Because the hours tick by with the New York Giants awaiting phrase from a 41-year-old who quarterbacked a 5-12 crew final season, there’s an inescapable feeling that they picked a horrible time to be on the hunt for a QB savior.
The Giants are in a very perilous place this offseason. The Daniel Jones experiment was a colossal failure, leaving them with out a quarterback below contract except for Tommy DeVito. DeVito’s most notable contributions in two years have been a celebratory gesture and an unbelievable three-game profitable streak in 2023 that pushed the Giants out of vary of touchdown a franchise quarterback in final 12 months’s loaded draft.
Issues went thus far off the rails with Jones and the whole lot round him the previous two seasons that common supervisor Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll are on the recent seat coming into 12 months 4. Co-owner John Mara’s postseason edict for a direct turnaround has echoed for the previous two months as Schoen has pursued each potential quarterback possibility.
“It higher not take too lengthy as a result of I’ve nearly run out of persistence,” Mara stated.
With that declaration eradicating any considered a measured method to the offseason, Schoen first utilized the full-court press on Matthew Stafford when the Rams allowed the Tremendous Bowl champ to discover his market worth. The Giants have been all-in on Stafford, ready to signal the 37-year-old to a contract believed to be price at the least $50 million per 12 months and to half with the mandatory draft compensation to finish a commerce.
However Stafford elected to stay in Los Angeles, which compelled the Giants to pivot to Plan B. Aaron Rodgers, the aforementioned 41-year-old quarterback, has come into focus as that backup plan. Unsurprisingly, the courting of Rodgers has been shrouded in thriller.
First, among the seats needed to be claimed within the league-wide recreation of quarterback musical chairs. Geno Smith was traded from the Seahawks to the Raiders; Sam Darnold left the Vikings for the Seahawks; Jones left the Vikings for the Colts; and Justin Fields left the Steelers for the Jets. These strikes supplied some readability, narrowing Rodgers’ choices to the Giants and Steelers, with the Vikings looming as a darkish horse.
Rodgers formally turned obtainable Wednesday when the Jets launched him at 4 p.m ET. However he had been free to barter with different groups since new Jets common supervisor Darren Mougey and coach Aaron Glenn introduced their intention to maneuver on from Rodgers on Feb. 13, in addition to a willingness to eat $49 million in lifeless cash over the following two years.
The brand new regime didn’t need to hitch its fortunes to Rodgers after his two seasons in New York have been a complete flop. Rodgers tore his Achilles 4 snaps into his much-hyped debut within the 2023 season opener after a blockbuster commerce from the Packers. He returned final season and posted respectable numbers, nevertheless it wasn’t almost sufficient to beat a dysfunctional atmosphere that led to the firings of coach Robert Saleh and common supervisor Joe Douglas.
That Schoen and Daboll are prepared to connect their destiny to the mercurial Rodgers after his flameout with the Jets demonstrates how determined they’re to discover a quarterback.
It’s inconceivable to understand how lengthy Rodgers’ deliberations will take — he famously launched into a four-day darkness retreat in 2023 to find out if he needed to proceed his Corridor of Fame profession. As soon as Rodgers declares his intentions, the Giants can have a highway map. Both they’ll roll with Rodgers for at the least one season, or they’ll direct their power towards touchdown Russell Wilson, who visited the crew final 12 months earlier than signing with the Steelers as a result of he was knowledgeable he’d function Jones’ backup in New York.
The Giants aren’t sitting on their palms. They’re scheduled to host Wilson for a go to on Friday, in response to a crew supply. Maybe complicating issues for New York, the Browns will host Wilson for a go to on Thursday, league sources informed The Athletic.
The drawn-out course of involving massive names has inflated the stakes of this quarterback search. Whether or not it’s Rodgers, Wilson or — gulp — somebody additional down the listing of choices, the Giants nonetheless want to perform Mara’s acknowledged prime precedence: Discovering the quarterback of the longer term.
Schoen and Daboll could possibly save their jobs by exhibiting progress ought to Rodgers or Wilson lead the Giants to, say, seven wins in 2025. However neither is the long-term reply.
That answer must come through the draft. And the trail to touchdown a quarterback there isn’t any clearer than this murky seek for an appropriate bridge QB.
The Titans maintain the No. 1 choose, and all indicators level to them taking Miami quarterback Cam Ward with that choice. The Titans haven’t been linked to any of the veteran quarterbacks available on the market, and Will Levis, who went 2-10 final season, is the one QB on their roster.
The Titans entered free company among the many league leaders in cap area, however they’ve spent judiciously. Their solely main funding was a four-year, $82 million contract for left deal with Dan Moore. They added veteran proper guard Kevin Zeitler on a one-year, $9 million contract to fortify their offensive line.
The Titans are constructing an ecosystem to nurture a younger quarterback. If they’re offered on Ward, it may very well be a repeat of final 12 months, when the Giants have been unable to commerce up from No. 6 to No. 3 as a result of the Patriots have been set on taking quarterback Drake Maye.
That’s the place issues may get actually attention-grabbing. The Browns are a complete wild card on the No. 2 choose. They might take a quarterback, as they want an off-ramp from the disastrous Deshaun Watson period.
Even when the Browns go on a quarterback, there are questions if another QBs on this class are even worthy of a prime choose. The Giants showered consideration on Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders throughout the fall, nevertheless it’s unclear if the twinkle of their eye has dimmed because the polarizing quarterback has been additional dissected. Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart’s inventory seems to be getting into the other way, however taking him with the third choose could be a serious attain. And if the Giants have been offered on Sanders or Dart, would they be chasing getting older quarterbacks so aggressively?
The Giants have the following six weeks to kind by way of their quarterback evaluations and chart a plan of action for the draft. Within the meantime, they await phrase from Rodgers. Sadly for them, they don’t have another selection.
(Photograph: Luke Hales / Getty Photos)