Linebacker- Year 9

We just got through complimenting Jerry Reese and the NY Giants for a successful draft.  Let’s keep that high going with a video plug from Charlie Casserly of the NFL Network.

It was amusing that some in the twitter-sphere assumed that our praise was the generic sycophant commentary which is everywhere on the internet.  Long timers to this NY Giants blog know that we hand out compliments when they are deserved, not as part of a subjectively biased fan response.  So just to keep a little balance and reassure regulars that we haven’t gone totally soft, we will bring up a 9 year old problem that does not go away- Linebacker.

Once was a time when we asked for Jerry Reese and the Giants to draft a Linebacker with the Round 1 pick.  That was ages ago.  Asking for a Linebacker in Round 1 is like asking to trade down.  We have given up on that folly.  Neither has taken place in Reese’s tenure.

But it gets worse when we have to ask for a single Linebacker to get drafted in a single year, which we do now.  Talk about getting starved for resources. Let’s look at the track record of Reese’s LBer’s drafted from 2007-2015.

This is frankly embarrassing.  The productivity from this group has been near zero.  Avg ~R5 draft pick. Avg starts 7 per draftee.  Maybe it is genius to not draft anyone at LBer in 3 of the last 4 seasons due to the poor track record of the previous 5 seasons.  But one has to think that you can’t just expect to rent-a-lber via free agency, which is what the Giants are left with doing without any pipeline.

We understand that in today’s world of multi-WR sets, the game is seeing more nickel with 2 LBers and even some dime with only 1 LBer.  But there are still many times you have 3 on the field at a time, and that means 2 LBers on the field most of the time.  Does this mean that Kennard and Beason can man the show without any (significant) additional help? Perhaps.  But as we note often enough, Beason is injury-prone and subject to missed starts.  So we need help in this unit.  Not drafting anyone in 2015 is disappointing.  If Beason is healthy for 16 games and Kennard ascends the way we think (although this will be harder given new schemes of a new coordinator), LBer will not be a big issue.  Generally speaking, given the Giants penchant for injuries, this will be an issue.  It obliges the DL and Secondary to do a better job.