Earlier than he was a Tush Push skilled, Jalen Hurts was the kind of reward that would make each downtrodden Giants fan really feel in a different way about final week’s win.
There isn’t a higher supply of salary-cap aid in NFL team-building than a franchise quarterback on a rookie contract — besides a franchise quarterback on a rookie contract who was drafted later than the primary spherical.
The Eagles, who will face the Giants on Sunday, went to a Tremendous Bowl with the previous second-round choose Hurts on a four-year, $6 million contract (earlier than he earned a $255 million extension).
The Giants’ seek for their future quarterback was sophisticated Sunday by beating the Colts and slipping from the No. 1 choose to No. 4 within the projected draft order.
In the event that they beat the Eagles’ backups (starters are resting for the playoffs), the Giants might slip as little as No. 9.
Positive, one possibility shall be buying and selling up for Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders or Miami’s Cam Ward.
Nevertheless it’s time to solid a wider web and think about using the first-round choose to plug one other of the Giants’ many holes whereas figuring out a developmental quarterback with a second- or third-round grade.
Discovering the subsequent Hurts, Derek Carr or Russell Wilson would flip cursed wins right into a blessing.
The Giants reportedly had high-level scouting executives get a number of dwell exposures through the school season to Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, Texas’ Quinn Ewers, Georgia’s Carson Beck and Mississippi’s Jaxson Dart.
All 4 performed within the SEC, which Giants proprietor John Mara says was one of many key tiebreakers as soon as upon a time when drafting Eli Manning over Ben Roethlisberger.
So, what’s the early scouting learn on this Plan B quartet?
Milroe
Prone to be the third quarterback chosen, Milroe might sneak into the primary spherical due to supply-demand.
“He is a project,” ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller instructed The Submit. “But, especially if you are like, ‘We want to go the Jalen Hurts route,’ that’s your guy.”
The twin menace combines nice pace within the open area and the 225-pound body to face up to hits as a runner (719 yards and 20 touchdowns on the bottom) with a powerful (however wild) arm.
“It’s like early Josh Allen,” Miller stated. “You see where he’s going with the ball and it’s like, ‘OK, that’s a good decision.’ But then it’s 10 yards over the guy’s head. It might be bad at times because he needs his mechanics reworked, but amazing at times because he’s a playmaker.”
As one quarterbacks coach put it in a common sense, “I can teach footwork. Decision-making under pressure is more difficult. And you can’t teach 4.3 [second] speed.”
Ewers
The previous No. 1-overall recruit stored golden youngster Arch Manning on the bench for 2 years.
He dealt with that sticky scenario with the identical calm and funky demeanor as a key fourth down within the School Soccer Playoff quarterfinals win.
“After Milroe, that’s where it gets muddy,” Miller stated. “Ewers hasn’t balled out, but he is unfairly dinged because Arch is his backup and the expectations of being the savior of Texas football. All the tools are there. Really good leader.”
Ewers has missed at the least two video games resulting from harm in every of his three seasons beginning.
“That’s a big key with him,” Miller stated. “I think the oblique from earlier this season is bothering him more than has been reported because you see how much velocity he has lost. He throws a beautiful soft touch, but he’s not just ripping the ball anymore.”
Ewers’ interception fee is up and his yards-per-attempt is down this season.
“It looks good,” one AFC scout stated, “except two throws a game that make you want to pull your hair out.”
Beck
A preseason candidate to be the No. 1 choose, Beck’s inventory tumbled lengthy earlier than present process UCL surgical procedure on his elbow on Dec. 23.
49ers quarterback Brock Purdy returned to recreation motion about 5 months after UCL surgical procedure (seven months after harm).
“Even taking the injury out of the equation, I thought he was a second- or third-round pick,” Miller stated. “He worries me more than the other guys because he got worse with more game time.”
Beck led the SEC in touchdowns (28) and interceptions (12).
The latter quantity prompts issues that his 2023 breakthrough was an uplift from Ladd McConkey and Brock Bowers — each of whom are having fun with 100-catch NFL rookie seasons.
Beck lacks the kind of massive arm and mobility that leap off the tape.
“You could watch his week-to-week progression last year and be really excited,” Miller stated. “It was his ability to see the field, he never got rattled, he had good ball placement. But the ball placement has fallen off, and the jump you were expecting never happened.”
Dart
Scouts are going to earn their stripes evaluating Dart, who led the SEC in completion proportion (68.6) and passing yards (3,875).
“That offense doesn’t ask him to do anything,” stated Miller, who ranks Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel as his No. 6 quarterback forward of Dart. “Deep route-checkdown-bubble screen is all they do. He has a good arm, but he’s hard to evaluate because in the last two years, I haven’t seen him make very many NFL throws.”
There additionally shall be questions on whether or not the seemingly undersized Dart is generously listed at 6-foot-2.
He shall be one of many most-observed prospects on the Senior Bowl.
“I think he’s a third-round pick right now,” Miller stated, “but that could change pretty wildly.”
