2017 NYG Draft Recap

Believe it. Don’t believe it.

NY Giants GM Jerry Reese: “..we expect (Flowers and Hart) to make a significant jump this season”

If you have faith in Jerry Reese, then you take him at his word and this was a good draft.

If you do not believe in Jerry Reese, then you find his statement somewhat spurious and the overall draft result is poor.

The Giants are trying to win now. NOW. Eli Manning is no green banana. Evan Engram is another weapon who we believe will make an immediate impact. But that impact is predicated on Eli having the time to throw the ball. How realistic is it then to expect that Flowers and Hart are up to the task? I think we are going to have to wait until (no, not August) September to find out. As the linked article points out, there are certainly inconsistencies in what Reese said at the end of the season and what he is saying now. I’d love to know why he thinks we are going to see sound mechanics from his Left Tackle. Has Flowers hired a private offensive line coach to work with him on his technique this offseason? That might allow me to give him some benefit of the doubt. Some.

The Giants 2017 Draft all flows like dominoes after that. If the Tackle spots are secure, then the Engram pick is genius and Davis Webb has room to be an heir apparent. If the Tackle spots are like 2016 rice paper, then Engram is a 5th wheel and the Giants scuttled a Round 3 need pick they desperately need to shore up the Offensive Line. We like the Webb pick because he has potential to be groomed. The critical aspect for success and failure will be Webb’s footwork. Our draft analyst Wonder explains that weak accuracy for a QB usually means bad footwork. Clean up the footwork and you will get a much more accurate QB. In his Draft eval of Davis Webb he noted Webb’s poor footwork offset by a monstrous NFL arm. We are excited about the risk/reward potential to coach up the former to tap the potential of the latter. Having read MMQB’s profile of Webb before the Draft, you can get excited about his zeal and effort to master his craft. With proper coaching and time (behind Eli), Webb should have an opportunity to take the starting job when Eli is finished. IF Webb beats the odds, few will be complaining about how the Giants wasted a Round 3 pick in 2017 to secure the franchise’s future. If Webb busts and Eli is crushed at midfield in the Meadowlands by a RDE, our memory for the 2017 Draft will be an indictment of Reese.

On last Friday night, we panned the choice of Tomlinson immediately. A day later Shaun O’Hara echoed our sentiment, asking why a DLman who had 3 sacks in 2 years had to be taken in Round 2. You draft OL to help Eli in Round 2 and you help DL in Round 4+ ..was his analysis.

We like Gallman in Round 4. He’ll be yet another R4-R7 solid Giants Running Back.

Bisnowaty is “a guy,” according to Wonder. Yawn. Hopefully there is more to Reese’s spin than Wonder’s lack of enthusiasm.

What is more troubling to me is the story from Peter King about John Lynch’s first draft night as SF 49ers GM. Inside of that, we heard that Lynch had tried to trade up from 34 with more than a few teams (including the Giants at 23) to grab Reuben Foster. It could be that Lynch was not offering enough. But if he was offering 67 (early Round 3) plus 34 for 23, I would do that in a heartbeat. T Cam Robinson was picked at 34. That is my solution for getting an Offensive Tackle at value. (I would have also had no problem in taking Robinson at 23.) Of course Coughlin could have traded up to 33 to front the Giants, so these what-ifs are always problematic. The point though is that it is 11 years and we are still waiting for the Giants GM to start respecting the numbers- that GMs overvalue the right to choose. We do think that Engram is going to be a special player. So we certainly understand the reason why Reese passed on the trade opportunity. We also KNOW that not trading down a single time in 11 years is a flaw, a sign of hubris, a poker tell that Reese overestimates his ability to choose. His track record in the Draft will be scrutinized in 2017, for better or for worse. Right now, Giants fans have no choice but to believe in Reese if they are to believe in 2017.