After months of speculation and hours of tape watched, it has finally happened. The New York Giants have selected Daniel Jones, quarterback out of Duke, with the sixth overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
This is a stunner of a pick with both Kentucky EDGE Josh Allen and Houston defensive lineman Ed Oliver on the board.
Daniel Jones is set to be the Giants quarterback of the future with Eli Manning in the last year of his contract. Jones passes the eye test as a quarterback as a four-year starter measuring at 6-foot-5 and 221 pounds. As a passer, he is at his best on quick passes and run/pass option plays, which will likely form the backbone of the Giants’ offense going forward.
Looking beyond the eye-test, this is a very risky pick for the Giants.
Jones’ accuracy falls off dramatically beyond 10 yards down the field, dropping from roughly 70 percent on throws from 6 to 10 yards downfield to roughly 57 percent on throws from 11 to 15 yards. He also struggled with placement and decision making on multi-read or long throws or throws outside the numbers.
Previewing the 2019 quarterback class, SB Nation’s Bill Connelly said,
Using stats like success rate (or its down-, distance-, and field position-adjusted cousin, marginal efficiency), or yardage-based measures like AY/A (adjusted yards per attempt) or ANY/A (adjusted net yards per attempt), we find that no recent quarterback has exceeded his college stats over the first four years of his pro career. Most don’t come anywhere close.
Of the 2019 quarterbacks examined, Jones had the worst yards per completion, third-worst success rate, worst marginal efficiency, second-worst adjusted net yards per attempt, and third-worst passer rating.
Jones rated as a third-round prospect on the Big Blue Big board.
With Dave Gettleman frequently referencing his desire to avoid “quarterback hell,” the Giants are hoping that Jones was very badly handicapped by his team and will be an outlier and defy history by surpassing his college metrics in the NFL.