Giants: Drafting DL's

Alright, for day three of this series, we'll switch to the other side of the trench and talk about DT's and DE's a bit, but just for the Giants 4-3, not 3-4's because the Giants don't run one.

The Giants and the 4-3

The Giants decided to switch from a 3-4 to a 4-3 when Lawrence Taylor retired.  So this is their 20th season of running one.  You might recall Keith Hamilton starting out as a RDE  in the 3-4 and getting 11.5 sacks as a rookie, there.  Who knows what his sack numbers would have been had they not switched him to a DT in a 4-3.

The first DE they drafted with the 4-3 in mind was Michael Strahan.  He went on to be the second greatest defensive player in Giants history.  Stray was a pass rush talent when they drafted him, and they played him on the weak side.   Of course, he didn't become a football immortal until they drafted Cedric Jones and moved Strahan to LDE where he became one of the top 2-way (pass/run) DE's in football history.

Between Strahan and Jones, they spent a 5th round pick on Chad Bratzke - when you are switching from a 3-4 to a 4-3, you have to throw a lot of picks at it.      Bratzke turned out to be better than Jones, and had a few good years for the Giants before signing a free agent deal with  Indianapolis.

As mentioned above, in the conversion, they made Keith Hamilton a DT, controversially signed  Christian Peter, and recruited FA's like Robert Harris and Ray Agnew to play beside him.

Still the Giants 4-3 front struggled until 1997 when John Fox and Denny Marcin came along.  When that happened, Strahan,  Harris, Hamilton and Bratke went sack crazy.   They weren't really playing an over/under scheme  (nose, 3-tech) which was still being proven in Minnesota and later in Tampa.

Harris broke his leg, which basically ended his Giant career, and put them in constant search of inside pass rushers.

After they lost Bratzke, and having missed on DE picks like Jamal Duff,  they signed Kenny Holmes, who was a fairly athletic RDE but his pass rush was lacking.  

Things moved along somewhat successfully under Fox, especially when they had Cornelius Griffin despite the otherwise massive instability they had at the DT spot other than Hamilton.

In 2003 things started to change.   Jerry Reese has taken over the Giant draft board, after having been a scout for the Giants since 1994.  Jerry's first pick was DT William Joseph out of Miami.   Made sense and kept Ernie quiet, but it was in the second round that Jerry changed the trajectory of the Giants by taking Osi Umenyiora.

Osi wasn't as tall as the models they'd been working off of, but lord, was he quick.    So Jerry finally realized that they could play a freak like Osi as long as they had big DT's and Strahan, who was great against the run.

Osi sort of established the primacy of the quick first step, that the Giants have been drafting for ever since.

Once Coughlin came aboard, Jerry found a soul mate when it came to drafting edge rushers, this lead to some big mistakes that we'll talk about when we get to linebackers.

In  `04 they drafted Isaac Hilton, (didn't make it), in `05 they drafted Tuck and Eric Moore.  Moore didn't make it.  Around this time, they also had Derek Wake in camp but he didn't make it till he moved to Canada and changed his name to Cameron.  They also added Freddie Robbins in there, to anchor the inside and get after the passer.

In `06 they drafted Kiwi and that's where the quotation stating, "You can never have too many pass rushers," was born.  In `10 they drafted JPP.

So starting in `03 and going onto the present day, the Giants have favored drafting athletic freaks who could come off the edge and get the passer.   They haven't really drafted any LDE and have created rotations that have allowed them (until recently) to scheme successfully against the run and pass.

Tuck is now gone and I fully expect the Giants to pick another athletic freak to add to DaMontre Moore, whom they took last year.  

The freak will have long arms and a quick first step, and could be a small school guy like the kid out of Nebraska-Kearney or Larry Webster out of Bloomsburg, maybe the Lawrence  kid from Boise State.  I don't expect one to be picked until day 3 -- unless they get an extra third.  In which case they could take one sooner.  I don't expect them to draft one from a huge program -- where most of their recent mistakes have been made.

On the DT side, the Giants have rotated taking NT's and 3-techs for the past several years.  Taking Cofield one year and Alford the next.  Then taking Linval Joseph one year and Austin the next.  Last year they took Hankins, so don't be surprised if they take a pass rush DT like Aaron Donald (whom they'd have to get at 12) or Tuitt or someone like that.

Here's something interesting.   The Giants haven't won a Superbowl in their 4-3 era without a superstar at DE.   Strahan was still a great player when he retired after 42 and JPP was a great player leading up to SB 46.   So whatever happens in the draft, they really, really need JPP to be great again, otherwise, they'll soon have to find their next great one, and JPP might not get a second contract.

Another note: Unlike OL's where long arms are preferable, long arms are a must for Giant DL's, because the hand rules are more liberal for them -- though the head slap is long gone -- and to get them up to block passes and passing lanes.

I think the Giants are likely to hit the pass rush DT pick before they go DE, but in either case, I expect them to also hit both spots hard in UDFA in hopes of finding a Tratou or someone else who can help their rotations agains the run and the pass.

Look for athletic freaks at either spot, and you'll probably find one or both of the ones the Giants will take.