There’s been a lot of talk recently that former disgruntled defensive end Osi Umenyiora would be willing to keep playing for the New York Giants and that’s not surprising to hear from somebody who can now call himself a two-time Super Bowl Champion.
It’s funny what being a champion does to you and if Osi were to stick around and be the third player in a three-man defensive end rotation to go along with Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul then the Giants would have the scariest three man D-Line rotation in all of football.
However, we can’t predict the future and if a team came calling on or near draft day that saw them offer the Giants a valuable draft pick for the rights to Osi GM Jerry Reese would have to at least listen.
Personally, if I was Reese, I’d keep Osi if he were to play under his remaining contract because there aren’t too many defensive ends out there better than him when he’s healthy, happy and focused. Yet, that’s not always the case with Osi and if you can trade him and get something of value in return you can always draft his potential replacement and that’s just the scenario we have lined out for you in the latest installment of ‘This Week In Mock Drafts.’
While Chris Bach of NFLGridironGab.com doesn’t come out and say outright that Osi will be gone and the Giants will draft his replacement with the 32nd overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft he does throw out the idea that Osi is “likely leaving” and has mocked to the GMEN DE Nick Perry out of USC to take his spot on the team via the draft.
Based on the scouting report of Perry from our good friends at NFLMocks.com, which you can check out fully by clicking RIGHT HERE, we can tell you that Perry is a 6’3, 250-pound end who recorded 5 sacks and 42 tackles in 9 games for the Trojans last year. For his career he has totaled 18 sacks, 92 tackles, and 4 forced fumbles in 34 career games.
NFLMocks says that Perry has, “elite speed and explosion off stance”, to go along with “surprising strength” but that he, “struggles when run at”, with a history of injury and might need time to develop some moves.
However, Perry earned the nickname of ‘Workout Warrior’ at the 2012 NFL Combine and he now has draft pundits talking him up as a potential top 15 pick based on the following combine numbers:
- 4.64 40-yard run
- Lifted 225 pounds 35 times
- Vertical jump pf 38.5 inches
- Broad jump of 124 inches
- 7.25 3-cone drill
- 4.66 20-yard shuttle
Even if Perry is still there when the Giants are scheduled to go to the podium it’s no guarantee that they’ll be looking at D-Line but you never know who’ll still be available. If a potential top-15 pick slides to the bottom of the first round he might very well be a Giant based on the organization’s strategy of drafting the best overall player available, regardless of need.