The fourth episode of HBO’s Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants was all about formulating a plan for the 2024 NFL Draft. The episode centered around the Giants front office, led by general manager Joe Schoen, interviewing players, going through trade scenarios, and eventually finalizing their draft-day plan.
Now in July, we already know the results of said plan, but the work that goes into it is fascinating. Here are the biggest takeaways from episode four:
The Giants explored the option of trading up for a quarterback as best they could.
The episode opened with a pre-credit scene with Schoen rehearsing a speech that he would give to quarterback Daniel Jones in the event of the Giants drafting a quarterback. Throughout the episode, the stress over deciding what is enough to give up for a potential franchise quarterback is palpable.
Team president John Mara compared it to when the Giants traded Philip Rivers and a host of future draft picks for Eli Manning in 2004. In the end, it was going to take a “historic” offer from the Giants to get the New England Patriots to trade out of the third spot in the draft where they would eventually select quarterback Drake Maye.
The consideration of taking a quarterback is a small but significant referendum on how the Giants feel about Jones. In a press conference Wednesday, Schoen said that Jones is now fully healthy and will take all of the first team reps at training camp. As we know, rather than replacing Jones, the Giants stayed put at No. 6, eventually taking receiver Malik Nabers.
Speaking of Nabers, early signs point to the Giants having something to be excited about in the former LSU Tiger. Head coach Brian Daboll has spoken glowingly of him throughout the documentary and clearly loves his attitude.
“Got a little dog in him,” said Daboll to Schoen at LSU’s pro day.
The documentary reveals that on draft day, Daboll called his superior, legendary Alabama head coach Nick Saban, and asked for advice on who to draft. Saban cited Nabers and Georgia tight end Brock Bowers as two players who gave his Alabama teams nightmares. High praise.
Bowers was selected by the Las Vegas Raiders.
The praise didn’t stop there. The documentary shows Giants wide receiver coach Mike Groh interviewing Nabers, Marvin Harrison Jr., and Rome Odunze all at once in the Giants facility. After putting the three best receiver prospects in the draft through tests, Groh said that he would take Nabers over Harrison, who is considered to be a generational prospect. He has not played an NFL snap, but expectations are now sky-high for Nabers in a Giants uniform.
The episode ends with Schoen going over his draft day plan with Daboll and the team owners. The Giants were clearly locked in on Harrison and Nabers when the possibility of trading up was out the window. There was potential to trade back and still end up with Bowers or Odunze. It is important to note that this is unprecedented access, and makes watching the documentary worth the time for any die-hard football fan. HBO’s experiment had paid off to the extent that fans have to wonder if front offices will allow this kind of access going forward, wanting to protect their competitive advantage of confidentiality.
