Report: Giants ‘Looking Closely’ at Top College Quarterbacks

The Giants need to start thinking about a replacement for 36-year-old Eli Manning.

With the Giants set to have one of the top picks in next year’s NFL draft and Eli Manning approaching his 37th birthday, co-owner John Mara instructed his scouting department to start taking a hard look at the top quarterback prospects available, ESPN’s Jordan Raanan reports. 

UCLA’s Josh Rosen, USC’s Sam Darnold and Wyoming’s Josh Allen are widely regarded as the top draft-eligible quarterbacks. As Albert Breer of The MMQB and others have noted, Darnold, who appears to have a slight edge over Rosen and Allen, may decide to stay in school for one more season. Darnold’s decision whether to stay at USC or go pro could depend in part of which team has the No. 1 pick. If the Browns pick first, he’d be more likely to stay in school, according to Breer. 

The Giants currently have the third-worst record in the NFL at 1–7 and play the winless 49ers on Sunday. The Browns are the only other winless team in the league. 

Manning, who turns 37 in January, has been the Giants’ starting quarterback for the past 14 seasons. General manager Jerry Reese said the day after the Giants’ playoff loss to the Packers last season that the team needed to address the future of the quarterback position. 

“We always think about every position, but Eli is 36,” Reese said. “We have started to thinking about who’s the next quarterback, who’s in line. So we’ll look into that as we move through the offseason.”

The Giants then went out and draft Davis Webb from Cal in the third round. Webb has not yet been active for a game this season—serving as the third-stringer behind Geno Smith—and Reese said during the bye week that Webb wasn’t going to get a shot just yet.