What if the Giants had replaced Daniel Jones with Justin Herbert in 2020?

How much different might the last few seasons have been, and how different would they look today, if the New York Giants had been able to draft Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert in 2019? Or, even in 2020?

Herbert was the apple of then-GM Dave Gettleman’s eye in 2019. He was in love with Herbert long before falling in “full-bloom love” with Daniel Jones before the 2019 NFL Draft. The Giants watched Herbert play at least six times in 2019. Herbert spurned the Giants and the 2019 draft, though, choosing to remain at Oregon for one more season.

The Giants, knowing Eli Manning had reached the end of the line, needed to get a replacement into the building and took Jones No. 6 overall in 2019.

Jones had a promising enough rookie season, throwing what is still a career-high 24 touchdown passes in 13 games and 12 starts, that the Giants — with the fourth pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and a second shot at Herbert — saw no reason to double-dip at quarterback and abandon Jones after just a year. Herbert went No. 6 to the Los Angeles Chargers, two picks after the Giants selected left tackle Andrew Thomas.

In a recent 2020 redraft, though, Pro Football Network bypassed the Giants’ selection of Thomas and gave them Herbert.

PFN says:

Though the Giants had just selected Daniel Jones the year before in real life, the magical power of hindsight lands them a quarterback in this 2020 NFL Redraft. With 21,093 career passing yards in five years, Justin Herbert has been the most productive regular-season quarterback to come out of a loaded draft class.

Valentine’s View

I do recall there being some debate at the time about the wisdom of the Giants potentially drafting over Jones and selecting Herbert. As PFN also says, hindsight tells us that Herbert is a far superior player and the Giants would likely be in a much better place had they either been able to select Herbert in 2019 or gone ahead and drafted him in 2020 despite having used a first-round pick on Jones the year before.