Daniel Jones was a great pick for the Giants.

With the sixth pick in 2019 NFL Draft, the New York Giants pissed off a lot of people.

CBS Sports gave the pick a ‘D’, saying that it probably should’ve gotten an ‘F’. Not to be denied, Giants fans themselves gave it an ‘F’. The Ringer panned it, as well.

Even our own OTE Twitter account got in on the action:

It turns out whatever dumbass runs this account is still piling on today!

And I don’t get why.

Their pick, Duke Blue Devils QB Daniel Jones, looks like a savvy one to me—QB from the David Cutcliffe tree with a mastery of the offense, an ability to pick apart defenses, and a guy with a 37 on the Wonderlic who should have time to pick up the playbook behind Eli Manning.

Let’s go to the tape:

Ability to Throw the Deep Ball

Jones has an NFL arm. It’s true:

Look at that pocket composure, too! That’s ostensibly a Big Ten defense rushing the passer there, forcing Jones to step up, not get happy feet and flee the pocket to the right for what would be a 10-15 yard scramble, and instead hit the home run.

Let’s enjoy that from another angle:

Enough air under that ball to let a superior athlete run under it, in stride. Touchdown. That’s what you have to look forward to, Giants fans!

Here’s another play, this time with play action thrown in.

Can you imagine this guy making those plays defenses having to commit to Saquon Barkley pounding the ball up the middle? It’s a match made in heaven. Those Duke WRs never broke stride to catch these touchdowns.

A Knack for the Zone Read

In this one, he reads the secondary perfectly, finding a streaking WR of a zone that, it should be mentioned, won the Big Ten West like it was nobody’s business. A nice strike for an easy first down:

More or less the same thing, but for an easy touchdown, this time with the RB at his side instead of behind him. Shotgun AND pistol, Giants fans! This guy does it all:

Get the end to crash and find a tight end in the flat. That’s like, NFL Passing 101, kids:

Oh, and you’re going to want to make sure the desk you’re sitting at is bolted down, because here’s Jones on the read again, this time finding an H-back on a little wheel route for a one-handed TD. (God, every noun and verb in that sentence just does it for me.)

Look at all those passing touchdowns. Look at the touch. Look at the reads. Here is a guy who has taken on some of the best the Upper Midwest has to offer and has thrived.

But we know you need more than just these sexy highlights against teams that have made conference championship appearances (we couldn’t find Pitt-Duke highlights and, frankly, you can’t make us look for them). You need toughness. You need a confident field general, not a wet mop who lucked into two Super Bowls. It’s 2019. You need running ability.

Elite Running Ability

The zone read is all the rage in the NFL these days, and an offensive genius like Pat Shurmur (I assume he is, because fuck John DeFilippo) can make use of a quarterback like this:

First, let’s pause and look at that pulling center. That’s pure sex right there, kids.

Second, Jones reads the crash of both the DE and the LB, opting to follow his blockers and, at the end, churning through two defenders who, we’re pretty sure, have gone to the NFL or something. No need to fact-check us on that last part, though.

And here’s Jones on a designed QB draw. Look how he reads the end, sees the linebackers crashing away, and even absorbs the contact and falls into the end zone. Eli Manning hasn’t run for positive yardage in years*! This is an instant upgrade. (Again, don’t bother to fact-check us; we don’t care and don’t read emails.)

That’s the kind of runner you want in the modern NFL—someone who isn’t afraid to tuck it and run through contact.

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Surely he did this against all the teams he faced. Was that not the case?