Jayden Daniels to the Giants in a pre-Combine mock from PFF

Could the Giants have a new quarterback fall in their lap?

The 2024 NFL Scouting Combine is here and prospects are already arriving in Indianapolis for the biggest single event of the draft process.

The Combine always reshuffles draft boards as we get official measurements and athletic testing numbers for all the top prospects. We’ll certainly see future New York Giants on the field this week, as the Giants have four picks in the Top 75 (6, 39, 47, and 70), not to mention picks 108, 140, and 185.

Pro Football Focus posted a four round Giants only mock draft on Monday morning, and they deviated pretty heavily from most other mock drafts we’ve seen lately.

Raptor’s Thoughts

I’m going to start by noting that this mock wasn’t claimed by anyone in particular and seemed to be spit out by their mock draft machine for some pre-draft interactions. There really isn’t anything to note with regards to insight around league front offices. And unfortunately, we don’t know how the rest of the draft played out.

However, it’s notable due to the pick of Jayden Daniels, as well as Chop Robinson and Xavier Worthy.

I’ll start with Daniels at 6th overall, who Ed selected in a scenario that involved a trade up from 6th to 3rd overall.

Daniels had a Burrow-esque rise this year, to the point where saying that it was a “breakout” season is an understatement. He completed 72.2 percent of his passes for 3,812 yards, 40 touchdowns to just 4 interceptions on the way to a Heisman Trophy win. Looking at this years’ draft class, he lead the top QBs in yards per attempt, EPA, and Total QBR. Daniels has a long, lean build at 6-foot-4, 210 pounds and is an electric athlete. He’s able to outrun defenders in the backfield and hurt defenses that let him get into the open field.

The Giants’ moves last year — as well as the way the offense was called with Tommy DeVito and Tyrod Taylor — suggest that they want to have a stronger vertical component to the passing game. Daniels doesn’t have an overpowering arm, but he throws with good timing, touch, and anticipation which gives him a very good deep ball. He’s also very accurate when throwing on the move and can take the heat off the ball and throw with touch when he needs to layer the ball between defenders.

There’s no way for us on the outside to know whether Daniels would be “The Guy” for Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll. However, he could be the foundation of an explosive offense if 2023 was more than a flash in the pan. There are reasons for concern with Daniels, most notably that he has historically taken a lot of sacks and can be too quick to vacate the pocket. However, a season of coaching on the bench could help with those tendencies.

Moving on to the second round, things get interesting.

Chop Robinson was considered one of the top EDGE prospects at the start of the season. He’s going to be compared to fellow Penn State alum Micah Parsons, and not just because of his helmet. Robinson has similar athleticism to Parsons — he tops Bruce Feldman’s updated Freaks List — as well as a similar build. Personally, I don’t expect Robinson to be available in the second round after the Combine, but for now he’s here because his production didn’t match his athletic traits. This could be an incredible steal if Andre Patterson can improve his technique to fully unleash his athleticism.’

Worthy, meanwhile, is a very similar player to Jalin Hyatt and is another “Freaks List” player, ranking 35th on Feldman’s list thanks to his speed. Worthy is in competition to be the fastest player at the combine and is reportedly capable of running in the 4.2 second range. He’s a whip-thin receiver who measures roughly 6-foot-1 and 175 pounds, so he won’t be drafted on overwhelming size. Worthy was a relatively high-volume receiver for Texas, but many of this catches came behind the line of scrimmage on wide receiver screens.

Most drafts have featured a highly drafted receivers — usually Rome Odunze or Malik Nabers — for the Giants. Going with a player like Worthy likely wouldn’t give the Giants the “number one” receiver they need. The potential counterpoint to that is that we’ve seen teams double down on similar skill sets to good (or great) effect. The Los Angeles Rams did so with Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua, while the Miami Dolphins torched defenses with Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill. The Giants would have a very fast offense with Darius Slayton, Hyatt, and Worthy to go with a good deep ball thrower in Daniels.

Whether or not that would be an improvement would remain to be seen.

Brandon Dorlus [prospect profile] and Renardo Green could help reinforce the Giants’ defense. Dorlus might not be my first choice, but he’s capable of being disruptive. I’d like a defender with more lateral agility to execute the stunts and twists favored by Shane Bowen’s defense. That said, Dorlus is a high-floor player with good power and technique, so he should be a welcome addition. Green is slightly undersized at 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, but was a good press-man corner at FSU. He gave both Malik Nabers an Brian Thomas fits when the two teams played at the beginning of 2023, and he could be a potential option opposite of Deonte Banks. The question is whether a pure press-man corner would work in Bowen’s defense, which typically features more zone coverges than were used by Wink Martindale. Of course, Bowen could prove to be flexible and use more pattern matching rules or 2-man shells with the Giants.

The big thing that fans will undoubtedly notice (and comment on) is the lack of offensive lineman. Given that we don’t know how the board fell, it’s possible that there weren’t any linemen available that presented good value when the Giants picked. Of course, it’s also possible that the Giants could address the offensive line in free agency as well as trust new OL coach Carmen Bricillo to develop Evan Neal, John Michael Schmitz, and Joshua Ezeudu.