New York Giants: Start a rookie quarterback in Week 1?

The New York Giants could, and probably should, select a quarterback in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Should that quarterback start in Week 1?

Uncertainty breeds questions in any scenario, such as whatever is planned for the near future of the quarterbacks room belonging to the New York Giants. Things often change in the NFL in the blink of an eye — some of us are old enough to remember when Joe Flacco was starting for the Baltimore Ravens way back when — but it seems, as of the third full weekend of February, Eli Manning will again start under center for the football Giants this coming September.

Of course, Manning won’t be the only player on the depth chart at the position. Kyle Lauletta may or may not be around again, although it’s unknown if any real amount of Giants fans would miss him if he didn’t appear at training camp.

Then, there are New York’s draft options which include spending the sixth pick on a quarterback, moving up to ensure the club grabs its chosen signal-caller or Big Blue (gasp!) trading down and selecting someone not currently on the radars of fans, observers and reporters.

More from NFL Spin Zone

• Dallas Cowboys made the trade everyone else should have made
• Pittsburgh Steelers rookie sleeper everyone should be talking about
• Anthony Richardson putting jaw-dropping talent on display immediately
• Denver Broncos’ stud wide receiver might be out for a while
• Washington Commanders: Three takeaways from win over Ravens

Say, for the sake of argument and also the blood pressures of those who cannot fathom the club doing otherwise, the Giants take a quarterback with pick No. 6. Maybe it’s Dwayne Haskins, maybe it’s Kyler Murray. It really doesn’t matter for the purposes of this piece, because whoever the Giants select to be Manning’s successor will spark plenty of debates and arguments among fans and possibly between individuals running the franchise.

You don’t have to be a fly on the wall or work within the team’s front office to understand ownership regrets the way Manning’s consecutive-starts streak ended a couple of seasons ago. What’s done is done, however, and the Giants should part ways with the two-time Super Bowl MVP before you’re finished reading this sentence if that’s the main reason he’s with the organization come summertime.

Manning defenders will point to the team’s woeful and sieve-like offensive line over the past couple of years as the main culprit for the quarterback’s poor performances. On Feb. 14, Dan Schneier of 247Sports explained Manning has yet to start behind a top-13 offensive line, per Pro Football Focus, this decade. More often than not, those units ranked in the bottom third of the league.

Yes, Manning missed far too many throws in 2018. He also wasn’t responsible for the Giants losing on a walk-off 63-yard field goal, the team’s defensive meltdown versus the Philadelphia Eagles or those late-season defeats to the Indianapolis Colts and Dallas Cowboys. New York could have gone 6-10, 7-9, 8-8 or even 9-7 with Manning under center had balls bounced the team’s ways in multiple scenarios. That’s life in the NFL.

With that out of the way, we return to the question at hand. Should the Giants start a rookie quarterback in Week 1? Without thinking outside of the box or imagining wacky situations or predicting injuries, there are three different ways head coach Pat Shurmur, who absolutely should have the final say or else everybody is just wasting their time until the club hires someone else, could handle this delicate matter.

Option A: Manning is the starter, the rookie is the backup and we’ll see what happens. Manning, a rookie in 2004, replaced Kurt Warner far too early that fall, and it wasn’t until the 2007 campaign that ended with Manning raising the Vince Lombardi Trophy that all Giants fans labeled him the team’s franchise quarterback.

That was then. Mindsets have changed. Patrick Mahomes sat behind Alex Smith an entire season minus a meaningless Week 17 contest. The Chicago Bears wanted Mitchell Trubisky to learn as a spectator. Same with Baker Mayfield, Josh Rosen, and Lamar Jackson. There are no hot takes about sitting first-round quarterbacks like there were years and decades ago.

Sitting a rookie gives Shurmur and company the option of going to the bullpen. If you start a rookie, though, that’s it. You’re all in, through his best and worst moments, because of the investment. Don’t forget Peyton Manning, Eli and many others before and after them weren’t instant hits right out of the gates.

Option 2: The Giants name the rookie the starter after the preseason. Remember when Russell Wilson was scheduled to “learn” from Matt Flynn? That didn’t last until the end of August 2012, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Meanwhile, everybody who watched the Cleveland Browns practice last summer saw Mayfield was the team’s best quarterback, but it wasn’t until Tyrod Taylor suffered a concussion on Sept. 20 that the then-rookie received his opportunity to face the New York Jets.

Option 3: A good ol’ fashioned quarterback competition! Don’t go this route, Giants. Making the greatest offensive player in franchise history “compete” for his job is downright insulting. It’s one thing if he loses his gig to a rookie after the preseason or to injury. It’s another to head into summer telling everybody that you want the rookie to beat Manning in a quarterback battle.