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The 2022 NFL season is about to begin, but New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen already has one eye turned toward 2023.
Schoen was in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday night to watch (No. 2) Ohio State take on (No. 5) Notre Dame. The first-year GM told reporters of his plans last week.
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While Ohio State ended up beating Notre Dame, 21-10, both teams featured plenty of future NFL talent. One player that should be particularly interesting to Schoen and the Giants is Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud — a top prospect looking ahead to the 2023 NFL Draft.
Stroud played well against Notre Dame, completing 24 of his 34 pass attempts for 223 yards and two touchdowns and zero interceptions. The Buckeyes were trailing at halftime, but Stroud’s play in the second half helped his team pull off the come-from-behind victory. First he led a 10-play, 70-yard touchdown drive to take the lead late in the third quarter; then led a 14-play, 95-yard touchdown drive to ice the game late in the fourth quarter.
Stroud is the betting favorite to win this year’s Heisman Trophy, according to vegasinsider.com. He is coming off a season in which he was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, after sitting behind current Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields as a true freshman in 2020.
Here’s a highlight of Stroud’s go-ahead touchdown pass vs. Notre Dame:
Daniel Jones will start for the Giants in 2022, but they are not tied to him beyond this season. They new regime decided not to pick up his fifth-year contract option this offseason, making him an unrestricted free agent next spring. With his future up in the air, the Giants are keeping their options open for 2023.
Other Top QB Prospects Who Impressed on Saturday
Joe Schoen made scouting C.J. Stroud a priority, but there were a couple other quarterback prospects that had Giants twitter buzzing on Saturday. One of those prospects is Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson.
Richardson led unranked Florida to a 29-26 upset win over (No. 7) Utah, completing 17 of his 24 pass attempts for 164 yards while also rushing 11 times for 106 yards and three touchdowns. Although he did not throw a touchdown pass, his best play might have been this two-point conversion in the fourth quarter.
Other top quarterback prospects — such as Kentucky’s Will Levis and Alabama’s Bryce Young — had strong outings against lackluster opponents. Boston College’s Phil Jurkovec, on the other hand, was shaky in a one-point loss to Rutgers.
Former Giants WR Still Has Faith in Daniel Jones
With some heads (including Joe Schoen’s) already turning toward next year’s draft, time is running out for Daniel Jones to save his job with the Giants. Former NFL wide receiver Bennie Fowler, who played two seasons with the Giants (2018-19), has spent time with a lot of great quarterbacks and isn’t giving up hope on his former teammate.
“Absolutely,” Fowler told Pat Leonard on the Talkin’ Ball podcast, when asked whether Jones is the guy for New York. “D.J. has all the qualities of all the quarterbacks I just talked about, except he can run and he’s more athletic than all of them. … This is going to be a year for him to break out.”
Jones has a career win-loss record of 12-25 and is coming off a season in which he missed six games due to a neck injury.
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