During the off-season, the New York Giants have talked about considering the next quarterback after Eli Manning. They might have their sights on a potential successor in DeShone Kizer.
This past week, the Giants sent offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan to Notre Dame’s Pro Day to personally scout the Fighting Irish’s junior quarterback in Kizer, whose expected to enter next month’s NFL Draft.
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The 6’4″ quarterback, who some have ranked as the number three quarterback on the board heading into the 2017 NFL Draft behind Mitchell Trubisky and DeShaun Watson, is being projected as a possible first-round or second round pick, which makes things interesting for the Giants.
The Giants, who have the #23 overall pick in the first round, will have to decide if they want to pull an Aaron Rodgers situation from the 2005 NFL Draft, as the Green Bay Packers drafted him and stashed him on the roster to let him learn behind Brett Favre and in 2008, Rodgers took over and never looked back.
Manning is still performing at a high level, but is 36 years old and has three years left on his contract, thus, why the Giants are starting to consider the future and with several quarterbacks projected to be in the first two rounds and several of them expected to go in the first round, this could be the year where they figure they could land a potential successor.
The Giants once thought they might have a successor. They traded up in the 2013 NFL Draft and took Ryan Nassib in the fourth round.
But he never panned out and is now a free agent that the team is letting walk after four seasons. The Giants also signed former New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith, who was once seen as the Jets franchise quarterback. But he didn’t pan out and is recovering from ACL surgery this past year and will spend the season recovering.
New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo said that Smith will have a chance to potentially be Manning’s heir in the future. But in all reality, the Giants looking at current quarterbacks who are entering the 2017 NFL Draft says otherwise. It says they might not see Smith as the future and just as a backup only.
DeShone Kizer isn’t the only quarterback the Giants have looked at. McAdoo scouted Texas Tech quarterback Pat Mahomes. Although, in some mock drafts, Mahomes might not even make it to the Giants pick. Some think he could be gone within the first 15 picks.
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Kizer though, could not only be had in the first round but could also be had in the second. That’s where the Giants could look to pounce, especially if DeShone Kizer makes it to Day 2.
Two years ago, the Giants made a draft day trade with the Tennessee Titans to land Landon Collins. Collins has quickly developed into an All-Pro safety and a trade that has worked wonders for the Giants. Kizer may be gone by the time the Giants come around in the second round, pick 55. So they may have to pull off a similar trade like the Collins one, which could happen.
If the Giants truly see DeShone Kizer as a future heir and want to use the strategy used by the Packers 12 years ago when they took Rodgers, they could look to Kizer to be that guy who leads the Giants in their time after Manning hangs up his football cleats.
If DeShone Kizer really is someone on their radar, the Giants have less than a month to make that decision.