Can Kyle Lauletta Be Eli Manning’s Successor?
Kyle Lauletta has all the tools to overtake Davis Webb as the potential future starting quarterback of the New York Giants, except he needs to prove that he can do something that he wasn’t tasked with in college…
Although the New York Giants elected to draft ex-Penn State running back Saquon Barkley in the first round over numerous top quarterbacks, they decided to address the position later on, spending a fourth-round pick on former Richmond Spider Kyle Lauletta.
Though his first play from scrimmage wasn’t pretty, the tape from this game against William and Mary showcases what Lauletta is capable of.
The ex-Spider quarterback has the arm and the accuracy to lead an offense in the NFL. Lauletta has no problem firing the ball down the sideline or over the middle, with little-to-no hesitation.
If the pocket collapses, he has no problem using his legs to pick up some extra yards. For the record, Lauletta’s 4.81 forty-time edged out the 4.84 time that number one overall pick Baker Mayfield, who is known as a mobile signal-caller, registered at the combine.
Mayfield’s game is quite similar to Lauletta’s, though Mayfield’s competition was far superior to Lauletta’s, demoting Lauletta to the later rounds of the draft.
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Standing at 6’3” and boasting a 222-pound frame, Lauletta can also punish potential tacklers in the open field. That is something that the 6’1” Mayfield is not as capable of.
However, there’s one important thing that Mayfield proved quite capable of that Lauletta has yet to display: he must prove that he can work beyond his initial read, something he wasn’t tasked with in the college ranks.
Every single throw he made in that tape had him staring down his primary target and only looking for a second option when he was forced from the pocket. While he was in the pocket, he didn’t once stare at a secondary target, let alone contemplate delivering a throw to one.
He’ll presumably have plenty of opportunities available to him during games when the preseason begins in the coming months. For now, he’ll focus on learning an NFL offense that has much more to it than the one he ran at Richmond.
Lauletta has the potential to be one of the draft’s biggest steals if he can learn to make multiple reads on the same play and improvise when the option he’s initially looking for is well defended. He certainly has the potential to take the reins from Eli Manning after a year or two if he improves in that area.
For the small price of a fourth-rounder, it’s safe to say New York made a calculated risk that has much greater potential reward than it does risk.