Today on Twitter, Owa Odighizuwa announced he would be taking time off from football.
I have all love for everyone.. at the point and time I believe it’s in my best interest to take sometime to get away from the game.
— owamagbe odighizuwa (@LPJ_Odighizuwa) April 3, 2017
A 3rd year player is ready to break out. In this case, he broke … away. We certainly wish the best for Odighizuwa in whatever awaits him. Of course he did not rule out a return, so we will respect that possibility. Nonetheless, this is a setback.
The series of disappointing Round 3 Draft Picks is simply alarming. Since 2009, the NY Giants have been littered with potential that has turned to bust.
2009
Ramses Barden
Travis Beckum
2010
Chad Jones
2011
Jerrel Jernigan
2012
Jayron Hosley
2013
Damontre Moore
2014
Jay Bromley
2015
Owa Odighizuwa
2016
Darian Thompson
How does a Round 3 Draft Pick bust? Fair question. By our standards, a Round 3 pick is supposed to have an opportunity to be a legitimate player who makes a meaningful contribution to your team. Think starts. Think Starter. Think staple. A Round 3 pick does not have to be a star or pro bowler in order to be a successful draft choice. He simply has to become either a “4” Replaceable Starter or “3” Solid Starter.
None of the aforementioned players did anything more than flash. Jernigan flashed for one game. Damontre Moore flashed in one preseason game. Owa Odighizuwa flashed in a preseason game. That is pretty much it.
What is the pattern here? At risk of oversimplifying it, it would appear to us that Reese is drafting for the potential homerun. He keeps swinging and missing. Of this list, we liked the picks of Barden, Hosley, Moore and Odighizuwa with some major emphasis on the background checks making sense. For Owa, he had hip/injury problems in college, and we noted that that needed to check out. For Moore, he physically had “it” but obviously the mental part of the game was lacking and the Giants did not vet that properly. Let’s be fair to Reese on Chad Jones, as it certainly was not his fault that his pick got into a career-ending car accident.
These 9 third rounders collectively started 29 games for the Giants. That is a grand TOTAL of 29 games! Hosley had 15 of them, half of those starts.
This is a memo to Reese. If you want to get better in the Draft:
(1) Stop shooting for the moon in the 3rd round. Stop swinging for the fences and start looking for singles. Get football players. They may not necessarily have the highest ceilings, but they should have a chance to help the team and have a hunger for the game.
(2) Draft healthy guys. It is somewhat troubling how many players on this list were injured as rookies. There is a reason why injured players fall in the draft. Most of the time they are not worth the risk. Let them fall further. (Sidenote: Some of this may be the Palmieri factor too. This period from 2009-2015 was right in the middle of the NY Giants medical dysfunction which we chronicled extensively.)
(3) Draft a TE, Guard or god forbid, a Linebacker. These are the staple guys who this team misses. And they are not the positions Reese is drafting here in Round 3. Zero LBers are here. Zero Guards are here. Zero Offensive Tackles are here. The one TE here is actually a quasi-receiver in Beckum, so he does not count either. Zero TEs here. START PICKING MEAT & POTATOES UNFLASHY GUYS WHO COMPLIMENT THE STARS. And maybe one of them will become one when you are in the bonus.
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