The New York Giants are in desperate need of a quick fix to their roster. They have already spent $100 million in guaranteed money this off-season, but to really hit it home for a truly great off-season, they need to hit on all of their draft picks. This is the plan that would push the team over the top and give them their best shot at ending their four-year long playoff drought.
New York Giants Ideal Mock Draft
Round 1: Vernon Hargreaves – cornerback from the University of Florida. The old adage is that a team can never have too many cornerbacks. The Giants, who finished with the NFL’s worst pass defense last season, can definitely benefit from this strategy. Enter Hargreaves, who I believe is the best cornerback in this year’s draft (I see Jalen Ramsey as being scheme specific as a cornerback but would be a great free safety). Now sure, drafting a third cornerback in round one when you need an impact player doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, but it does make sense in today’s NFL. First off, the NFL on average passes the ball 59% of the time so the more people who can cover, the better off they are. Secondly, while Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie has only missed one game since signing with the Giants, there have often been instances where he’d be on the sideline during crunch time while Jayron Hosley would be getting burned by the opposing team’s number one receiver. Drafting Hargreaves would give the Giants insurance for when, not just if, Rodgers-Cromartie gets injured. And finally, with Rodgers-Cromartie being thirty years old already and being a corner based mostly off of his athleticism, a plan for the future is needed and why not do so with the most technically sound corner in the draft.
Round 2: Jason Spriggs – offensive tackle from the University of Indiana. Spriggs is one of the most athletic offensive tackles to come out of school in years. The Giants just suffered a season of Marshall “The Human Turnstile” Newhouse as the team’s right tackle and we saw how he let Eli Manning get abused in the pocket. Furthermore, Newhouse was no help at all in terms of run blocking. The Giants have started to build up a young and athletic offensive line with Ereck Flowers, Justin Pugh, Weston Richburg, and (hopefully) Bobby Hart. Now add in Jason Spriggs and the offensive line should be set all across the board for the rest of Eli Manning’s career. Spriggs is especially effective as a lead blocker on screen passes which would help to utilize the best offensive talents on the team in Odell Beckham Jr. and Shane Vereen. It will also help the outside running talents of both Rashad Jennings and Orleans Darkwa. The Giants take Spriggs in round two and the offense will be as effective as it can possibly be for years to come and can help the team’s defense stay off the field to hide their deficiencies and keep everyone fresh.
Round 3: Deion Jones – outside linebacker from Louisiana State University. Deion Jones is a hyper athletic linebacker who can play all three downs and is capable in coverage. That is both something that the Giants have not had recently and something that Giants fans have been wanting for years. The Giants were terrible at covering opposing tight ends last season and Deion Jones can be the guy to solve that problem. Yes, he is quite small for an NFL linebacker, but as other teams have shown such as Arizona with Deone Bucannon and Tampa Bay with Kwon Alexander (who was the starter in front of Jones at LSU from 2012-1014), size isn’t as important as ability to play. Yes, Jones will probably struggle in the NFL when it comes to playing the run, but the Giants just beefed up their defensive line with Olivier Vernon and Damon Harrison, who are both really good at run defense, to take the pressure off of the linebackers and let them sit there and make plays instead of relying on them to be the primary run stoppers. Drafting Jones would be a change in philosophy for Giants’ general manager Jerry Reese, but one thing Reese is known for loving is freak athletes and Jones fits the bill as a linebacker who ran a 4.38 second 40-yard dash at his pro day.
Round 4: Malcolm Mitchell – wide receiver from The University of Georgia. The Giants suffered through inconsistency at the wide receiver position last year outside of Odell Beckham Jr. They lost Victor Cruz for the entire season before the season started and they had to deal with Rueben Randle and his apparent inability to understand the route tree the Giants attempted to have him run. Now, the Giants need a receiver who is much closer to the opposite of Randle from an effort standpoint, so enter Malcolm Mitchell. While he was at Georgia he ran an NFL route tree and he consistently fought for the ball. He doesn’t really show the potential to be a true number one receiver in the NFL, but he has all of the skills in the world to be a great complimentary piece who can move the chains and scare other teams away from giving one guy too much attention. Adding Mitchell to the Giants’ offense would completely solidify the passing game and possibly propel the Giants into the top five in total offense.
Round 5: Matt Judon – defensive end from Grand Valley State University. Through my first four picks, there was a trend of athletes from big time conferences who could step in and be starters if needed right away in the NFL. That philosophy is because the Giants need as many quality starting pieces as possible right now. The reason for me going a different direction in round five is because it is unlikely that a fifth rounder becomes a regular starter in the NFL his rookie season and because Judon has a particular skill that can have a lot of worth as a part-time role player right away as he develops his NFL skill set. Judon led the entire NCAA in sacks last season with 20 sacks and racked up a total of 81 tackles. He also has great size for a 4-3 defensive end at 6’3″ and 275 pounds and to that size he adds elite athleticism for the position as a top performer for defensive ends in the 40-yard dash and the bench press. Now the jump from a division two program to the NFL is a very big jump in terms of level of competition, but in a highly specialized role as a situation specific pass rusher on a team who last year finished with only 23 sacks is the ideal role for a young guy who wants to prove himself.
Round 6: Tyvis Powell – free safety from Ohio State University. The Giants taking a safety late in the draft is almost a guarantee if you look at how the team has done just that each of the past three drafts. The difference here is that Powell is a true free safety unlike Cooper Taylor, Natnael Berhe, and Mykkele Thompson. Powell doesn’t play as instinctive as many people like to see from a free safety, but he does what he does very well. He isn’t a big hitter, but he doesn’t miss many tackles. He doesn’t attack the line of scrimmage, but he won’t be over matched mentally by an opposing team’s offensive scheme. He is at his best when he is allowed to roam in the defensive backfield and make plays in zone coverage which fits the skill set of the rest of the Giants’ safeties. This pick isn’t the flashiest pick but we all saw what happened last year when the Giants tried trotting out a defense without a true free safety and that resulted in the league’s worst pass defense.
So in review, I have the Giants picking four players who directly impact last year’s worst pass defense and the other two picks round out the offense to push it into the truly elite offensive category in the NFL. If the draft falls this way for the Giants, I can definitely see them ending their playoff drought and once they get to the playoffs, we have all seen what they can do there with Eli Manning under center and a dominant defensive line.
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