Every week, FOX Sports NFL Insider Peter Schrager opens his notebook and opines on three of the biggest storylines around the league. Here are his takes heading into Week 12, including how the Giants missed out on a franchise QB, the Eagles’ star mystery man on defense, and making a Hall of Fame case for Terrell Suggs.
Giants’ QB Quandary
It’s not breaking news to say the Danny Dimes Era of Giants football is over in New York. After six years and with several exit ramps in the contract after this season, the Giants will be starting someone other than Daniel Jones under center next season.
This weekend, it’ll be Tommy DeVito, and $5 million offseason free agent acquisition Drew Lock is at the ready, too, as an option. But Week 1 in 2025? That’s where it gets interesting. See, the big QB Draft was in 2024; not 2025. The Giants did have a premium pick (6th overall) but opted to go with their top wide receiver on the board, Malik Nabers, over the 4th, 5th, or 6th quarterbacks on their board. This is a perfectly justifiable decision, regardless of what happens to those players over the course of their NFL careers. The Giants were devoid of playmakers on the roster, Nabers is undeniably that, and Jones was still just 16 months removed from a playoff win in Minnesota. But gosh, eight months later, the 2024 Draft and all that went into it is still being discussed in league circles.
Overall, the Giants and general manager Joe Schoen have already produced a great 2024 draft class. Top to bottom, whether it’s Nabers, Tyler Nubin, Dru Phillips, Theo Johnson, or breakout running back Tyrone Tracey, Jr. —the Giants have some up-and-coming talent from the crop of first-year players.
But the looming QB hole is one to ponder.
The wild nature of having cameras — even if someone edited or filtered — on the whole pre-praft process only added intrigue to the Giants’ 2024 offseason. And though the decision to move on from Saquon Barkley is the most scrutinized decision from HBO’s “Hard Knocks” offseason program, the conversations surrounding both Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye and New York’s obvious interest in both, only get juicer as their play exceeds expectations. The seasons that Daniels and Maye are having — both excellent — can only be compounded by the one Bo Nix is having for a 6-win Broncos team. Now, from good sources, it seems as though Washington was not trading the No. 2 pick, regardless of what was offered. And New England GM Eliot Wolf barely picked up the phone when called on offers for Maye. Can you crush the Giants for passing on Nix? Eh, five other quarterbacks were taken before him and it seems like Sean Payton had his heart set on Nix in a way no other decision-maker in the NFL did.
But, what if?
Let’s go back even a few months prior to the draft. The Giants were 2-8 a year ago at this time, when, inexplicably, Tommy DeVito and New York rattled off three straight wins, including a shocker over the playoff-bound Packers. At 5-8, the Giants were alive, and they were playing inspired football heading into the holiday season. There were TV commercials, an NFL Honors invite and hysteria over “Tommy Cutlets.” But those three wins cost the Giants precious draft position for April’s main event. At the 6th spot, New York was stuck behind three quarterback-needy teams. And as good as Nix is now, there were few teams pushing for him in the top 10, let alone over Michael Penix or J.J. McCarthy. We haven’t seen much from Penix (limited action in mop-up duty) or McCarthy (injured), but both have gotten positive reviews from sources at their respective teams up to this point.
Last year’s NFL Draft produced six first-round QBs who will start in the league in the coming years. This year’s Draft? The familiar names are there, yes. Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, Quinn Ewers, Jalen Milroe, Carson Beck and Garrett Nussmeier are all QBs at big-name programs who’ve had their moments. But with the exception of Sanders, I don’t think many scouts see any of them in the same breath as Caleb Williams, Daniels or Maye. We are in the business of building up the draft, and the intrigue of no slam dunk first overall pick will be good for content. But I don’t hear scouts talking about these guys like they did the Big 3 from a year ago. At least not at this point. It’d be dismissive to just say this isn’t a “QB draft”, but there’s a lot more questions about this overall crop than last year’s, which saw 6 signal-callers taken in the top 12.
So, it’s neither here nor there, but it’s certainly worth pondering: What if DeVito didn’t go on that three-game winning streak a year ago? Would the Giants have Daniels or Maye under center and set at QB? Schoen has a huge decision ahead of him, and the choices might not be as appealing as they were a year ago, had the Giants had a slightly better pick.
Oh well. That’s the gig.
