NYG Select QB Davis Webb in Round 3

The NY Giants drafted QB Davis Webb in Round 3. “This is a good pick,” says draft analyst Wonder. “The Giants took a shot. I like him enough to understand the thinking and respect the attempt to find the successor to Eli Manning. Webb has the potential to be that heir. He can be developed.”

This review has good and weak parts, so let’s go through both. The first thing we will do is quote Wonder’s pre-draft review from Monday:

Davis Webb is another QB I really like for value. Unpolished. Off the field issues. Problems, spread offense. BIG. Has an arm. Has an arm and a half. Can he mature? I do not know. I am certainly not wasting a R2 or R3 pick on this lottery ticket. Not a winning record. Too much trouble to draft early. But Day 3 is intriguing. The ball flies off his hands. Bazooka. Late Round 4 or Round 5. Groom him to be a professional QB.

Wonder does not fault the Giants for grabbing him at the end of R3. Maybe they think he will be gone by the next Round, so he is willing to excuse that given the potential and given the position. Everyone covets QB, so if you can hit paydirt with Eli 36 years old, it won’t matter whether it is R3 or R4. At least Reese has done something, he’s taken a chance.

Yes, he is a lottery ticket, but this is about as good a fit for Webb as the guy can get. By sitting behind Eli and learning, it is a huge opportunity for him to learn route trees, develop proper footwork, read defenses, mature, adjust to the professional game and get mastery of the playbook.

Wonder loves this guy’s arm. It was the strongest arm at the 2017 Combine. It can cut through the wind at the Meadowlands and Northeast football in December. This is what gives Webb huge upside and potential. His upside is Joe Flacco.

For our part, Wonder preferred Dobbs over Webb but he liked the upside of both. Our analyst felt that Dobbs would be able to get ready for being a starter a little faster. Dobbs is more athletic than Webb, so Webb is stiffer in the pocket. Webb was preferred as a QB draft pick over most of the others in this draft, mainly because he has an NFL arm.

We panned Mahomes as a bust in this year’s draft. That there were reports that the Giants were unsuccessful in trading up for Mahomes. So taking a R3 flyer on Webb is infinitely better in our eyes than spending oodles of picks on a player who we do not believe has the potential to succeed. We shall see where both players end up. We certainly believe that, at a minimum, the Mahomes trade was one of the best moves the Giants never made.

Webb has plenty of work to do. But he’ll have the time to do it. He can be groomed. It is a lottery ticket but he has the tools to make it if he takes the right steps.  If the Giants can bring him along, it would be a huge payoff for this Round 3 investment. Considering the perpetual desperation of so many franchises to find a QB, we give credit to Reese for taking a credible shot here.