Good morning https://www.giantsfanshop.com/hats , everyone! k Giants are still mathematically alive in the playoff hunt, their odds of playing after Week 17 are slim and trending towards “none.”Their odds of landing one of the first 10 selections, however, are still strong. That means that it is much more “draft season” for Giants fans than “stretch run” season. And as it so happens, ESPN’s Todd McShay has released his first mock draft in advance of the 2019 NFL Draft. Since it is Insider content, we’ll bring you the Giants’ pick:Raptor’s Thoughts: First off, McShay does have Justin Herbert in his mock, going seventh overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Moving on, I am of two minds about this pick. On one hand, Haskins has played well this season. He is the rare Urban Meyer QB who is primarily a pocket passer (he definitely isn’t a statue, though), and he has largely been efficient running Ohio State’s offense. Over the last quarter, or so New York Giants Hoodie , of the college season he was legitimately excellent. Haskins has enough mobility to navigate the pocket and extend plays, with all the arm strength you could ask for to challenge the Meadowlands’ winds. His decision making has been sound and he has solid accuracy to all levels of the field. Haskins has just about everything you could want from a quarterback prospect from a tools perspective.But on the other hand, he is a red-shirt sophomore and while he has had a season that put him in the Heisman conversation ... that’s the extent of his resume. For myself, personally, quarterback the one position where I always weigh age and being an upper-classman as being marks in their favor. Normally they’re neutral at best, and for players premier positions with an athletic premium, younger is usually better. But at quarterback, having those extra two or three years of experience and mental maturity (literally, the brain does not stop maturing until after the usual age of college graduation), are a massive positive for me. Sure, getting him as a red-shirt sophomore means that the Giants will have him in-house and learning behind Eli Manning (with whom he already has a relationship from the Manning Passing Academy). But that isn’t the same as playing games, seeing defenses first hand, and making decisions in the moment.And then on the third hand (okay B.J. Goodson Color Rush Jersey , my name isn’t Zaphod, so we’ll just juggle ideas here) having a young quarterback on a rookie deal is an incredible advantage for the team. Even with the salary cap pushing toward $200 million in the coming years, the Giants will need the extra cap flexibility that having a QB on a rookie deal provides as they work to re-sign players like Sterling Shepard, Dalvin Tomlinson, Saquon Barkley, and potentially Sam Beal. So then, what do you think of selecting Dwayne Haskins if he does indeed declare for the draft and falls to the Giants’ pick? The 2018 season started out with much promise for the New York Giants. They had a new head coach who was the mastermind behind one of the most improved offenses in the league the year before, had drafted an uber-talented running back, and signed their best player to a historic contract. They believed they had fixed their offensive line (which had been the Achilles heel of their offense), and were set to put a dismal 3-13 2017 season behind them. They promptly got out to a 1-7 start that looked entirely too familiar to Giant fans. The team hit a stretch of good luck following their week 9 bye and played four back-up quarterbacks in a span of five weeks. They won each of those games to keep their play-off hopes on life support until they were finally ended by a shut-out loss to the Tennessee Titans. Now the Giants simply hope to end their season on a high note with a win over the Dallas Cowboys. But can their offense finally get the job done against a play-off team?Stats that matterGiants’ offenseCowboys’ defenseWhich offense will we see? This has been another one of those ever-green sub-heads this season. We have seen instances where the Giants have broken out of their offensive shell and used schemes and concepts which not only compensated for their own limitations, but played defenses like a fiddle. We saw it most recently in the first half of the Giants’ game last week. The Giants used misdirection, roll-outs, and play-action to wreck the Colts’ pass rush while flooding zone coverages with receivers to create quick and easy reads for Eli Manning. It worked fantastically and caught Indianapolis’ defense completely by surprise. But when the Giants try to go back to their vanilla offense Odell Beckham Jr Color Rush Jersey , they quickly lose traction. Their offensive line has been completely outclassed lately and largely failed to open holes for Saquon Barkley. That offensive scheme wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen from them before. the big difference was that rather than being elements of a scheme they employed when the basics weren’t working, they made it the foundation. The question now is whether or not they will take its success as a lesson for the future, or go back to what we have seen fail before.Can Saquon Barkley put his cape back on? It has been two and a half games since the Giants’ rookie phenom has had an explosive play. And that drought has put a stark light on just how dependent their running game is on them. To put how important his explosive plays are for the Giants’ running game (and offense in general), Barkley has had totaled 113 yards on the ground over the last three weeks on non-explosive rushing plays. That isn’t a knock on Barkley at all, but rather how the offensive line has been run blocking of late. Barkley has tried to obey the coaches’ directive to get “dirty yards,” but it doesn’t help if he is being run into the back of the offensive line. The Giants found a way around that against the Colts, and (as discussed above) that should form the basis for their offense going forward. However, if they can rediscover some semblance of a running game, it will help the offense as a whole. And while those explosive plays are unpredictable at best, they serve to keep a defense on its heels. Also, they’re just plain fun to watch. It’s going to be a long offseason, and a couple more highlight plays for the road would be nice.How hard will the Cowboys play? Dallas SHOULD play as though this is an elimination game. That’s the mentality with which a team should approach the play-offs. However, the last time they were in this situation Olivier Vernon Color Rush Jersey , they quickly pulled starters in the interests of staying healthy for the post-season. The Giants absolutely want to finish the season on a high note, with a win over a division rival. That win would likely be more meaningful if they are playing their starters and playing to win, rather than to hide wrinkles from the Seahawks and not get hurt. On the other hand, the Giants have beaten precisely one starting offense this season — the Houston Texans with DeShaun Watson way back in week three. They nearly pulled it off against the Eagles and Colts in the second half of the season, but both times, fourth quarter collapses doomedthe Giants. If the Giants want the win, their best bet is that Dallas will be looking ahead to football in January. But if they want to actually finish with reason to believe that they are on the right track, for the future, then they will want to actually beat a Dallas team which is trying to go in to the post-season with a quality win of their own.