Duke Football: Mock NFL draft has Daniel Jones going No. 2 to Giants

Apparently, it’s not a sign of insanity to think quarterback Daniel Jones could become the second Duke football player in history to be selected No. 2 overall in the NFL draft.

Any Duke football fans who have been told to temper their expectations for redshirt junior quarterback Daniel Jones at the professional level can now point to a mock NFL draft to show they are not crazy for having such high hopes.

In fact, the only crazy fans might be those who think Jones will have any reason to stick around for a fifth year in Durham.

According to the mock draft by Chris Trapasso of CBSSports.com released on Friday, the 6-foot-5, 220-pound signal caller from Charlotte, N.C., will go No. 2 overall to the New York Giants.

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If this scenario did play out, Jones would tie for the highest-picked Blue Devil in history with Hall of Fame halfback George McAfee — who starred at Duke from 1937-39, had his jersey number (5) retired by the Chicago Bears in 1955 and still holds the NFL record for career average on punt returns (12.78).

The only justification Trapasso provides for his early prediction is as follows:

"“Jones is a good-sized refined pocket passer who’s played under the tutelage of David Cutcliffe in college. Sounds like Eli [Manning]. The Giants love Eli.”"

But Jones’ stats so far from this season could also help justify the lofty prediction. Across the four games he has played — he sat out two due to injury – he has completed 69 of 101 passes, including eight touchdowns and only two interceptions. His passer rating is a whopping 158.8.

The reason Trapasso has the Giants picking second — he has Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa going first overall to the Oakland Raiders — is based on SportsLine’s current win projections.

Obviously, countless more mock drafts will be released before the actual draft starts on April 25, 2019, and others are likely to have Jones going much lower. That being said, this mock draft certainly suggests that Cutcliffe and his staff should expect Jones to no longer be playing on Saturdays come next fall.

Currently, offensive lineman Laken Tomlinson is the only Blue Devil under Cutcliffe to have been selected in the first round (28th to the Detroit Lions in 2015). In total, Duke has produced six first-round picks (not including quarterback Dave Brown, who was selected first by the Giants in the 1992 supplemental draft).

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Jones will try to continue his impressive season when the Blue Devils host Virginia at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.

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