Michael Thomas celebrates with Giants fans after Sunday’s game. | Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
If you’re actually upset that the New York Giants won Sunday’s overtime thriller against the Washington Redskins, thus losing draft position and perhaps the chance to draft pass rusher Chase Young, I don’t know what to tell you.
In my view, winning is always better than losing. And there is always value in a young team winning a game. Especially a wild, hard-fought game like this one.
Whether you hope Pat Shurmur loses his job in a week or not, I absolutely agree with something he said about winning during his post-game press conference:
“Getting a win is important for all of us. You can substitute Daniel (Jones) name with Saquon Barkley, (Nate) Solder, mine. Anybody. Getting a win is important because that’s why we do this. And to do it on the road and get ahead and get tied and come back and do it in overtime, it’s good for everybody. I’m happy for our fans. As you go through this, you’re sitting down on Sunday watching football and you want to see good ball and you want to see your team win. For our fans, they got to do that this week.”
Shurmur, who is fighting to keep his job and might not get to enjoy coaching whoever the Giants draft, didn’t want to hear about potential lost draft position.
“Coaches don’t think like that,” Shurmur said. “All of the offseason stuff figures itself out in the offseason.”
Again, I’m going to agree with him. It’s nice for fans and the media to talk about. Coaches and players just want to win the game in front of them, as they should.
- If you think there is no value for a rookie quarterback in executing a game-winning overtime drive that included a pair of third-down throws — including the game-winner — I don’t know what to tell you.
- If you think there is no value in a gimpy Jones answering every challenge from the Redskins by throwing for 352 yards and a rookie record-tying five touchdowns without an interception, I don’t know what to tell you. This was the first time in NFL history a rookie quarterback had 350+yards passing, five touchdowns and no interceptions.
- If you think there is no value to the Giants in seeing Saquon Barkley (a career-best 189 yards, a 67-yard touchdown run, a 33-yard touchdown catch) finally really look like Saquon Barkley, I don’t know what to tell you.
- If you think there is no value in finding a quality player like tight end Kaden Smith off the waiver wire, I don’t know what to tell you.
- If you think there is no value in 552 total yards of offense and 41 points, no value in showing what kind of offense the Giants could be building, I don’t know what to tell you.
- If you think there is no value in the way the Giants protected Jones, and stood up for him when they thought Washington defenders had cheap-shotted him, I don’t know what to tell you.
- If you think there is no value for a young team in showing the toughness to win a game on the road after blowing a fourth-quarter lead, I don’t know what to tell you.
- If you think there is no value in the mano-a-mano battle that rookie DeAndre Baker waged with fellow rookie Terry McLaurin all day, one that had mixed results, I don’t know what to tell you.
- If you think there is no value in Shurmur, if he remains as Giants’ coach, showing in overtime that he understands there are times to ride Barkley, I don’t know what to tell you.
Getting Young, considered by draft analysts to be the best player in the draft and who just happens to have a skill set the 2020 Giants could benefit from, would be nice. Really nice. On paper.
Learning how to win close games, especially when the players you are counting on to lead your franchise into the future, are the ones primarily responsible for the victory, is also nice.
I’ve said this before, but it isn’t the end of the world if the Giants don’t get Young. Maybe Young is an All-Pro, but maybe he busts, you never know.
Maybe the Giants get Stanford left tackle Andrew Thomas to anchor their offensive line for a decade. Maybe they end up with cornerback Jeffrey Okudah. Or a wide receiver like Jerry Jeudy or CeeDee Lamb. Or, maybe they trade down from wherever they end up for a cachet of draft picks that give them, for the second straight year, three first-round picks. What would be wrong with that?
None of those are exactly bad scenarios. They may not be ‘best player in the draft on paper according to draft analysts’ scenarios, but they all potentially help the Giants get better in the long run.
Winning a game like this, especially when young cornerstone players are the ones who lead the way, is also good for the Giants in the long run.
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