Mel Kiper Jr. believes the Giants threw the true curveball of the 2024 NFL Draft.
While most would peg the Falcons stunningly taking Michael Penix as the fourth quarterback at pick No. 8 as the draft’s biggest surprise Thursday, the ESPN draft expert countered that the Giants passing on taking a potential franchise quarterback marked a truly stunning decision.
“I had heard for the last couple of months the Giants were looking into the quarterback,” Kiper Jr. said, re-enacting conversations he had with those around the league pre-draft. “You’re sitting at six, they can trade up to get J.J. McCarthy. Don’t forget about Daniel Jones, you’re going to hang him out to dry? You’re not going to take any of the explosive receivers, when you haven’t had a 1,000-yard receiver since 2018? You have no explosive plays, and you got Malik Nabers and Rome Odunze sitting there. You’re going to take the quarterback? I kept hearing, ‘Yeah, yeah, they’re interested in a quarterback,’ and they didn’t have to move up.
“They sat at six and there’s J.J. McCarthy. So I’m thinking, ‘OK, what have we been hearing? What’s the chatter been for the last couple of months?’ They didn’t take McCarthy, Scott, they took the receiver Malik Nabers to help Daniel Jones, who they inherited. Most times, GMs, the head coaches, want their own guy. And Daniel Jones is coming off injuries and he had some struggles because the offensive line was bad and they didn’t have explosive receivers. So, I think the Giants may have surprised some people.”
Although the Giants did pass on a quarterback in the first round, their decision to do so comes with a caveat since they did attempt to move up to draft one Thursday.
The Giants tried to get the Patriots to move off of the No. 3 pick, which would have allowed them to draft North Carolina’s Drake Maye, but New England would not budge.
And once Maye went to the Patriots, the Giants clearly decided they did not view McCarthy, Bo Nix or Penix as worthy of the No. 6 pick.
Time will tell if those decisions prove right as Penix, McCarthy (No. 10, Vikings) and Nix (No. 12, Broncos) all came off the board in the next six selections.
“I think I said last week we were going to have conversations in front of us. We actually had conversations behind us. There was an opportunity for us to move out of the pick. So, we had conversations,” Giants general manager Joe Schoen said. “We had different plans in place. And we’re excited to have Malik Nabers here, so we’re real happy with the way it worked out.”
Kiper Jr., while surprised, liked that the Giants didn’t force a quarterback.
However, the Giants now face a realistic scenario where if Jones struggles again in 2024, the team lacks a franchise quarterback entering the 2025 NFL Draft, which is not as quarterback-rich.
“I’m happy they did what they did because I like Daniel Jones,” Kiper Jr. said. “So for all the Daniel Jones haters, the heir apparent wasn’t taken at six.”
