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After nearly a week of waiting, we finally found out where former Syracuse Orange quarterback Eric Dungey will get a shot to play in the NFL. As he announced on Thursday, the star has signed with the New York Giants.
That’s awesome news for Eric, and also entertaining for the Syracuse football pipeline to the NFL. Dungey certainly deserves his shot with the Giants (and he might be better than the team’s first round pick — Daniel Jones — for all we know). But you can’t help but think about just how much Big Blue is tied to the Orange in recent years.
No current NFL team has drafted more Syracuse players all-time than the New York Giants’ 19 (the Colts have 21, but that’s combined between Baltimore and Indianapolis), and the team added to that total when they picked Chris Slayton in the seventh round this season. In fact, if you look at recent SU players to get picked, four of the last seven have been selected by the Giants. They also traded for Riley Dixon (originally selected by the Broncos). And they’ve separately signed Amba Etta-Tawo and now Dungey in recent years.
This made sense when Tom Coughlin was in charge, as the Orange alum happily threw a life raft to former Syracuse players, along with standouts from other Northeast colleges. But now, it does seem a bit weird — or at least coincidental — that so many SU players wind up landing with the Giants.
If Dungey and Slayton manage to stick around with Dixon, the GIants will be the most Orange team in the NFL by a mile. That shouldn’t surprise. But based on most of the team’s recent personnel decisions, it may be the only worthwhile reason to watch them for the next couple years (and I say this as someone that still sort of considers themselves a Giants fan).