Could Davis Webb’s play in minicamp alter Giants’ draft decision?
Giants quarterback Davis Webb looks to pass against the Steelers during a preseason game at MetLife Stadium on Aug. 11, 2017. Credit: Steven Ryan
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Giants have been to the pro day for just about every one of the top quarterbacks in this year’s draft. They also intend to bring some of them to New Jersey for private workouts in the coming month before they make a final decision on who they’ll take with the No. 2 selection.
Timing is everything, of course. So with Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen and Josh Allen all expected to be in the mix, who will have the chance to make the last impression on the decision that could shape the franchise for the next decade or more?
Davis Webb.
Yes, the quarterback drafted by the previous regime in the third round out of Cal last year, who didn’t suit up in a game until the final week of the season, who has never played an NFL snap, gets to make his case to the Giants that he is their quarterback of the future when the Giants hold their minicamp in late April. The final workout scheduled for that camp, perhaps not coincidentally, is on the day of the first round of the draft: April 26.
“It’ll be a great way for Davis to showcase what he can do,” coach Pat Shurmur said at the NFL annual meetings on Tuesday. “He’s going to get a lot of reps, and he probably would anyway. I don’t want to make this sound like it’s a showcase for Davis Webb, but as a guy that we’re interested in seeing, he’s certainly going to get his fair share of the reps.”
Could Webb’s play in those practices alter the Giants’ thinking and sway them either toward or away from drafting a quarterback at No. 2?
“I think we’re going to take in any information we can all the way up to the time we’re on the clock,” Shurmur said.
It will be, although not technically, Webb’s pro day for the team in which he already is a member. In fact, the Giants have been re-scouting Webb this offseason while doing their work on the actual draft-eligible quarterbacks.
“I went back and watched his college film to compare him to the guys coming out this year,” Shurmur said. “I went back and revisited my notes from a year ago and we had him rated highly. The unfortunate thing for me is that there’s just not a lot of him playing football in a Giants helmet, which would have been a good thing for me to see moving forward. That is what it is.”
But, Shurmur said, he thinks Webb gained something valuable just being on an NFL roster last year.
“There is no substitute for experience and even though he was here and didn’t play a bunch, he became experienced in ways that you can’t if you haven’t been there,” Shurmur said. “I’ve got high hopes for him being a productive player in this league. It’s a little bit of an unknown. The advantage we will have though is we get that extra minicamp right up to the draft.”
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.
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