There’s no query the New York Giants’ high precedence this offseason is to search out themselves a beginning quarterback.
Co-owner John Mara, normal supervisor Joe Schoen, and head coach Brian Daboll all cited the necessity for a quarterback of their exit interviews with the media after the season.
The Giants maintain the No. 3 decide within the 2025 NFL draft however that received’t assure them a lot as the highest two quarterbacks — Colorado’s Shadeur Sanders and Cam Ward of Miami — might be off the board by the point they’re on the clock.
They at present have zero gamers underneath contract on the quarterback place heading into subsequent season and must get busy discovering some viable choices there.
Schoen talked about retaining unique rights free agent (ERFA) Tommy DeVito and exploring the commerce/free agent marketplace for a younger veteran to bridge the hole till they discover their long-term reply.
They may search to retain Drew Lock and/or Tim Boyle, who’re each impending free brokers, however they’re backup materials at finest.
The market is skinny regardless of the place they flip. They may decide to commerce for Atlanta’s Kirk Cousins, however that would show to be too expensive.
The free agent choices aren’t nice, both: Sam Darnold, Justin Fields, Andy Dalton, Jimmy Garappolo, Joe Flacco, Carson Wentz, Jameis Winston, Cooper Rush, Mason Rudolph, Marcus Mariota, Jacoby Brissett and Joshua Dobbs.
There may be additionally Russell Wilson, however he’ll seemingly re-sign with the Steelers. The actually sizzling identify, up till the previous two weeks was Darnold. And the Giants needed to be taking discover.
Nonetheless solely 27, Darnold had a monster season directing the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 document. He seemed just like the third general decide was predicted to look again in 2018 when the Jets drafted him.
However Darnold’s inventory has taken an enormous hit the previous two weeks after back-to-back clunkers in video games the Vikings wanted to win.
Within the Week 18 NFC North showdown with the Detroit Lions, Darnold folded up just like the Darnold of outdated, finishing simply 18 of 41 passes with no touchdowns and going 0-4 within the pink zone in a deflating 31-9 loss.
Darnold adopted that up within the Wild Card sport towards the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night time. He led the Vikings to a different one-sided loss, getting dominated, and subsequently eradicated by a rating of 27-9.
There was a brief window wherein some insiders thought that Darold can be retained by the Vikings however that window could now be shut. Their plan to maneuver forward with this yr’s high decide — J.J. McCarthy — and doubtlessly Daniel Jones as his backup seems to be in place.
Darnold continues to be going to garner quite a lot of curiosity and the Giants nonetheless might be one of many groups vying for his providers. However they need to ask themselves: Would you like a man who crumbled underneath stress and stands out as the odd man out in favor of Jones?
It doesn’t matter what, the Giants might be in for extra uncertainty underneath heart subsequent season.
