Last year, the Giants were hot for T Brandon Scherff. That was telegraphed and leaked. More on the leaks later. We did not like the prospect, certainly not at 9th overall, because we did not project Scherff as a Tackle, and believed he was going to be a Guard. You do not take a Guard 9th overall. Well, the Redskins saved Jerry Reese from himself, because they took Scherff at 5 and forced Reese to do the right thing and take true Tackle Ereck Flowers. Shock of shocks- Scherff never even made it out of training camp as a Tackle, and was moved to Guard.
Giants fans did not get that fortunate this time around. There was no one to save Reese when the Bears traded up in front of him to take Leonard Floyd. Floyd would not have been a bad pick. We had other choices who we preferred. But at least Floyd has upside with “serious” potential. Instead, the Giants and Reese underwhelmed all of us with Eli Apple. How outmatched was Apple at 10th overall? Even he did not understand how or why he got there.
There were three clear choices before you took Eli Apple. THREE.
- You take the best player on the board. Yes, even Reese’s board. His name is Laremy Tunsil. We projected him as a “1” All Pro player, the 2nd best player in the entire draft. Why did he fall? Because of marijuana. Frankly I do not give a FLYING F*** about marijuana. Reese referred to Tunsil’s exclusion as a player “with issues.” As we all know, Warren Sapp fell right into the Hall of Fame because of marijuana. YOU TAKE THE STAR. YOU PROTECT YOUR AGING QB AND THE NEXT FRANCHISE QB AFTER HIM. YOU GET A STARTER ON DAY 1. BUT REESE HAS NO BALLS.
- You take the best CB on the board if you want CB. His name is Vernon Hargreaves. We projected him as a “2” Pro Bowler. Wonder knows how to evaluate Defensive Secondary. Hargreaves has upside. He can be elite. He sniffed out Amukamara for exactly what he was, a generic solid starter in the NFL. Hargreaves is not that mold. Who is the solid starter? That would be the CB the Giants took, Eli Apple.
- YOU TRADE DOWN and then take Eli Apple later in Round 1. Or someone else like Shaq Lawson. Apple was overdrafted. When you hear the Giants spin themselves that Apple was the best player on their board “without issues,” you know they compromised somewhere. More like everywhere.
Please #NYG take Tunsil. Or Lawson or Hargreaves ok too. But I don’t care about the marijuana, he’s #2 on my board. Take him.
— Andy Furman (@UltimateNYG) April 29, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsHere is our evaluation of Eli Apple from April 17th…
A pretty good CB. Nothing to write home about. Not a R1 pick. He is simply not a smooth shutdown corner. He will be a solid starter for you, but not worth a heavy investment. Remember that this was the same type of assessment that Wonder gave to Prince Amukamara, whom he had ranked in the early part of Round 2. To quote Denny Green, he was who we thought he was. So we see Eli Apple the same way, a solid CB who will be overdrafted. At best, Apple can be taken at the end of Round 1. There are plenty of mocks where he’s going in the low teens. Mistake.
More detail on Apple: He is not strong, not a physical type of guy. If he plays press coverage, the big WRs are going to push him aside at the line of scrimmage. He is evaluated negatively with poor hand placement. Gruden warned he will get called for a lot of penalties if he does not clean that up. Wonder explains that that is the result of not being strong enough to handle physical/WRs at the line of scrimmage. If he is having this problem with college WRs, he is clearly going to have problems with bigger NFL WRs.
Ralph Vacchiano, btw, clearly indicated that the Giants were keyed on Floyd. The Bears saw this and traded in front at 9 to take him. Outmaneuvered. If you aren’t afraid to show your hand and blab enough to the media about your intentions, you better be prepared for the guy who falls to you. That would be Tunsil. The Giants were ready for that. Until they weren’t. Clowns to the left of me. Jokers to the right. Stuck in the middle with Reese.
Hargreaves went immediately after Apple. We are on record for saying that Hargreaves will have the better career, all else equal (injuries). Three picks later, Tunsil was taken. As for our picks vs Reese’s, we take Tunsil, Reese takes Apple, see you in 5 years, we’ll see who did better.
Eli Apple will be like Prince Amukamara. He may even have a little more upside than Prince Amukamara. He is a solid starter. A nice player. BUT NOT AT 10 IN THE DRAFT. Apple’s upside is limited. You do not take this player at 10. You pick at 10 for excellence. You pick at 10 for a dominant player. Tunsil clearly has dominant possibilities. Apple does not. This selection is underwhelming. It is Jerry Reese at his best. And that is not good enough.
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