New York Giants fans are losing their minds already and the NFL Draft is only one day old. The Giants’ selection of Duke quarterback Daniel Jones with the sixth overall pick is not sitting well, but don’t fear, Rex Ryan is here. He’s very happy his draft board proved correct — “Somebody called their shot, and it was me,” Ryan said Friday morning on ESPN — and he has some words of greatness for the New York Football Giants. Rex Ryan’s argument for Daniel Jones Ryan’s support of Jones, who he called the second-best quarterback in the draft, rests on where he played. The three-year Duke starter averaged 227.8 yards per game and a career 60 percent career completion rate with iffy receivers and a shaky offensive line. His receivers dropped 38 passes, a stat Giants head coach Pat Shurmer noted after the draft in voicing support for his new QB. "When he gets his opportunity, he's going to be ready." -Rex Ryan on the Giants' 6th pick Daniel Jones pic.twitter.com/Itvkj5hNo5 — Get Up (@GetUpESPN) April 26, 2019 Ryan also likes the way Jones prepares and it’s why he likes the pick. “You put him in the same situations with Haskins, he would have been an amazing player there, too. What we’re not seeing, what all the fans aren’t seeing, is this: This guy prepares like an NFL quarterback already. Dwayne Haskins is a smart guy, that’s all I hear. All my intel still in this league and he’s going to get it, no question. But he has never been asked to do the protections that Daniel Jones has, and all that. [Jones] is ready to go. He’s a way better athlete than people give him credit for. This guy can do a 360 dunk and all that. What happened to him? Yeah, he wasn’t recruited. He was a zero-star recruit because nobody knew about him. There’s a lot of dumb coaches out there. … [Jones] can run, he can move in the pocket, he’s accurate enough. I would like to see him more accurate with his deep balls, of course. But you know what I see? I see when he was throwing guys, he had to throw guys open at Duke, they’re arm-length away. His throws are arm-length away from guys. It wasn’t like Haskins when they’re wide open.” Story continues The big draw about Jones, per Yahoo Sports Eric Edholm, is his mechanics, toughness and athleticism. He also has Manning family connections. NFL’s future: Jones vs. Haskins? The Giants passed over former Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins to get Jones. Haskins was picked up by the Washington Redskins with the No. 15 pick. If the first day after the decision is any indication, the NFC East is about to get heated. “The league done messed up,” Haskins said in his first interview as an NFL player, making mention of a chip on his shoulder. Ryan made sure to note he likes Haskins and hopes he doesn’t get thrown into the Redskins starting role. The only one he has to compete against is Case Keenum, so that possibility of riding the bench is slim. Jones could wait up to three years, per the Giants, before taking over for Eli Manning. Rex Ryan called it and now explains it. (AP) More from Yahoo Sports:<doc-sep>The New York Giants weren't the only team to have a high regard for Daniel Jones; they were simply the only team to misread the room when it came to the popularity of quarterbacks in this year's draft class. The Giants picked Jones sixth overall and likely could have waited as long as the franchise's second pick, at No. 17, to select the former Duke starter. Four quarterbacks went among the top 10 picks in last year's draft, each viewed in some manner as potential franchise building blocks: Baker Mayfield to the Browns, Sam Darnold to the Jets, Josh Allen to the Bills and Josh Rosen to the Cardinals. (It took one year and one coaching change for the Cardinals to form a new opinion of their quarterbacking future.) The 2019 draft was noticeably different in three respects. There was only one can't-miss prospect, Oklahoma's Kyler Murray, even if the Giants' pursuit of Jones seemed to signal otherwise. There was no wheeling and dealing in the first round to chase down an answer at the sport's most crucial position. And after Dwayne Haskins of Ohio State fell to the Redskins at No. 15, the run of quarterbacks selected fell into a very specific class — those pegged as developmental prospects set to hold backup roles for the immediate future. One year after a touted quarterback class, the position took a backseat amid a run on defensive linemen, edge rushers and tight ends. That should change across the next two draft cycles, paced by a pair of high-profile college starters who headlined this past January's championship game: Alabama junior Tua Tagovailoa and Clemson sophomore Trevor Lawrence. Coming off his freshman year, Lawrence "would be the clear-cut No. 1" pick in this year's draft had he been eligible, ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper said in January. "Trevor Lawrence would be up there in that rarefied air, that stratosphere of the Andrew Lucks and the John Elways and all these super, super elite quarterbacks." And that pair isn't alone in topping early draft expectations. After a slight, one-year dip in quarterback appeal, here are several prospects to watch across the next two seasons: DRAFT TRACKER:Pick-by-pick list of every selection in Rounds 4, 5, 6 and 7 PATS' PICK:New England selects Auburn QB Jarrett Stidham in fourth round OPINION:Nick Bosa must prove he's learned from his offensive comments K.J. Costello, Stanford (Redshirt junior) Costello turned down this year's draft after his first year as a starter, though the thin upper crust in this year's class heightened the appeal of an early entry. Another season under David Shaw will do wonders for his stock: Costello needs to add experience and show he can add upon last season, which saw him throw for the second-most passing yards in school history and the third-most touchdowns. JT Daniels, Southern California (Sophomore) Daniels had an up-and-down true freshman season, as expected, but could flourish in the Trojans' shift into an Air Raid scheme under new offensive coordinator Graham Harrell. No prospect is challenging Lawrence for the top spot in the 2021 class, but Daniels has the ability to play himself into position to go very high in the first round. Jacob Eason, Washington (Redshirt junior) Shuttled out of the starting job at Georgia by the next quarterback on this list, Eason is set to take over for Jake Browning at Washington under one of the top quarterback minds in college football in head coach Chris Petersen. He has the arm NFL teams covet and a prototypical pro-style frame — Eason looks like a first-round quarterback, and now has a great opportunity to live up to his early