By WFAN.com
The NFL Draft has come and gone, and now teams across the league are getting their new rookies their first taste of professional practices.
On Friday, the Giants drafted and undrafted rookies reported to the facilities and took to the field for the first day of rookie minicamp. Controversial sixth overall pick Daniel Jones was one of those rookies.
Jones began the day by announcing the number he had chosen for the season. He wore No. 17 in college at Duke, but Jones will wear No. 8 for the Giants. When asked to explain why he chose that number, he said: "Old Kobe, I guess."
WATCH: @Daniel_Jones10 has big goals for his career in NY. pic.twitter.com/YrHvOm3ZmE
— New York Giants (@Giants) May 3, 2019There has been a lot of debate over the Giants' selection of Jones with their first pick. The rookie QB was asked if he is aware of some of the reaction and debate that his addition to the team has generated.
"Yeah, it'd be hard to be completely unaware of a lot of that stuff and the way it works nowadays. But I don't focus on it. There's a lot to focus on, there's a lot to learn for me right now: Being here, learning the offense, trying to pick up a lot of stuff. So, I'm not sure I can afford to really focus on that too much."
GM Dave Gettleman justified taking Jones so early by saying he knew "as a fact" that two other teams would have wanted to take him before New York's next pick at No. 17 in the first round.
Jones was also asked what it would take for him to keep a healthy relationship with Eli Manning, who he will backup this coming season.
"We both want the same thing. We want the Giants to win football games. That's the goal of everyone here. I'm certainly going to let that be known that that's my goal. However that happens, whatever the plan is, I'm here to do that. I understand my role is to learn from him and I'll certainly be focused on improving myself everyday … but at the end of the day we want to win games."
The basketball tie-ins continued later when Jones was asked about Zion Williamson, his classmate at Duke who will almost certainly be the first pick in June's NBA Draft. Jones won over Knicks fans everywhere when he claimed he had spoken to his friend Williamson about playing in New York.
