Mel Kiper Jr. projects New York Giants trade to draft Bo Nix

Mel Kiper Jr. believes the New York Giants will make a big move to get Bo Nix on the roster. With the NFL Draft just weeks away, the ESPN NFL Draft expert released his fourth mock draft of the year and has the Giants trading up in the second round to draft Nix.

“If Daniel Jones struggles or doesn’t live up to what you thought about a couple of years ago when he led them to the playoffs and beat Kirk Cousins in Minnesota, or if gets injured, you have Bo Nix,” Kiper said on the SportsCenter special focusing on his mock draft.

Kiper went on to say that Nix is 24 years old and “has a ton of starts.” He then said the former Oregon Ducks quarterback is a “great processor,” and Giants head coach Brian Daboll will like him.

“He can move,” Kiper said. “He’s got a lot of rushing touchdowns over the last couple of years at Oregon. If Daniel Jones does struggle, you can put him in and never look back. I think you like a win-win. You like to have insurance. I still like Daniel Jones, I have faith in him. But you go up and aggressively get a Bo Nix to start round 2.”

Bo Nix had a strong college career

Nix has a lot of experience, starting in 61 games at Oregon and Auburn. He threw for 15,352 yards in his career and had a Heisman-like season in 2023, throwing for 4,508 yards, 45 touchdowns and just three interceptions. Nix finished third place in Heisman voting and was named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year last season.

Nix transferred to Oregon in 2022 after spending three seasons at Auburn. He recently spoke to Ryen Rusillo about the differences between being an SEC QB and a QB in the Pac-12.

 I would say the difference is… in a sense, the hostility and maybe the unhealthy pressure that is added to 18-22 year olds by outside noise and fans,” Nix said. It’s almost like an unhealthy obsession in the South. We’ve made it that way.”

Nix also talked about football fans in the South going a little overboard.

“I was that way growing up. I thought it was life or death, football. And you move out here and you play the game as hard as you can and you’ve got great passion for the game. And it’s just a little bit more laid back, in a way,” he said. “It’s a lot more like we’re proud of the person, the person you are out there on the field.

“If you give great effort and you try really hard – obviously we’re out there to win. Nobody goes out there to lose and look bad in front of a bunch of people. If only people knew that and understood that, football would be a better, healthier place.”

On3’s Matt Connolly contributed to this report.