NFL

New York reacts to the Giants’ ‘big mistake’ in the NFL draft

"Big Blew it."

Duke quarterback Daniel Jones poses with Roger Goodell after he was selected by the Giants in the NFL draft.

By Hayden Bird

2 minutes to read

The New York Giants, who finished last in the NFC East in back-to-back seasons for the first time in over 40 years, made a surprising choice by taking Duke quarterback Daniel Jones with the sixth pick in the NFL draft’s first round on Thursday night.

Considering the Giants had other draft needs, and that other available quarterbacks were rated higher than Jones (as well as the fact that many experts believed Jones would’ve been available when the Giants picked again at 17), the selection by New York general manager Dave Gettleman unleashed a storm of controversy.

“I think it’s the fit that they wanted because he’s been around David Cutcliffe, and he’s been around the Mannings, but I think it was a big mistake,” ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay bluntly said afterward.

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The New York Post’s back page was unequivocal in its opinion:

“Cutcliffe told me that Jones wanted the New York stage. Jones, about as popular with Giants fans as Kristaps Porzingis was with Knicks fans the night he was drafted, was lucky he wasn’t at the MetLife viewing party,” wrote the Post’s Steve Serby. “The poor kid would have felt the way Roger Goodell must feel standing in front of the draft audience announcing the picks.”

“Big Blew it,” concluded Serby.

As for the MetLife Stadium viewing party, Giants season ticket holders roundly booed the pick of Jones:

The New York Daily News also didn’t hold back:

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Beyond the headline puns, closer analysis began to unpack just how much of a reach the choice of Jones was for the sixth pick.

“There’s been some scuttlebutt in the past that the internet will run out of space. It would absolutely happen if I were given enough time to list all of my thoughts on this particular selection,” wrote Kevin Clark of The Ringer. “I came into Thursday’s draft intending to needle whichever team overdrafted Missouri’s Drew Lock, and the Giants were a prime candidate. Instead, they spent the sixth pick on a quarterback who is worse than Lock.”

“My colleague Danny Kelly ranked [Kyler] Murray as a top-five overall prospect, and Jones 100th,” Clark noted later in his column. “They were taken five picks apart from each other. Do not try to understand this.”

Mike Francesa, one of the New York’s most recognizable talk radio voices, also shared his thoughts. They echoed what many were also saying about the decision.

“Now this tells me that the Giants don’t know what the hell they’re doing,” Francesa said.

“Right now, the Giants have absolutely screwed Eli Manning,” said Francesa.

https://twitter.com/BackAftaThis/status/1121585969566666752

ESPN pundit Max Kellerman referenced the Giants’ other major offseason decision — the trade of Odell Beckham Jr. — in describing what he saw as an even larger disaster:

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The Wikipedia editorial knives were out:

Dwayne Haskins, another quarterback who was projected by many to be better than Jones, reacted to the news with  chuckle:

And on ABC, the analysts couldn’t handle the news:

https://twitter.com/espn/status/1121588936298647552