Apr 22, 2009; New York, NY, USA; ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. during the 2010 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

In the early stages of the rise of mock drafts Kiper was the man many people viewed as an NFL Draft guru. Whatever he had to say was heard by his disciples as gospel and he’s still a very popular man to this day in the world of NFL mock drafts and the actual draft itself after landing an on-air personality gig for ESPN during its televised draft coverage.

Even though I’ve switched my allegiances from Kiper over to NFL Network’s Mike Mayock I know there are still many Kiper fans out there so I thought I’d take a look at his most recent mock draft to see who he has the Giants taking with their 32^nd overall draft pick in the upcoming 2012 NFL Draft for this week’s version of ‘This Week In Mock Drafts.’

Kiper’s mock drafts are a part of the ESPN Insider brand so if you don’t have access to their site then you can’t read his article, so don’t click on this link if you’re not an insider. Don’t worry Giants fans we got you covered later in this article for his analysis on the Giants’ pick.

In his most recent mock draft, version 3.0, that was published before the big trade that saw the Redskins mortgage their future for the present and let it be known that RG3 will be a Redskin, Kiper has taken the route many mock draft prognosticators have taken and mocked a tight end to the Giants.

The tight end that Kiper has going to the Giants, as of right now, is the same one that was featured in a previous installment of ‘This Week In Mock Drafts.’ And that would be Stanford’s tight end, Coby Fleener.

This is what Kiper has to say right now about Fleener going to the Giants:

“The Super Bowl was great for the party, but the Giants took a hit on the personnel side, where they lost a pair of tight ends to injury. Fleener has overtaken Dwayne Allen of Clemson as the top tight end on my board, and the Giants need one. He has great hands, will run a lot better than people think and knows how to work in a pro-style system, lined up on the line of scrimmage. He’s a great red zone target. The Giants also need offensive line help, or could target a linebacker here, but Fleener makes a lot of sense.”

The scouting report from our fellow FanSided brethren over at NFLMocks.com on the 6’6, 247-pound tight end, project Fleener as a late first round to 2^nd round draft pick and compare him to Kevin Boss, Marcedes Lewis and Tony Scheffeler.

FanSided also went on to say about Fleener that he’s a, “big play threat at all times…can line up in the slot and run pretty good routes…good at finding holes in zone coverage…impressive body control and ability to catch the ball in his soft hands…”

Those were the nice things they had to say but they also had some concerns about Fleener that revolve around his age (he’ll be 24 during his rookie campaign), his lean build that might not lead to him holding up in the blocking game, questions about whether he’ll be able to handle not being the go-to receiver in an offense and that’s he’s not very dynamic once the snap goes off.

Every rookie is going to come into the professional football ranks with holes in his game so Fleener should be able to work on his game as he progresses. If the Giants do take Fleener he’ll have to work on his game much sooner, especially if they don’t sign a veteran free agent tight end, because he would shoot up to the top of the tight end depth chart in New York because of injuries to Ballard and Beckum.

It’ll be interesting to see whether or not the Giants do take a rookie tight end in the first round since they would potentially be in the running to start as a rookie and make a big impact in a pass heavy offense.

Feb 1, 2012; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Christian Barrett poses in front of a mock NFL draft set during Play 60 Kids Day at the NFL Experience at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

While deep down inside we knew that there was no way the NFL would cancel the season or miss games the longer the lockout dragged on the more uncertainty it created. That didn’t stop sportswriters from talking about mock drafts and making predictions though and that didn’t stop me from talking about those talking about the mock drafts.

Eventually the lockout ended and we had ourselves a new labor agreement and football was officially back in our lives! The mock drafts that I covered for GMEN HQ at the beginning of the season were all about me preaching how it’s hard to predict what player a team will draft when a season hasn’t even started yet and we don’t know what the team will look like heading into off-season or where we would be drafting in the first round.

Well, now that the season is over we have some questions answered that can help up properly mock the upcoming 2012 NFL Draft. First off, thanks to the Giants winning Super Bowl XLVI, we now know where the Giants will be picking in the draft and, barring trade, the Giants are slated to pick 32^nd and last overall in the first round of the draft.

I’m sure GM Jerry Reese will gladly take the last pick of the draft anytime if it comes along with a Lombardi Trophy attached to it. With the NFL in off-season mode we know which players are free agents and we can speculate as to which players teams will attempt to re-sign, let go or go after in free agency. That helps us mock draft prognosticators or those mocking the mock draft prognosticators pinpoint areas of needs or target positions in the draft for each of the 32 teams.

As of right now, thanks in part to the major injuries suffered to the tight end position in the Super Bowl and the lack of depth at the position, tight end has become the trendy mock draft position pick for the Giants. And that’s exactly the case with today’s installment of ‘This Week In Mock Drafts’ brought to you by the good folks over at The National Football Post.

The third and most recent version of their mock draft has the Giants taking tight end Coby Fleener out of Stanford. Out of the 15 previous TWIMD articles that I wrote for GMEN HQ not a single one of them predicted the Giants would draft a tight end but I have a feeling that will change and we will see the tight end position mentioned a lot more frequently headed towards draft day.

Jan 2, 2012; Glendale, AZ, USA; Stanford Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck (12) throws to tight end Coby Fleener (82) during the second half against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the 2012 Fiesta Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Oklahoma State Cowboys beat the Stanford Cardinal 41-38 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

According to the latest scouting report on Fleener from NFP they say that he’s, “An impressive pass catcher who can win both down the field and underneath vs. man coverage. Has the frame and flexibility to develop into a solid blocker as well and looks like a future starting caliber NFL TE.” That sounds like some pretty lofty praise for Fleener and it also makes it seem like he would be just the type of guy to fit right in on the Giants.

The tight end position has helped revolutionize the way the passing game is now played and while we’re not always going to see a Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez or Jimmy Graham type of player come into the league and light it up right away like they recently did there’s no denying that tight ends can come into the league and make an impact immediately. If the Giants can draft a tight end that starts out as a rookie and makes a difference from Week 1 it would only add to the arsenal of players Manning has at his dispersal.

The Giants have always been a team known for drafting the best available player, no matter the need or the position. It’s worked out well for them in the past and if they were to go that route this year and that best player available did in fact turn out to be a tight end the Giants would be pretty smart to do so since not too many other teams view tight end as a position of need, which would leave the Giants picking whatever tight end they rank the best at the position.

In addition to the 6-6 Fleener, other names to watch out for at the tight end position include Georgia’s Orson Charles, Clemson’s Dwayne Allen, Chase Ford out of Miami and Michael Egnew from Missouri.

Of course, we can’t forget that it’s only February 20 and the draft doesn’t take place until April 26. That’s plenty of time for the Giants to sign a free agent tight end such as Jeremy Shockey, Visanthe Shiancoe or John Carlson as a one year stop gap to fill in for the injured Jake Ballard and Travis Beckum or permanently take over their spots.

All I know is that mock draft season is in full swing and GMEN HQ is happy to be a part of it and that TWIMD should once again become a Mock Monday regular here on the blog.