Giants Draft: Review Pt 3 The TE Issue

There was a lot of hand wringing over the fact that the Giants didn't use any of their 7 picks to draft a Tight End.    I think they showed wonderful discipline.   For my money there were only 3 worth drafting for the Giants.    Ebron was one, but he is overrated and I didn't want him at 12.   Amaro is another but I would only take him if we'd already picked OL by the second, and Niklas was my favorite, but I would only have taken him at 43 if we'd gone with Zach Martin at 12.  I didn't like any of the other TE's.  The kid for Washington reminded me of Aaron Pierce, and CJ Fwhatever, was average and overrated due to the weakness of the TE class.    You can't make a player where there is no player.  Arthur Lynch was also overrated.

The Giants knew that they could get a serviceable TE without spending a pick and they promptly signed Xavier Grimble out of USC.    I like him better than Austen Seferian-Jenkins and CJ Faverage.   I don't care tremendously that he underachieved at USC.   They've had program instability since the NCAA hypocritically nuked them.   But, like Notre Dame and Ohio State, they do always produce TE"s who can block as well as catch.  With all this spread stuff going on, there are fewer and fewer schools reliably churning out TE's for teams like the Giants that eschew HBacks and need the real thing.

There's a good chance that Grimble will make the team, and even start as he can block and catch.  And maybe the institutional stability of the Giant organization and his tough and serious new teammates will help unlock his potential.  If not, we'll still have another usable two way TE, like the ones we had making plays for us in 42 and 46.  

We may see more and more of this btw, as the throwback positions like TE, RB and FB are devalued or go by the wayside in college FB.  The Giants haven't used a pick on a fullback since Sean Bennett, who wasn't really a fullback, and haven't used a real pick on a fullback since they took Charles Way in 1996.   Yet they've found and had effective fullbacks pretty much ever since and definitely in both SB wins.   Maybe TE will be the same way.   Or maybe they'll finally fix the line and be able to pick one of the few elitish TE's that comes out every year.

Till then, we've probably got it solved.