As Lamar Jackson prepares to play for a Super Bowl appearance on Sunday, Evan says it’s time for both Jets and Giants fans to revisit the reality that their teams royally screwed up.
For Evan, he openly admits regret when looking back on the 2018 NFL Draft, when Gang Green took Sam Darnold with the third overall pick, right after the Giants took Saquon Barkley at second overall. Jackson was taken as the last pick in the first round by the Ravens, and the rest is history.
Forget about passing on Josh Allen (taken seventh overall). Evan says the thought of his team passing on Jackson keeps him up nights, and it should do the same for Giants fans.
“Lamar Jackson is playing football on Sunday. Lamar Jackson is about to win an MVP award for the second time,” Evan said. “Saquon Barkley has never won an MVP award. Sam Darnold has never won an MVP award. Sauqon Barkley has never played in a championship game. Sam Darnold has never played in a championship game.
“I do regret that day. I do regret the decision the Jets made. While Sam Darnold was hot to trot and we were all feeling it, Lamar Jackson was a Heisman Trophy winner, and despite what some old heads said about him being a wide receiver, I knew what you knew, which is that he is an NFL quarterback…The Jets screwed up by taking the wrong quarterback. The Giants screwed up by not taking a quarterback.”
Tiki, representing the Giants, isn’t ready to express that same regret, noting that the league had not yet been awakened to the value of a quarterback like Jackson, and perhaps would have been had Robert Griffin III’s rookie season not ended in injury years prior.
“We didn’t know where the NFL was going,” Tiki said. “If we were smart about it, we would have realized that eventually, it was going to evolve.”