When Dave Gettleman and the Giants looked at the quarterbacks available in the NFL draft, when they studied and evaluated Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen and Baker Mayfield, they were looking to fall in love with one of them.
Love never blossomed.
“That tells you your answer right now,’’ Gettleman, the Giants general manager, said Thursday night. “If you have to try to make yourself fall in love with a player, it’s wrong. You will never be happy with the pick. You shouldn’t have to talk yourself into a guy.’’
The adoration was directed to running back Saquon Barkley, which is why the Giants selected him with the No. 2-overall selection. The adoration continues to be heaped on Eli Manning, the 37-year old quarterback who came out a big winner in this draft process, as did his backup, Davis Webb.
After Gettleman was hired to replace Jerry Reese, he studied Manning’s play from the dreadful 2017 season and determined there was plenty left in Manning’s tank. Pat Shurmur, after he was hired to replace Ben McAdoo as coach, reviewed Manning’s body of work and saw the same thing. The Giants are all-in on Manning, for now and until … whenever.
“He’s gonna play,’’ Gettleman said. “What do you want me to tell you? He’s our quarterback, we believe in him, he threw the hell out of the ball for three days [at this week’s minicamp]. He has not lost one bit of arm strength and I’m coming back five years later. I’m watching a quarterback in his prime and now he’s 37, you got to stop worrying about age.
“There are some guys that are just freaks. He’s our quarterback.’’
The identity of the starting quarterback after Manning is unknown, but Webb sure helped his case during the minicamp and had to be relieved when the Giants eschewed taking Manning’s eventual successor in the first round.
“I don’t know if it’s a vote of confidence for Davis,’’ Shurmur said, before adding: “We love what we saw this week. He got better every day.’’
Gettleman said he spoke to a few teams about possibly trading down. The Giants set a high price tag for the No. 2 pick and were too excited about taking Barkley to seriously consider a deal unless it was a steal.
“People call you and they want the second pick in the draft for a bag of donuts, a hot pretzel and a hot dog,’’ Gettleman said. “Go away, leave me alone, I ain’t got time to screw around.’’