The Super Bowl is over and it is now officially NFL draft season. Which means it’s time to get set for some serious mock draft overload. Like, a sickening amount of mock drafts.
This especially for tri-state area fans, who will have an overabundance of college prospect talk as both the New York Giants and the New York Jets pick in the top six in April’s draft.
A slew of mock drafts have rolled out already this week with a little bit of changing for the Giants as nearly every reputable mock slotted in a quarterback for the team over the past few weeks. Now, it seems that with the news of Eli Manning’s expected return for 2018, mock drafts are backing off the idea of the Giants having to go with a quarterback.
But at least one prominent mock draft kicks things off with a quarterback for the Giants.
USA TODAY’s Nate Davis mocks Sam Darnold, the USC quarterback who has been the consensus pick of most mock drafts over the past few weeks. The Giants, who select at No. 2 overall, have almost universally been mocked taking Darnold. Davis thinks that Darnold can learn to develop behind Manning before presumably taking over as the starter in 2019.
That is, until now.
CBSSports.com has Darnold going No. 1 overall to the Cleveland Browns and the Giants taking Josh Rosen No. 2. The UCLA quarterback, a bit of an eccentric personality, is a curious pick for the Giants.
In his assessment, CBSSports’ Chris Trapasso writes that Rosen is “eerily similar to Eli Manning when the veteran entered the NFL, so Rosen could learn a lot from him.”
Trapasso has New York’s other team also going quarterback. Baker Mayfield, the Oklahoma quarterback who won both the Heisman and the Maxwell Award, is the pick here.
In is assessment, Trapasso writes that the free-spirited Mayfield “has a personality that’ll resonate with the fan base in New York City.”
Quarterback isn’t the pick for the Jets according to Davis at USA TODAY. With Mayfield off the board at No. 5 to the Denver Broncos, Davis has the Jets getting all defensive a pick later.
Ohio State cornerback Denzel Ward is the go here, one year after the Jets used their first two picks on safeties to help the rebuild of their secondary.
Davis writes that “Ward might be the type of player who can take away the likes of Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola and Jarvis Landry.”
The Sporting News agrees that Mayfield is the pick at No. 6 for the Jets but offers a bit of a twist with the Giants pick.
In their scenario, the Sporting News has the Buffalo Bills trading with the Giants to take Rosen. The Giants obtain two first round picks which they use on LSU running back Derrius Guice (No. 21) and rising offensive tackle Chukwuma Okorafor (No. 22) out of Western Michigan.
