Hours before the 2024 NFL Draft, the Giants were still weighing all possibilities for their top pick and taking as many different opinions into account as possible.
In the fourth episode of the Giants’ offseason edition of “Hard Knocks,” cameras caught a rare, intimate moment between general manager Joe Sean and his family just hours before the draft.
Shawn conducted a poll: Which players do kids want to be picked in the first round?
“Jayden Daniels,” his son Carson yelled as he tossed the football. “Trade up and get him. Why not?”
Carson, a former quarterback at Don Bosco Prep High School in New Jersey, stressed a positive mindset, knowing his father might only get one chance to become an NFL general manager.
“You only get this job once, so you better try to win it,” he stressed.
But Sean joked that they probably won’t get Daniels, who the Giants wanted but were blocked by the Washington Commanders and couldn’t move up in the ranks to acquire.
At that point, Carson mentioned Drake Maye, Marvin Harrison Jr. or Malik Neighbors as possible alternatives.
“So there’s no room for failure,” Carson mused.
Sean’s teenage son’s thought process largely mirrored that of his father and the Giants, who pulled out all the stops to acquire the promising quarterback.
Episode 4 showed Sean talking to Patriots vice president of player personnel Elliot Wolf about moving Maye up from sixth to third overall, but New England balked unless they received a “significantly larger” offer.
Giants owner John Mara also expressed some hesitation about parting with a large amount of capital to acquire a potential franchise quarterback, but he did mention trading for Eli Manning in 2004. The gamble certainly paid off.
If a playmaker isn’t available (as was the case when Caleb Williams, Daniels and Maye were selected with the first three picks), the focus would be solely on selecting either Harrison or Neighbors with the sixth overall pick, which is what happened.
Meanwhile, Sean’s eldest daughter, Sydney, had a different quarterback in mind: Michigan State’s JJ McCarthy.
“I’m just looking at who I think is going to be a good quarterback,” Sidney said.
But Carson didn’t believe it.
“All the girls want JJ McCarthy because he’s hot,” he argued, adding that Daniels has the looks of a top-tier quarterback. “Just look at him.”
The Giants were frequently linked to McCarthy throughout the pre-draft process, but “Hard Knocks” put a damper on that notion.
The show revealed that the Wolverines met with the team’s headquarters during a Top 30 visit, but McCarthy was never on the list of top-seven prospects and was never mentioned by top brass as a realistic target at No. 6.
Incidentally, Sean’s youngest daughter, Harper, also pointed to May as she read the list of options presented by her father.
All three of Shawn’s children seemed to want a quarterback, but the team’s attempts to draft higher were ultimately squashed, with Neighbors being the sixth choice.
The Giants practiced for the first time on Wednesday and open their preseason on Aug. 8 against the Detroit Lions.
