Giants Draft: It's Less Than 3 Weeks Away

Three weeks from now we'll be in Day 3 of the Giants All-Important 2014 Draft.   They are picking 12th and they desperately need to have a good one.   Why are they so desperate?  You've seen them play and looked at the roster.   You've watched them replace a bunch of assistant coaches.  You've watched their free agent spending spree.   Does any of that scream stability?  Of course, but the Giants are a team that values stability a great deal more than say, the Cleveland Brown,s who change coaches annually.   It's probably a good value to hold as an NFL team.    Free agents probably like coming to stable franchises, and you don't end up paying a bunch of coaches that are no longer working for you.   So the Giants want to get back to stable as quickly as possible.

They've also been a fairly mediocre regular season team during the Coughlin era. In fact, they haven't made the playoffs since they won Super Bowl 46.  Further, their Coughlin and Eli windows may be starting to close.   TC is heading toward 70 and Eli just had surgery.  What's more, Kevin Gilbride says Eli's had other procedures that haven't been publicized.

Thus it just behooves the Giants to try to get back in the playoffs and see if they can make a run this year.   With all they did in free agency, they only really signed a few guys who are more than bandaids.  One of them is Geoff Schwartz.   JD Walton is pencilled in as the starting Center next year, but he's basically coming out of retirement.   Jerry and Brown are bad at football.  So the OL still requires an upgrade.  Jennings should help at RB.

DRC was the big ticket and Thurmond is good, too, but on a one year deal and the rest are bandaids.  They did pick up some good return guys, and that should help.

Anyway there are jobs and starting jobs to be had from the draft this year.  And that brings me to my next point, and the reason why I think they will probably go OL instead of DL in round one.    Right now a lot of people are projecting Aaron Donald to the Giants.  I really like this player, but for this year and maybe his career, he's going to be a third down, passing down pass rush 3 tech.  The Giants are going to most likely start Johnathan Hankins at Nose or Over tackle, and I really doubt they will start a rookie next to him.   Especially not while they still have Cullen Jenkins and Mike Patterson rotating there.   Btw, whatever team takes Donald should be able to dress him right away because he runs well enough to cover kicks on specials and could be used in a bunch of the subs as a joker or inside rusher.

An OL at 12 will play a lot more.   OL's aren't rotational,  and as long as they don't take a tackle only, but a T-G, they should get a much needed building block for the line.  

There are several more 3 techs that could be available as the draft moves on like Tuitt and Easley, and I'm pretty sure they'll take one.  But I think they will get a guy who can be a 7 year or more every down  solution at 12.