Davis Webb has competition.
Michael Matta, the head football coach at Downingtown East High School outside Philadelphia, was on hand April 2 when Giants offensive assistant Ryan Roeder arrived in Exton, Pa., to work out former Cougars QB Kyle Lauletta.
“I watched the workout. He threw the ball for 45 minutes to an hour and not one ball hit the ground,” Matta told the Daily News by phone Saturday afternoon.
This left the Giants with their second strong in-person impression of Lauletta in three months.
At the Senior Bowl in late January, with GM Dave Gettleman and head coach Pat Shurmur in the stands, the Richmond quarterback had completed 8-of-12 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns — a 75-yarder to LSU’s D. J. Chark, a 1-yarder to Western Kentucky’s Deon Yelder and a 14-yarder to Oklahoma State’s Marcell Ateman.
Gettleman said “the CliffsNotes answer is yes,” the Senior Bowl sent Lauletta skyrocketing up the Giants’ board.
“He was impressive and he made some strong throws into tight windows, anticipated things and for me, that’s what really peaked my curiosity,” Gettleman said. “ I heard all the stuff about him from the scouts, but after watching that Senior Bowl, I said, ‘We’ve got to dig into him. You guys have to dig into him. There is something here. We just have to figure out what it is.’”
Not every NFL evaluator believes Lauletta has what is takes. He’s often criticized for not having NFL level arm strength. And one league scout said to temper any expectation that the Giants made a huge statement about their franchise’s direction by taking Lauletta with the eighth pick of the fourth round at 108th overall on Saturday.
“He’s a backup,” the scout said. “This is not the Giants drafting their next franchise quarterback. This is competition.”
Still, Matta said Lauletta’s clean and impressive Senior Bowl performance was not an outlier.
“I think he used the Senior Bowl as a tool to make people see who he is,” Matta said. “It went underpublicized because of all those other big-time quarterbacks in this draft, but I think Kyle came out and said, ‘Look at me.”
And so the question is, what does this mean for Eli Manning and Davis Webb?
On the one hand, the Giants’ selection of Saquon Barkley and not a QB at No. 2 overall on Thursday represented confirmation of their belief that Manning can play at a high level for “years” to come.
“Picking Kyle has less to do about Eli and Davis and more to do about Kyle,” Shurmur said. “We liked the player and we wanted to add him to our team and then just let them compete.”
On the other, Shurmur hedged on NFL Network later after his press conference, saying that the Giants’ 2018 starting quarterback “most likely is gonna be Eli.”
That’s an eye-opener, that Shurmur might turn training camp into a three-way competition for the starter’s job.
“The one good thing about quarterbacks is I’ve watched it with my son, they’re always drafting, or in the case of college, they’re always recruiting the guy to replace you, so they’re used to competition,” Shurmur said. “I don’t think you’re going to be a very good quarterback if you don’t look forward to it, so there is competition in the room.”
And Shurmur said yes, he’s comfortable with either Webb or Lauletta ending up as Manning’s backup even though neither has played an NFL regular season snap.
Lauletta, a 6-foot-3,222-pound, accurate passer (64.9% his senior year with the Spiders), said on a conference call that he is used to be counted out and doubted.
“It’s kind of been the story for me my whole career, being doubted and kind of being the underdog,” he said. “In high school I didn’t have all those big time offers that some of the other guys had and even coming out of college after my senior season, the scouts had me rated lower than I ended up getting picked, but I don’t worry about that.”
The truth is, Lauletta is a two-time Richmond captain, a leader, and a smart young man who has pivoted in tough situations. He had four offensive coordinators in five years at Richmond, running offenses that branched from O’Brien’s Penn State system, another with a Dallas Cowboys influence and last year running the spread. And he’s a stand-up guy that people naturally follow, according to his high school coach.
“His character is as good as anyone I’ve been around,” Matta said. “He doesn’t say one thing and do another. High caliber, high character. He was a captain and leader for us, not just in our football program but the whole school responded to him. He’s a tremendous person, people follow and want to be around him.”
“He’s a very confident fella without being arrogant,” he added. “He believes in himself. The game is never too big. Any time a fourth down came and we had the choice of going for it, he’d always come over and say, ‘Coach remember you said we could do this, you’ve gotta believe in me, I can do this. He gave me confidence. He just has an infectious personality.”
Lauletta, from Exton, Pa., comes from athletic and football bloodlines. His father Joe played football at the Naval Academy (1983-86), his uncle Lex played at Navy (1977-80), his uncle Lance played lacrosse at Bucknell (1976-79), and his grandfather Joe played football and basketball at Delaware (1953-56).
So as an athlete, he’s comfortable throwing on the run — and sometimes he’s shown off even more.
“One play he actually hurdled a guy who was standing up,” Matta said. “I think he’s a better athlete than people are ready for. He was an all-league lacrosse player, scored a lot of goals. Great athlete.”
The truth is, the Giants’ decision to draft Lauletta is a direct result of Ben McAdoo and Steve Spagnuolo not putting Webb on the field last season, and of co-owner John Mara refusing to force them to do so.
Shurmur and Gettleman had no NFL game tape to evaluate Webb, the Giants’ third-round pick out of Cal last year, so even though they do like him, they wanted depth and another promising prospect to groom just in case.
“There is no lack of confidence (in Webb),” Shurmur said.
Interestingly, though, Gettleman also alluded to the idea that the Giants are aware that life after Eli is coming.
“Were we thinking long-term? Yeah, you have to because if you’re not thinking long-term, you always give into that situation where a guy retires or you cut him and you have nobody in line to replace him,” Gettleman said.
