Giants Draft Stuff
The best drafts, seem to be the ones where you can get core guys, at least over time. The 2007 draft, for example, set the world on fire in 2007 and 2008, but most of those guys got hurt and were not core. Well, DeOssie is a core long snapper, I guess, but no one else from that sainted draft is still around.
The reason I bring this up, is because I believe the Giants have gotten some core guys in the last two drafts. Last year they got Pugh, Hankins and DaMonster in the first three rounds, then came back with Nassib, who made a lot of progress in the preseason, and Cooper Taylor, who looked like a player before he was hurt. Pugh, Hankins and DaMonster; however. are already looking like core. Heck, I loved Linval Joseph, but I think Hankins may be a slightly better version -- complete with playmaking.
Likewise; this past draft we got Beckham, Richburg, Bromley, Williams, Behre, Kennard and Jackson. Well, we saw what they saw in Odell yesterday, but Richburg has looked like the best OL on the team at times this year, and will be a long term fix, like Pugh. They may move around a bit, like Diehl, but they'll be top 5 for a long time, and core.
Bromley hasn't played much yet, though the Giants have given a lot a DT's, including Linval and Hankins a sort of red-shirt season. On the other hand, Andre Williams is the new thunder back, and Behre could contribute, too. In fact he may have to if Quentin Demps keeps screwing around.
Devon Kennard was injured early, but activated yesterday. We'll see what he is, but the Giant coaches like him, and even have some packages built around him.
Ultimately, I think these last two drafts, like the 2005 draft have delivered core and because of that more winning is on the way.
posted by Kalel9 @ 11:16 AM
9 Comments:
Bromley, not Alford. Though I see the similarity with the Penn State DT who was also drafted in the 3rd back in 2007.
Thanks!
All the Ranger news was breaking and while I was writing the Giants post.
You're right, 2013 looks very good too. Reese looked out there for a while, but seems to be recovering. That's why I think talent evaluation is a critical skill for a GM.
I have always liked Reese's approach to the draft, though we've obviously hit some lean years. I think we've had some unbelievably bad luck with young guys going down with career ending injuries. These last 2 draft hopefully will be re-load drafts. So much comes down to getting these young guys into the right system too. We've talked an awful lot about how that 2005 draft was basically a huge key to our success in this era. 2003 and 2004 were less successful on hit rate, but brought us core players like Eli, Snee, Umenyiora, Diehl and even Tyree (as a special teams ace). Getting 8 of those guys in 3 drafts helps!
What really kept us back last year was the 2012 draft- which arguably was my favorite ever draft on paper. 2 potentially big time offensive weapons, a highly rated corner who fell a bit, a freakishly athletic TE project and 2 NY Giant profile OLs seemed like a great haul. But no one's really paid dividends yet and one's career is over. The 2011 draft mostly was a disaster too outside of Prince and Jacquain, who both took some time to be consistent players and consistently healthy (Prince is certainly core now and Jacquian is emerging).
I think the 12 draft taught them something about picking OL's. They had tried to skimp since Snee, and thought they could still find Diehl's in the 5th and Seuberts in UDFA. They couldn't.
The rest of the league had figured something out watching those years from `07-`10 or so when the Giants had the best OL in the game, and they started jumping at those player types. And by the time the Giants got down where they used to find them, they were gone.
The past two years they've used premium picks to get the kind of OL's they used to be able to find later, but that's the price now.
This year, they even though Mewhort would last till the third and he was gone in the second.
Anyway. Mosley and McCants didn't turn out to be Giant type guys, though I guess Mosley still has a chance to learn. He was way to raw when we got him.
The prolem with the draft and OL continuity was Koets getting injured, Whimper (who could have been a guy but hated practice), and Petrus not panning out.
We are lucky and it's a great development that Beatty seems to be bouncing back (and it could be partly from having Richburg next to him).
Assuming Schwartz can play a good RG, then we only need a C/G in the draft so we can move Richburg to C, and we could have a great line again.
We always talk about this, but I think you should draft corners and guards every year. The way CBs and OLs get paid in FA makes them tough to have to buy. You gotta keep drafting CBs because you need strength in numbers, and you should draft guards because they are generally undervalued in the draft and overvalued as FAs. We didn't keep the pipeline moving as well as we could've with OLs. We also haven't found a good UDFA OL since Seubert, which is crazy, because we've found some useful UDFA's almost every other position in that timespan.
btw, this article from last week seems to have provoked some other articles making the same points on the news sites. Also, Coughlin got a question about the two past drafts today at his press conference.
So thanks for reading, folks!
As to your point about draft guards. First, I think they are less undervalued now that there is a draft cap in place, and so we'll see more taken where they rank among OL's rather than based on whether they are a Guard or a Tackle. Zach Martin is playing RG right now, and no one would have drafted a RG where he was taken back before the draft cap. And if they did, they would play him at tackle.
Second, the Giants like a really specific type of OL, and I think Guards in particular, and unless you can pull with precision and nastiness, they won't take you.
So while it would be good to stock up on OL's more frequently, the kind they like are in short supply every year, and they've only missed on a few who would have fit in these years that saw the decline of the OL.
And you should definitely take a CB, and consider a safety every year.
And I always want pass rushers every year.
Post a Comment
<< Home