hype. Jake Fromm, Georgia (Junior) Fromm is accurate, careful with the football, highly experienced and still fairly overlooked even within his own conference, thanks in large part to Tagovailoa's ascension into a national figure. But Fromm's clear development between his true freshman and sophomore season paints a bright picture for his potential as a junior. Justin Herbert, Oregon (Senior) Herbert would have challenged Murray for the top spot in this year's draft, though Arizona's desire for a more mobile option to fit Kliff Kingsbury's offense means Herbert likely would've fallen somewhere inside the first handful of picks — perhaps to the Raiders at fourth overall or to the Giants at sixth. Smart enough to grasp NFL schemes and talented enough to make NFL throws, Herbert nonetheless made a smart choice in bypassing the draft to play his senior season for an Oregon team set to contend for a New Year's Six bowl. Trevor Lawrence, Clemson (Sophomore) Lawrence's peers can be found in football history and not his draft class. He's been compared to Luck, Elway and Peyton Manning, three of the top-rated quarterbacks in the draft's modern era. "If I was running an NFL team, I'd be making trades for as many 2021 picks I could get my hands on," longtime NFL personnel director Gil Brandt wrote on Twitter following Clemson's win against Alabama. His teammate, Clemson offensive tackle Jackson Carmen, put Lawrence into even grander terms: "That’s exactly what God did for that man. He went to the lab and built a great one," Carmen told USA TODAY Sports in January. Adrian Martinez, Nebraska (Sophomore) Martinez's freshman season went largely under the national radar during Scott Frost's four-win debut at Nebraska. That will change in 2019 and 2020 as the Cornhuskers develop some momentum in the Big Ten. And when Martinez's stock does take off, look for the inevitable comparisons to Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota, who was coached by Frost at Oregon. Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama (Junior) Tagovailoa is college football's version of Zion Williamson — a beyond-his-years talent who has essentially become the on-field face of the sport. One thing is almost certain to happen this season: Tagovailoa's game will be nitpicked by anonymous scouts and talent evaluators as he marches toward the first round of the 2020 draft. They'll find few holes in a skill set as noteworthy for its mental prowess as its physical gifts.<doc-sep>
For the first time in forever (and a few years after it should have happened), the New York Giants have a quarterback of the future. Duke’s Daniel Jones is the anointed successor to Eli Manning, the shiny new model to replace the beaten-up old jalopy who’s running on rims. Orderly succession is the goal of every NFL team and nation-state, and now the Giants finally have the young man who will inherit the franchise. So let’s check in on how the local papers are celebrating this momentous occasion: Hmm. But, sometimes the tabloids just like to stir things up, you know? Let’s check in with the real fans, the ones willing to sit out in the rain on a Thursday night in a stadium in the middle of nowhere, just so they can be with their fellow Giants fans to welcome the future: Ah. Well. It would be an understatement to say that the selection of Jones with the sixth overall pick is unpopular within New York and puzzling without. This is not entirely Jones’s fault; it is more a result of who Jones is not. Jones is not, for example, Josh Allen, an outside linebacker out of Kentucky with elite pass-rushing abilities, and who was still on the board. Allen went seventh, to Jacksonville. Jones is also not Dwayne Haskins, the cannon-armed signal-caller out of Ohio State who most observers believed was clearly the best quarterback available. Haskins fell to Washington with the 15th pick, and the Skins can’t believe their luck. The Giants did desperately need a quarterback, but one argument that gains strength from hindsight though doesn’t totally hold up is that they could have had both Allen (who the team later revealed they had on the same line on their draft board as Jones) at No. 6 and Jones, or maybe Haskins, at No. 17. A handful of QB-needy teams in between the Giants’ two picks, including Denver and Miami, passed on taking a passer. But New York had no way of knowing that would happen. If they truly believed Jones was their guy, taking him at six was the only rational thing to do. (The Giants eventually took Clemson DT Dexter Lawrence at 17.) No, the only real argument against Jones is the perfectly strong (and fairly chalk) argument for Haskins. And the beauty of this what-if scenario, unlike most others, is that we’re likely to get a definitive answer on it , even if the referendum could take years. Giants GM Dave Gettleman was asked if he had a message for fans upset about the Jones pick. “In time you’ll be very pleased,” Gettleman promised. Jones and Haskins could not be more different as QBs. Jones is tall and athletic, even a scrambler; Haskins is a pure pocket-passer who could uncharitably be described as “plodding.” Jones has an average arm but gets the ball out quickly and accurately at short range; Haskins has a mortar. Jones was a three-year starter at Duke, where opposing defenses are generally middling; Haskins started a single year at Ohio State, where the competition is higher, and broke all sorts of passing records, but was rarely threatened in the pocket. Each has things to recommend him and things that could be warnings. And because of the nature of the draft, nobody knows anything for certain, so I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Jones over Haskins was the wrong choice. But I’d be a little more confident about the Giants’ assessment if not for the ways Jones’s champions are justifying the pick. “He’s a very mature kid,” Gettleman said, before adding that Jones possesses “fiber.” David Cutcliffe, Duke head coach and also Eli Manning’s mentor, stated that “Daniel Jones embraces something we believe in here—real swag is no swag.” Maybe the pick works out! But it’s weird, for now, to hear the form of the praise offered for Jones when most of the arguments by third parties in favor of Haskins were he was and will be a better quarterback. I’d be a lot more confident about this choice if Gettleman had made literally any successful moves since taking over the Giants. And if he’d stop saying things like this: “Maybe we’re going to be the Green Bay Model, where Rodgers sat for three years. Who knows?” Maybe Eli Manning will still be the quarterback long after I’m dead! On draft night, the future is full of possibility.