Any and every NFL draft is replete with questions about needs and priorities and rankings and roster construction, with the status of the general manager and the head coach (are they secure or are they on the hot seat?) and the forecast for the franchise all weaving their way into the many potential scenarios.
For the Giants, what happens this year — more specifically, what goes down Thursday night — can be shaken and stirred and filtered into one basic query: Do they get a quarterback to eventually (2025 at the latest) replace Daniel Jones or do they not?
That’s it.
Of course there is so much more the Giants must accomplish to usher season No. 3 for general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll into a return to the winning they delivered in 2022 and were unable to sustain in 2023.
They do not have a true No. 1 wide receiver or a No. 2 starting cornerback. There is the decade-long quest to fix the offensive line. There are shortages at tight end (if Darren Waller retires) and safety (Xavier McKinney is with the Packers) and running back (Saquon Barkley is an Eagle!).
The Giants enter this draft with only six picks — one in every round but the seventh — and could use help right away from at least three of those picks.
How this all shakes out at quarterback, though, will determine how the 2024 draft ultimately impacts the entire operation.
“It’s a unique position,’’ Schoen said. “There’s only so many people walking planet Earth that can play that position at a high level. So really getting around these guys, we like to do it every year, and getting to know them, I think is important.’’
Oh, the Giants got around them, with more vigor than usual.
This was not smokescreen interest designed to make other teams believe the Giants are hot for a quarterback. They are hot for a quarterback. Whether they are hot, red-hot or white-hot remains to be seen.
The feeling is the Giants are unlikely to be able to sit back with the No. 6 overall pick and get their guy.
They showed legitimate interest in J.J. McCarthy from Michigan — his intangibles are off the chart — but taking him at six feels like a reach. It makes sense that Schoen and Daboll are more attracted to Drake Maye of North Carolina, based on physical ability that more closely resembles Josh Allen, the raw prospect the Bills selected at No. 7 in 2018, when Schoen and Daboll both worked in Buffalo.
The Bills back then traded up to land Allen. Schoen and Daboll must know they have to be aggressive if they want to have any shot at Maye.
It might not be possible to pull off. The Patriots at No. 3 need a quarterback and most likely will take Maye if Caleb Williams (Bears) and Jayden Daniels (Commanders) go 1-2, as expected.
Would the Giants be able to move from six to three to get Maye? Do the Patriots believe they could then get McCarthy at six?
For the Giants, the bigger question is this: Are they willing to part with significant draft equity in 2024 and 2025 to move up to get a quarterback?
If they do, it means admitting re-signing Jones and guaranteeing him more than $80 million was a mistake, even if they can get out of the contract after only two years for a significant (but not deadly) dead-money hit of $22 million in 2025.
The Giants can try to justify re-upping Jones by saying when they signed him he was a 25-year-old who played superbly in the franchise’s first playoff victory since 2011.
Since then, he experienced a second neck injury — Jones said it was a stinger — and tore his right anterior cruciate ligament, requiring reconstructive knee surgery. Jones is on schedule to be ready for training camp this summer and Schoen has said, repeatedly, that he expects Jones, if healthy, to be the Week 1 starter. That expectation does not discount the possibility of Jones’ successor arriving on the roster via this draft.
Schoen admitted there usually is a “quarterback tax’’ assessed to teams looking to move up. “I do think that happens for that position,’’ he said. So, there will be no bargains for the Giants.
A trade-up to get into the back of the first round or higher in the second round for a quarterback, such as Bo Nix or Michael Penix Jr., is also an avenue the Giants could travel.
Or, how about the Giants staying where they are and selecting a stud wide receiver?
This would actually enhance Jones’ ability to succeed, rather than show him the door. Most likely, Marvin Harrison Jr. will be gone but Malik Nabers and/or Rome Odunze should be there for the Giants.
Any of the three would instantly become the most talented target on the team and each could have an Odell Beckham Jr.-like impact.
“At the end of the day, we need to score more points,’’ Schoen said. “Adding, if it’s a No. 1 receiver, whatever you want to call it, just a better receiving weapon is going to help everybody.’’
Adding a quarterback also helps — as long as it is the right one.