And here comes DeVito again. And guess what? He might do it again. There’s magic there.
But in truth, we’ll be talking a lot about Sanders and his NFL future over the next six months. He’s got the goods and can sling it. More than merely Deion’s son, he’s shown flashes of elite playmaking, decision-making and leadership traits. And if there’s a college player who could embrace and have the edge for the New York market, it may be him- — a young man who has had the spotlight on him in a way not even Caleb Williams did in college. But if the Giants win a few more games, they might play themselves out of even being in the conversation. There’s still several months to go, and we will be all-in come draft time, but don’t get it twisted — draft position matters. And so do these seemingly “meaningless” games.
Tommy DeVito is back under center for the Giants following the benching of Daniel Jones (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)
Sizzle’s Hall of Fame Credentials
There’s going to be some debate on another Giants QB, Eli Manning, and whether he’s worthy of being a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Someone who shouldn’t have much debate? Another first-year eligible player: Terrell Suggs. Cards on the table, I was an “alternate” as a Hall of Fame voter in the past and love the Hall, but haven’t had as much to do with it the past few years. This year’s crop of first-year eligible players is the best we’ve seen since the Randy Moss, Brian Urlacher crew a few years back. There’s Eli and Suggs, but there’s also Adam Vinatieri, there’s Marshawn Lynch, and there’s Luke Kuechly. Joe Staley could make the final 15 this year, too.
I believe Suggs should be a first-ballot guy. He ranks eighth on the all-time sacks list with 139 over his 17 seasons. All seven players in front of him are Hall of Famers; there are seven players who are behind him that are in. He’s also a two-time Super Bowl champion — winning one with the Ravens and another one as a mid-year addition to Andy Reid’s first Chiefs Super Bowl-winning squad in 2019. He’s got a Defensive Rookie of the Year Award, a Defensive Player of the Year Award, and is one of the first guys to come back from a torn Achilles and make a full recovery. How many pass rushers can say they were a dominant force for 17 seasons?
The rings are there. The stats are there. The wins are there. But it’s a loaded class. Time will tell.
Will Terrell Suggs make the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first attempt? (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)
The Value Signing of the Offseason
Howie Roseman is a two-time Executive of the Year, and the signing of Saquon Barkley from the rival New York Giants is already being heralded as one of the best free-agent moves in recent memory. The selections of rookies Quinyon Mitchell in the first round and Cooper DeJean in the second of this year’s draft are already home runs, too. But the value move of the entire 2024 offseason was the signing of linebacker Zack Baun for less than $2 million. Baun, who a few weeks ago defensive coordinator Vic Fangio joked about when he said the front office saw him as a special teams guy, has emerged as the Eagles’ top tackler and defensive stalwart in the middle. A position that has long been a frustration in Philadelphia for Eagles fans, the ILB role has been filled admirably by Baun in his first year in green. Head coach Nick Sirianni called the Philadelphia Eagles‘ offseason free-agency signing of linebacker Baun a “home run for the organization.”
Two weeks ago, he was the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Week. Last week, he had 14 tackles and the game-saving stop of Jayden Daniels on a 4th-and-1 play in the fourth quarter.
As for Baun, he’s not an overnight success story. He was a defensive leader and star at the University of Wisconsin. A third-round pick in New Orleans, he was viewed as a special teams guy, where though he did excel, is not what you’re typically looking for in a third-rounder. Baun, 27, signed a one-year deal worth just $1.6 million — just barely above the fifth-year NFL league minimum salary of $1.5 million — with the Eagles in March.
In New Orleans, he never played more than 30% of his team’s defensive snaps.
In 10 starts in Philadelphia, Baun has recorded 102 total tackles, an average of 10.2 per game, which is currently the most in the NFL. He’s played 95% of the team’s defensive snaps. Still just 27, his best football is ahead of him.
In Baun, Howie Roseman struck gold…again.
Zack Baun has been the unheralded star of the Eagles’ defense in 2024. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
NFL STAT OF THE WEEK
Detroit Lions 50+ point games from 1920-2023: 3
Detroit Lions 50+ point games through 11 weeks in 2024: 2
Peter Schrager is an NFL Insider for FOX Sports and a host of “Good Morning Football” on NFL Network. You can follow him on Twitter at @PSchrags.
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