New York Giants Mock Draft

Jesse Bartolis at NFL Mocks has finished up his first Mock Draft from the NY Giants’ perspective.

His first 3 picks look something like this:

Round 1 pick #19th overall – Akeem Ayers, LB, UCLA

Round 2 pick # 52 overall – Drake Nevis, DT, LSU (#63 LSU)

Round 3 pick #83 overall – Ras-I-Dowling, CB, Virginia

…

And the remaining picks look something like this:

Round 4 pick 116th overall – John Moffit, Guard, Wisconsin

Round 6 pick 180th overall  – Taiwan Jones, RB, Eastern Washington

Round 7 pick 210th overall  – Kristofer O’Dowd, C, USC

Check out the complete mock draft breakdown here at NFL Mocks with reasoning and commentary.

So here’s my take on this – Jesse has done a great job with his reasoning and the needs are being taken care of… just not in my preferred order.  Love the LB pick, love the CB pick, love the Guard pick.  But the Giants do not need another defensive tackle assuming Barry Cofield, Linval Joseph, and Chris Canty are around next year.  All signs still point to yes… and you can’t deny that the use of DEs on passing downs will not be a continuing trend for the Giants.  As good as Justin Tuck is in stepping up to stop the run, why would another DT be so high on the list?  The simple answer is Jesse believes in picking the ‘best player available’… which is completely valid.  I’d just assume find the best OL available though when several pieces to that puzzle are questionable for 2011.

Give credit to the offensive line last year, with all those moving parts they did limit Eli to only 16 sacks, among the fewest in the league. But why the Giants wouldn’t pick up and offensive lineman in round #4, I’m not sure.  The offensive line is aging, contrary to what some people believe.  This isn’t 2008 anymore.  We don’t know what will become of Shawn Andrews, or Rich Seubert for that matter.  Kareem McKenzie and Chris Snee are the only locks right now.  Center Sean O’Hara was riddled with injuries starting in camp and shouldn’t have even played in 2010 to be honest with you.  There’s no guarantee that O’Dowd will be available late in the game either.

So whatever happens, here’s what we know. David Deihl needs to move inside to Left Guard and a new starting Left Tackle needs to be addressed with ample competition.  Is that Will Beatty officially?  No…. it isn’t. It’s not Kevin Boothe either. So the Giants cannot stop the process of getting younger along that line, their offense depends upon their ability to execute running the football and keeping Eli off his back for the bulk of the game.  I like that 2 picks are geared toward the OL, but for my money I’d prefer to go higher in the order with that position.  They’ll need another good OL prospect to provide depth and competition in 2011 in what is unquestionably the backbone of this offense and the scheme by which they operate.