Giants embrace the sound of silence entering NFL Draft

[Daniel Jones tweeted on Thursday.

That’s it. That’s the news.

It was an innocuous post that reflected on the four-year anniversary of the day the Giants traded up and selected him in the 2019 draft. It was the first time he posted anything on the social media platform since October, the first time he wrote something there other than a clearly paid-for advertising endorsement since last May.

When it comes to making waves, Jones and the Giants may be among the worst teams in the league. Perhaps even the worst in sports. The little dramas they have encountered this offseason — Jones’ contract extension, a holdout by Saquon Barkley — seem to be heading toward inevitable endings that sap them of any significant uncertainty. Their big acquisitions have been for Darren Waller, a tight end who will help but lacks the sex appeal of others at his position; and Bobby Okereke, a linebacker whose name most casual fans would be hard pressed to pronounce.

Even that Jones contract that seemed to be so significant when it was struck back in early March? It’s since been dwarfed by a string of new quarterback deals around the league — including one for Lamar Jackson struck on Thursday — that pushed him out of the top 10 highest-paid players at his position. By the time Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert get around to inking their new contracts, Jones’ deal will probably make him, what, the 15th highest-paid in the league?

Then there was the lead-up to Thursday night’s snoozefest of a draft for this team. With the Giants scheduled to make the 25th selection they were stuck in no- man’s land between the top talent on the board that figured to be picked clean by the time they got on the clock — most analysts figured there were between 10 and 15 players with true first-round grades in this subpar class — and the stretches and reaches who remained.

Throw in the hubbub created this week by the team with whom they share the city and their new quarterback, the buzz around the Knicks and Rangers in the throes of their playoff runs these days, our two neighborhood baseball squads sprinting through the pitch-clock propelled season, and it’s easy to forget that as of a few months ago the Giants were the biggest story around.

Remember them? The team that ended a six-year playoff drought, a decadelong streak without a playoff win, had their first-year coach win just about every postseason award in his profession, and whose future was suddenly burning bright? That wattage from that promising bulb has been doused not by diminishing optimism but by the light pollution suddenly surrounding them.

And the Giants love it.

This is, after all, a franchise that always seems to be at its best when the expectations are highest for others .<EN>.<EN>. in particular their green friends in Florham Park. Their whole persona — “Talk is cheap, play the game” — has its roots from Tom Coughlin eschewing the bombast of Rex Ryan and his big brother boasting in the early parts of the last decade and turning it into a championship run.

The management has changed (several times) since then, but the philosophy is unaltered.

Maybe being around for 99 years as the Giants can claim gives them the wisdom that titles are not won in the offseason or at news conferences. They aren’t won with splashy draft day moves but instead with steady underrated picks that aren’t noticed until they need to be. Sure, there have been some bombshells that have worked out — the 2004 deal for Eli Manning comes directly to mind — but the core of the championship teams he led was manned mostly by afterthoughts.

Players such as Chris Snee, who was quietly selected while most observers were still digesting the details of that Manning swap with the Chargers. The next year, when the Giants made their third-round pick in 2005, it was such a non-story that reporters were asked if they wanted to spend a few minutes talking with the selection but declined. That pick, Justin Tuck, wound up being pretty darn good. David Diehl, Osi Umenyiora, Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw, Mario Manningham . . . they all slipped onto the roster almost unnoticed but became the heart, soul and moxie of championship squads.

Maybe one or two of the players the Giants select this weekend will one day blossom into something similar for the team. There will be interest in them now, of course, but nothing that can pierce through the volume from the other teams and newsmakers that surround the organization.

This Giants offseason is the opposite of Macbeth’s famous tirade on the meaning of life.

No sound. No fury.

But signifying what?

Maybe Jones will tweet the answer.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.