Yesterday morning’s blog explained precisely why you do NOT draft Jason Pierre-Paul in Round 1 of the NFL Draft. So what did the Giants do? They drafted Jason Pierre-Paul in Round 1 of the draft. Why did we go through the effort of discussing this particular player? Because we knew the seduction of the JPP. We understood the possibility of the Giants taking him there. We get the allure of those awesome athletic skills.
And we do not believe that you draft potential in Round 1. You draft for the whole enchilada. You draft the guy who hits the ground running, who is an animal shot out of a cannon. You are looking for Lawrence Taylor and Jeremy Shockey. Guys who breathe football and dominate. Guys with requisite experience. No guessing whatsoever. GUYS WHO START GAME 1 OF THEIR ROOKIE YEAR.
Wonder and Pete are both in complete agreement that this player belonged at the end of the first round. In fact, Wonder went out of his way to move him to the second round at 33. “Basically he’s played 7 Football games in his life.” Feast or Famine. Reward and Risk.
From Coughlin and Reese (with video) we get:
“biggest upside in the draft”
“a lot of time”
“a lot of time”
“come in here and learn”
“hone”
That is Round 2 and Round 3 talk. Not Round 1 talk. As we stated yesterday, JPP may be the best player in the draft. And he may not. Famine should not be part of Round 1 vocabulary. I do not believe in potential for Round 1 picks. I believe in picking players in Round 1 that WILL be 10 year staple pros from Day 1. With McClain (8) and Earl Thomas (14) gone, the next two 10 year staple pros we targeted were Iupati (17) and Pouncey (18). We’ll go on record as saying that there will be no famine (barring career-ending injury) with any of those 4 men. And fwiw, the other option we liked was trading down to 25 and then picking a LBer. Guess what- Kindle, Hughes and Washington were still there. Trade up to (33) and take Kindle with the 1st pick of Friday night, says Wonder. Amen.
Pierre-Paul is our DE now. We root for a Giant feast. Here is to hoping that he can get onto the field quickly and make an impact. The Giants need this. They still need a LBer too. 27 years and counting.
Extras: (1) Alualu at 10 in the draft was insane. TRADE DOWN. (2) Tebow in Round 1? TRADE DOWN, NOT UP. (3) The best thing all evening was the Eagles not taking Thomas at 13. (4) The Jets got another good corner. That defense is going to be scary. (5) Carroll got Okung and Thomas, what a haul.
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