Pete did a good job of getting us started with Draft talk. It won’t necessarily be clockwork, but we’ll try to do draft talk every Wednesday if at all possible.
Did any of you notice something really nice about yesterday’s draft discussion? The bad news of our sorry defense became GOOD news in that the focus was entirely on defense. DEFENSE! DEFENSE! Say it again for emphasis…
D-E-F-E-N-S-E !!!!
Now that is what I call rebuilding. Try taking the first 6 of 7 picks with defense and then I will personally moon Gilbride and he can starve.
By nature of the 15th pick in the draft, you are not drafting a Safety. It is not an ironclad rule, but generally speaking you stay away from Guards, Centers, Fullbacks, and Safetys in the first round of the draft. Now obviously when you are picking ~32 like the Giants back in 2008, it is almost like a second rounder by that point, so taking a Safety (Phillips) at that spot is not horrible. I would still prefer not to, but we need not debate that this year because the Giants have the 15th pick. The bottomline is that the Giants should be looking at DL or LB (or CB) at 15. Take Safety at 45, the value is best there anyway (love those Round 2 picks). CB is not an acute need, although it is never a real problem to have another shutdown corner.
For my money, all else equal, get the LINEBACKER. The problem with interior DL is that it takes these guys 3 years to get their legs. At the risk of being trite, interior DLinemen are not drafted, they are made. This does not mean that the stork magically drops a full-fledged DL into your training camp and all problems are solved. It means that they can come from anywhere and they need TIME to become MEN, build up their muscle mass and survive the grind before taking off. Tommie Harris was the 14th pick in the 2004 draft, but it still took him a few years to get his legs. It was not an accident that the Bears went to the Super Bowl in his 3rd year as a Pro. He got hurt that year or else the Bears might have gone all the way. But contrast that slower development with the LBers of USC, all seemingly shot out of a cannon. Matthews, Cushing and Maualuga ALL HAD GREAT ROOKIE YEARS with LOADS OF IMPACT. This means that if you draft an interior DL you cannot expect them to make a big impact immediately. If you draft a LBer #1, you better expect him to not only start immediately but also to be making impact plays.
DRAFT BOTH POSITIONS EARLY. THE GIANTS NEED BOTH. You’ve heard this before… is there anything really wrong with drafting TWO LBers early? We have loads of needs, but this team could be a lot worst off than having two assassins running around in space knocking heads off and wreaking havoc. God I miss that. HEY YOU, GIANTS FAN- WAKE UP! You miss that too!
So let’s review some of the names that have surfaced at those positions:
LB: McClain, (SS/LB?) Mays
DT: Price, Cody
CB: Haden
I will say this much- it is a pleasure to be talking defense. Makes me smell championships. I love championships. Giants championships.
Tomorrow– Wonder previews the Divisional Weekend matchups, with hope for the Dallas-haters. I’ll be going neutral on that game. See you again Friday.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
