Giants hold the recipe to drum up chaos at the 2024 NFL Draft… to the Steelers’ benefit

Too many teams; not enough QBs…

The 2024 NFL Draft is set to start Thursday, April 25 at 8 p.m. ET.

To some, it’s fascinating to watch in real-time as teams pick future millionaire athletes the same way little Johnny and Billy picked players for kickball teams at recess in elementary school. For those who do enjoy watching the show, nothing kills the buzz of the event quite like things going exactly as planned.

There were glorious times when the Steelers held the last pick of the first round by winning the Super Bowl and you could just ignore the TV for several hours while all the wannabes made their picks. The Steelers haven’t had that honor in quite some time. Lately, it’s usually been a pick in the 18-22 range which still allowed for skipping a couple of hours of less interesting proceedings as Roger Goodell announced player after player going to some other franchise.

We can no longer ignore the draft like we used to be able to, as the Steelers have traded up in the first round twice in the last five years. The timing of the first-round selection has become unpredictable. I remember my eyelids getting heavy while reading news stories on my phone in 2019 with the draft on the TV, when I was startled to hear, “We have a trade. The Pittsburgh Steelers will be drafting 10th after a trade with the Denver Broncos.”

I sat up straight and got focused. I didn’t know what to expect. The Steelers hadn’t traded up in the first round in 13 years, and perhaps that night they shouldn’t have either. In need of a linebacker, they drafted a linebacker. Unfortunately, Devin Bush didn’t prove to be worth trading up for at all.

Larry McCormack / The Tennessean

Bring on the 2024 NFL Draft chaos

Enough of the trip down memory lane. Will we see any excitement in this year’s draft? The Steelers have a handful of positions they could use pick No. 20 on, if they choose to stay put. The wait to get there could be entertaining though. There’s a big game of quarterback draft musical chairs that’s going to unfold on Thursday.

In musical chairs, there was always one less seat than there were players trying to sit. In this year’s draft, there’s a shortage of first-round quarterbacks compared to the number of teams needing one. It is almost a consensus among the draft gurus that Chicago, Washington, and New England will start the draft by picking some combination of Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Jayden Daniels. Those same gurus consider the next wave to be JJ McCarthy, then Michael Penix or Bo Nix before a big drop-off to a third wave made up of purely developmental prospects.

Three teams, who happen to draft one after the other, have a solid need at the position for this second wave. Minnesota holds pick No. 11 (and pick No. 23) and has journeyman Sam Darnold. Denver at pick No. 12 has journeyman Jarrett Stidham. Las Vegas at pick No. 13 has journeyman Gardner Minshew. With McCarthy as the prize, it’s a three-team musical chair game… or is it?

The New York Giants are the wild card that could ignite some early draft fireworks by becoming a fourth team in the musical chair game. They have Daniel Jones as their starting quarterback, but they desire something else for the position and hold pick No. 6.

Before signing with the Steelers, Russell Wilson visited with the Giants. The fact that the Giants took that visit certainly wasn’t a vote of confidence for Jones, or at the very least, indicative of their faith in his health coming off a torn ACL suffered last season. Since that time the Giants have used one of their 30 pre-draft visits on each of the quarterbacks from the top two waves except Caleb Williams. They have also used one on Spencer Rattler in that third tier. They had Maye and McCarthy in for private workouts and attended the Pro Days of Penix and Daniels. It appears they are willing to use No. 6 on a quarterback, if the right one is available. Sitting within striking distance, they could even consider trading up from there to get their favorite if they find a partner.

How the Giants could affect the Steelers’ draft

Should the Giants pull the trigger on a quarterback, it’s highly probable that it has a chain reaction effect on Minnesota, Denver and Las Vegas. A second game of quarterback musical chairs would inevitably begin with three teams vying for only two quarterbacks. As the Steelers aren’t targeting a quarterback this year, the more of them that are drafted ahead of pick No. 20 means more quality players at other positions would still be on the board for them.

A month ago, most draft analysts had four quarterbacks going in the first round, with Nix and Penix not making the grade. If the Giants throw the chaos grenade into the mix, the three teams that miss out on the top four quarterbacks can’t sit patiently and assume they will get one in the second round. Should five get drafted before the Steelers’ slot, there would now be a better chance that one of the two teams still looking may trade back up into the first round to secure the last of Nix/Penix.

Suppose the Vikings don’t have a quarterback by the time pick No. 20 rolls around. In that case, someone may be willing to trade up with the Steelers to keep Minnesota from getting the last one at No. 23. More likely would be a trade up to No. 22, but the higher probability of a QB being selected at 22 or 23 would factor favorably into any trade down decision for the Steelers. For instance, if the Steelers have a tentative trade down to No. 28 worked out, the likely selection of a quarterback drafted at 22 or 23 increases their chances of having a beloved prospect getting pushed down to them.

Even though the Steelers don’t have interest in a first-round quarterback, their overall draft positions will still have an effect on the Black and Gold. Steelers fans should be all-in on the Giants to draft a quarterback to and start the musical chairs games, as it could be to Pittsburgh’s benefit… and even if not, it’s still more interesting than watching everything go as planned.