New York Giants: Why They Need to Keep 3 Quarterbacks
With New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning heading into the stretch of his career and his backup Ryan Nassib entering the last year of his rookie deal, the team needs to start planning for the future at the quarterback.
When New York Giants general manager Jerry Reese met with the media after making the team’s Day 3 draft picks in 2013, something he said of one of those picks made that day raised an eyebrow.
“If he doesn’t ever play, that would be great,” he said according to Jim Corbett of USA Today. “That’s a good problem to have. If he needs to play, we’re hoping that whatever time that is that he’ll be up and ready to go.”
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The “he” Reese was referring to is quarterback Ryan Nassib, a player for whom the Giants traded their fourth-round pick (No. 116 overall) and their sixth round pick (No. 187) to the Arizona Cardinals to move up six spots to draft the former Syracuse signal caller.
In explaining the decision to trade up for a player whom he hoped never played a down, Reese said via the Giants’ official website, “We talked about it … if he was still there, there was no way we were going to pass him up again because he has too much value.”
Fast forward to 2016. Eli Manning has been a rock for New York, having never missed a starting assignment. He also signed a new four-year contract extension last September that, per Over the Cap, is worth $84 million which would suggest he’s not going anywhere any time soon.
Meanwhile despite continuing to draw praise from the coaches, Nassib remains in a holding pattern despite all that value Reese and the personnel department saw when they drafted him.
Nassib is so stuck behind Manning that it wouldn’t be surprising if he has already circled the start of the 2017 free agency period on his calendar.
While Nassib has declined to comment about his situation, it would be hard to fathom him not wanting to have an opportunity to start somewhere else rather than to wait to have a chance to run an offensive system that he probably knows just as well as Manning.
The Giants haven’t kept three quarterbacks on the roster since the 2013 season when Manning, Nassib and Curtis Painter were the signal callers.
The most likely reason for this is been the rash of injuries that have forced the coaches to “steal” from one position unit to fill others hit hard by injuries.
Because of the injury woes, the Giants have been unable to develop a young quarterback to potentially take over the understudy role for Nassib.
Thus far this offseason, there have been strong indications that the Giants hope to change that practice. After the draft, the team signed free agent quarterback Josh Woodrum as a priority free agent, guaranteeing him $20,000 of his base salary.
Woodrum, for reasons never disclosed, was waived after the rookie minicamp. The Giants replaced him with B.J. Daniels, who made it through the rest of the spring before he was waived the day after the team concluded the mandatory minicamp.
The team has since picked up former Miami quarterback Logan Thomas off waivers. Whehter he survives traiing camp remains to be seen.
In between Woodrum and Daniels, the Giants, according to ESPN’s Field Yates, put in a waiver claim for former Titans quarterback Zach Mettenberger but lost out to San Diego, who had a higher waiver priority.
Looking ahead to the 2017 crop of draft-eligible quarterbacks, George Stockburger of Scout.com opines the 2017 quarterback draft class could be a mixed bag.
"College football offenses have gravitated from under center, pro-style schemes to shotgun spread offenses over the past couple of seasons. Because of those changes to the game and how kids are learning it, players, especially quarterbacks, are not seeing their game translate into the NFL as easily."
There is also the matter of where the Giants might draft. To land a franchise quarterback, teams usually have to draft anywhere from first overall to seventh overall.
If the Giants are looking to get back to posting wining records, they probably won’t be drafting in the top 10 next spring if they can achieve that goal.
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While some will argue that the Giants don’t need to or that they can get by with carrying an extra arm on the practice squad, if New York is serious about putting together a succession plan for Manning that extends beyond Nassib, they need to start the process now.