mock draft, produced by Walter himself, has three QBs being selected by clubs in the third round of the draft. Interestingly, all three of those picks occur after where the Giants are currently scheduled to be at in the draft order. Assuming that the Walter Football predictions are even somewhat accurate, the Giants could have some intriguing options at QB when their time to draft in the third round arrives.
Cardale Jones out of Ohio State is the first name who goes off of the Walter Football board. Jones has a rocket for an arm, and he is built like a more-athletic version of Ben Roethlisberger. He may need some time, maybe even up to three years, before he is physically and mentally ready to start for a winning NFL franchise. The Giants, a team with a head coach who learned under Tom Coughlin and who have a two-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player QB, could be the perfect landing spot for Jones.
The stock of Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook seemingly drops with every new NFL mock draft. Cook began the season as a sure-thing first-round draft pick. Whispers that he could be, for lack of a better description, a jerk and a diva became massive red flags in the eyes of some, and Cook did himself zero favors by having a night to forget versus Alabama on December 31.
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Cook was, for the most part, successful in college. He may just need the right environment to grow up some and become ready to lead a NFL offense. Cook wouldn’t be a recognized star making third-round money and living in Hoboken, and he would have multiple seasons in the league to learn the New York offense and also to mature if the Giants took a shot and drafted him.
Jacoby Brissett out of N.C. State, a project who won’t be NFL-ready in September, could be an option. Christian Hackenberg from Penn State will only get by former PSU head coach and current Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien so many times before O’Brien takes him, but Hackenberg could fall to the Giants in the third round.
Is it wacky for a team that has a proven veteran QB to use a third-round pick on strengthening the position? Absolutely not, and one need only look at the Dallas Cowboys to see why. The Cowboys have never adequately prepared for being without Tony Romo for more than a couple of games, and it burned Dallas in a big way last fall. Dallas would have run away with the NFC East title had Romo been able to remain healthy or if the team would have had a decent backup quarterback.
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Yes, Manning has been durable. He has also been in the NFL for over a decade. Every QB is one hit away from being off of the field, but history has shown that is even more true for quarterbacks who are closer to being 40 years old than they are to being 35.
The Giants may not need Manning’s replacement in 2016, but that doesn’t mean the team shouldn’t consider taking fliers on possible future starters in April.