The New York Giants traded back in the 2021 NFL draft, acquiring extremely valuable future assets before selecting Florida wide receiver Kadarius Toney at No. 20 overall.
But what if the Giants got to rewind time and do it all over again? Would they make the same decisions?
Not in the mind of Bleacher Reports’ Kristopher Knox, who recently conducted a 2021 re-draft. In it, he has the Giants staying put at No. 11 and selecting Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields.
To be fair, this is a risky decision. The Giants have quarterback Daniel Jones under contract for another year, and Fields had a rough rookie campaign with Chicago. However, he was hampered by some very questionable decision-making by coach Matt Nagy. In Fields’ first career start, for example, Nagy went with a pass-first game plan against a fearsome Cleveland Browns pass rush. Fields was sacked a whopping nine times.
“It was bad,” Fields’ private quarterback coach Ron Veal told 670 The Score in Chicago (h/t Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk). “He took a beating that day.”
While Fields has plenty left to prove, Jones has largely proven that he isn’t franchise-quarterback material. He has a 12-25 record and a career passer rating of just 84.3. According to Jordan Raanan of ESPN, the Giants are unlikely to pick up Jones’ fifth-year option.
Given the uncertainty surrounding this year’s rookie quarterback class, preemptively pairing Fields with new head coach Brian Daboll would make plenty of sense.
To be fair, Fields displayed far worse traits than Daniel Jones and did it under much less pressure than he’d face in New York. And while the Bears’ roster isn’t anything to write home about, it’s better than what the Giants have fielded.
When really looking back on the 2021 NFL draft and then considering this re-draft, it’s also important to take into account the loss of 2022 NFL draft capital as well as the potential Toney brings to the table. It would leave the Giants in a very precarious position and fewer options to repair all of the damage caused by former general manager Dave Gettleman.
Would the Giants really be in a better position today with Fields and Jones under contract and just one first-round pick in 2022? The answer is no. In fact, they’d be in a much worse position overall.
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