INDIANAPOLIS — There is something about having the second pick in the NFL draft that is irrefutable in the eyes of Giants general manager Dave Gettleman:
“If there is a guy worthy of being the second pick of a draft, and what we’re basically saying if we answer that question in the affirmative is that you think you’re drafting a Hall of Fame player,’’ Gettleman said Wednesday from the NFL scouting combine. “So you can’t get too cute about the whole thing. Does that make sense?”
Sure, that makes sense. Gettleman did not completely dismiss trading down from the No. 2 pick — “If someone makes me an offer I can’t refuse, would I move back? It depends upon who’s there,” he said — but it appears more likely he will stand pat and see if he can find a franchise-changing player. So there is a great deal of pressure on this particular draft for the Giants, coming off a 3-13 season that brought about drastic change, with Gettleman and head coach Pat Shurmur ushering in a new regime.
The debate at No. 2 is fairly clear: Do the Giants, selecting in such rarefied air, take a quarterback to eventually succeed Eli Manning or do they go for the best player at another position? To answer that question, another must be asked.
What do the Giants think of Davis Webb?
“Good question,’’ Shurmur said. “It’s interesting. He and Eli are in the building every day. I got to hold back from talking ball with them. I see them in the lunch room after they’ve had their workouts. That’s a little uncomfortable for me, because they’re so eager to get going.
“I like what I’ve seen in Davis Webb. I went back and watched his tape again for college just to get reacquainted with him. I like what I saw on tape when he played. I had a chance to watch his practice tape, which has been terrific. We just don’t have a large sample size of Davis Webb playing NFL football. But I’m excited what he brings to the table.’’
Gettleman agreed “it is a pretty good idea’’ that the Giants will not only rank the top quarterbacks (Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen and, a later option, Lamar Jackson) in this year’s draft but also compare those prospects with Webb, the Giants’ 2017 third-round pick.
Webb is not a complete unknown. Shurmur as the Vikings offensive coordinator at this time last year “did a lot of work on him, actually.’’ The takeaway was that he was a player to consider.
“We liked him a great deal,’’ Shurmur said. “We thought he was a winner. We liked his size, we liked his arm strength, we liked his decision-making. He could move around in the pocket, so I can see why the Giants drafted him a year ago because we liked him as well.’’
A knock on Webb is he played college football at Texas Tech and California in a near-identical spread offense, a system that often is not conducive to NFL success. Shurmur said that is not a drawback.
“You can see in college what a quarterback can do and it translates to our game,’’ Shurmur said. “The word ‘spread’ is used a lot like ‘West Coast offense’ or ‘3-4 defense,’ there’s many, many versions of those three elements of football. Obviously he was drafted for a reason and you can see why on tape.’’
Shurmur said he’s “canvased the building’’ trying to glean as much information as possible on several players on the roster, including Webb.
“Everybody thinks he has a very bright future, and that’s what kind of excites me about him being here,’’ Shurmur said.
Gettleman and Shumur made it clear upon their arrivals that Manning is not going anywhere. The more Shurmur talks, the more he sounds thrilled to have a veteran – even at 37 years old – saddled up and ready to roll as his starting quarterback.
“Eli’s sharp,’’ Shurmur said. “Again, I haven’t been able to talk football with him. I just know him. He’s very smart. Quarterbacks along the way have had to learn other offenses and get accustomed with new schemes. We call it apple, they call it orange. Eli’s got all that and so it certainly helps a great deal. Experience really matters for a guy that’s a really good player, because he’s seen things, he’s done things, way more than somebody that we’d bring in that would be a rookie.’’