Giants Draft: Review Pt. 4 The OL

I told you for months that fixing the OL was Job One.   The plan I had developed was to take Zack Martin first and either Joel Bitonio in the second or Weston Richburg in the third.   Weird things started to happen, though.   First, they decided to take Odell Beckham Jr. instead of Zack in the first.  That was perfectly reasonable because they had to replace the Hakeem Nicks production that had been missing for two years on the outside as well as greatly improve their return options.

But the plan was still online because Bitonio was still on the board and could possibly make it to our spot in the second.   A few months ago he was projected as a third rounder, but I think further study and the combine lifted him.  But while we were waiting for Bitonio, the fricking Browns took him.   They have actually now assembled a Giant Type Line and Johnny Football will thus go off.   They should be fun to watch.  

That left us with Wesley Richburg or maybe Cyrus, but Richburg had a cleaner bill of health and we've needed to stabilize the C position since the Max Unger mistake.  Btw, I think he may be better than Unger eventually.  So we took Richburg, and the OL fix was still online.  Note of order, the Giants might have taken Richburg even if Bitonio was on the board.  It seems a C who could play G was more appealing to them than a T who could play G and be taught C.    Not sure because he wasn't there, but I had heard they were leaning Richburg on Thursday Night, and sure enough, they took him.

I was hoping they would double down on the OL in round three but I felt sure my next favorite Giant Type OL, Chris Watt was going to be there for the picking on day 3.  By taking Richburg, Travis Swanson and Marcus Martin left my board, didn't to cluster draft C's with Walton and Reynolds on the roster, so I didn't really have anyone I thought was a great fit, since I was so sure my boy Chris Watt would be there on Saturday.   So I didn't flip out when another pass rush DL was taken by a team that's good at taking pass rush DL's.  I would have been cool with RB, too.  We were gonna get Watt on Saturday.   And then the plan came off the tracks:  Chris Watt went in round 3.

That left my OL plan in a haze. I like really specific types for the Giants, and though I had some interest in the Stanford kids, they both went between picks, and then Wesley Johnson from Vanderbilt was taken one pick before our second 5th, and there was no one else I felt enthusiastically about.   Teams saw the value in this OL class and were hitting it for all it was worth.  As it turned out we were extremely lucky to get Weston Richburg where we did.

So where does that leave us?   We have two great long term pieces in Pugh and Richburg.  A good mid-term piece in Schwartz, and a bunch of question marks.  I'm not comfortable with where we are at tackle, but I'm starting to think that maybe the Giants are.

Here's why.  Not only did they not draft a tackle to my knowledge they have not yet signed a UDFA tackle or guard for that matter.  What's more, they've been out on the field looking at who they have for the past few weeks.  So maybe, just maybe they have some guys they really like already.  I do know that they had a high grade on Charles Brown in 2010, and maybe the like some of the kids.  Their behavior is curious.   We'll see what else they do.