Just ahead of the 2019 NFL Draft a year ago, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. expressed concerns over the arm of quarterback Daniel Jones, but maintained that the Duke product would be a solid player in the NFL.
After his first season with the New York Giants, Jones proved that without a shadow of a doubt, which led to Kiper’s fierce defense of the young quarterback during an on-air argument with fellow draft insider, Todd McShay.
Despite that, Kiper believes that several incoming quarterback prospects, including Tua Tagovailoa and Joe Burrow, have a higher upside than Jones did entering the draft last year.
In fact, Kiper believes that Justin Herbert is also more talented than Jones, and that if Jones and Kyler Murray were coming out this year, they’d be ranked far down the list.
I had Murray ranked No. 6 overall on my final Big Board, while Jones was my fourth-ranked quarterback at No. 23 overall (Dwayne Haskins was No. 7; Drew Lock was No. 21).
OK, I’ll take a stab at ranking them, based on my pre-draft grades:
1. Joe Burrow, LSU
2. Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama
3. Kyler Murray, Oklahoma
4. Justin Herbert, Oregon
5. Daniel Jones, Duke
6. Jordan Love, Utah State
This is not an exact science, but I’m basing this list on how I thought of Murray and Jones going into the 2019 draft.
As Kiper points out, opinions evolve and this doesn’t necessarily represent how his rankings would shake out if he were to include the rookie performances of both Jones and Murray.
However, it does demonstrate the pessimism surrounding Jones as a 2019 prospect. Many believed he was a so-so player and potentially even a second round pick, and were shocked when the Giants called his name.
It would be interesting to see how Kiper has these quarterbacks stack up as is. Would Jones still check in all the day down at No. 5?
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