Osi Shopping, Draft Thoughts and More on a Giant Tuesday
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Two days until the draft and the Osi Watch continues, burning stronger than ever.
The latest comes from NYdailynews.com beat writer Ralph Vacchiano who supports ESPN’s Chris Mortenson that the Rams and Panthers are very interested in dealing for the disgruntled pass-rusher who has three years left on his contract at an affordable $10.1 million over the life of the deal. Vacchiano says the Giants are not actively shopping Umeniyora (the Giants have to say as much in case Osi goes nowhere, the last thing Tom Coughlin and Jerry Reese want is an even more distracted Osi coming into camp). Still, “not actively shopping” Osi and answering calls from other teams are two very different things.
As we have been saying all off-season, if teams come calling, the G-men will listen and, if the deal is right, Jerry Reese will pull the trigger and take back some picks for Osi.
Rumored level of compensation is anywhere from a 2nd round pick (Rams have the first pick in Round 2, no. 33 overall) to a couple of mid-round picks (have to figure that it would take multiple mid-round picks for the Giants to part ways with arguably their best pass rusher).
Ralph Vacchiano also identifies five (5) guys he thinks are high on the Giants draft board at No. 15:
Rolando McClain, C.J. Spiller, Mike Iupati, Jason Pierre-Paul, and Sean Weatherspoon, the usual suspects.
I still think the Giants interest in McClain is over-stated to some extent and I can absolutely see the G-men trading down and grabbing Weatherspoon as he is a great fit and would start right away in the middle for Perry Fewell.
And, finally, the moment we have all been waiting for, the NFL 2010 schedule will be released this evening, Tuesday, April 20, at 7:00 p.m. (eastern time). Don’t take too much stock in the schedule just yet, you never know how things are going to shake out. Also, Giants fans can fully expect to open against Washington and close against Minnesota, just like the year’s before (I am kidding on that one, I think, but we’ll see).
Stay Blue!