Duke's Daniel Jones won't be the first quarterback picked in the 2019 NFL draft. He might not even be the second or third player at his position to hear his name called on Thursday night. If Jones does as he hopes in the NFL and ultimately lives up to comparisons to Peyton and Eli Manning, though, every team that passes on him will undoubtedly come to regret it.
“Those are two guys that have done it just as well as, if not better than, anyone else. I hope I have some of that,” he said of the Manning brothers, per the New York Post's Steve Serby. “Playing-wise, we’ve certainly been coached similarly in college and Coach Cut, it’s fun to listen to him coach those guys when they come back and hearing a lot of the same things. Through that, I’ve developed some of those tendencies. I have my own characteristics that make me who I am. I’m certainly confident in that.”
Comparisons to Peyton and Eli Manning don't just stem from Jones' size, toughness, and on-field intellect. Duke coach David Cutcliffe was Eli's coach during his time Ole Miss, and was Tennessee's offensive coordinator during Peyton's four seasons in Knoxville. If anyone is qualified to draw lines of similarity between the Mannings and Jones, it's certainly Cutcliffe, but he's not the only expert doing so. NFL.com's Gil Brandt sees the Mannings in Jones, too.
The New York Giants are known to have interest in Daniel Jones with the sixth overall pick. If he gets by the Giants, don't expect him to last much longer.
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