There will be a position battle to be Eli Manning’s backup as the New York Giants selected quarterback Kyle Lauletta in the fourth round of the draft.
Some felt the New York Giants would draft a quarterback in this year’s draft, they just didn’t think they would wait until the fourth round when they selected Kyle Lauletta with the 108th overall pick.
In his final season with the Richmond Spiders, he completed 281-of-433 passes (64.9 percent completion percentage) for 3,737 yards, 28 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, while leading the Spiders to a 6-5 record.
He had a great performance at the Senior Bowl, completing 8-of-12 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns in the South’s 45-16 victory over the North. That assuredly helped to boost his NFL stock.
Welcome to Big Blue, QB Kyle Lauletta! #GiantsPride #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/5oPcNcJOd7
— New York Giants (@Giants) April 28, 2018
The 6-foot-3, 222-pound Lauletta has the ideal frame that teams look for and covet in an NFL quarterback. He also has decent accuracy, mechanics, and mobility as he ran a 4.81 40-yard dash at the annual NFL combine.
He lacks ideal arm strength for the NFL, which is something he must work on if he wants to make the Giants roster. After all, having the arm strength to cut through the winds at MetLife Stadium in November and December is key to having any success with Big Blue.
Some have compared him to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, while Steve Palazzolo of ProFootballFocus noted that Lauletta was much higher on their draft board than Davis Webb was last year.
Kyle Lauletta was much higher on our QB board this year than Davis Webb was last year#GiantsDraft
— Steve Palazzolo (@PFF_Steve) April 28, 2018
He will enter training camp as the third quarterback on the depth chart and will compete with Webb to be Eli Manning’s backup.
It will be interesting to see whether the Giants let two untested quarterbacks battle for that job or if they bring in an experienced veteran to join the fray in training camp, as they did last season with Geno Smith.