NY Giants football: 5 draft moves Big Blue should make
By Matt Clark
5. Address remaining needs with extra capital gained
If the NY Giants can pull off the two aforementioned trades, they will position themselves nicely to quickly shore up their leaky offensive line without sacrificing other areas of need. In addition, it allows them to not have to overspend on free agent signings due to desperation. The team is finally in a solid position in regards to the salary cap, there is no sense thrusting themselves back into the financial mess that they worked so hard to free themselves from.
In the scenario mentioned, the NY Giants could use any of their first-round picks to address the tackle position to get one of the players previously mentioned. The flexibility of possessing two additional first-round picks and a third-round pick allows them to address other top priorities.
The Giants have a major need for pass rushers. If they were able to accumulate additional first-round picks, they could target players like A.J. Epenesa from Iowa, K’Lavon Chaisson of LSU, Julian Okwara of Notre Dame, Yetur Gross-Matos of Penn State, Raekwon Davis of Alabama, or Jon Greenard of Florida to name a few.
Linebacker is also an area of need for New York. Should they receive additional picks in the first as suggested and opt to address linebacker, they could still target Kenneth Murray from Oklahoma, Terrell Lewis of Alabama, or Jordyn Brooks of Texas Tech. While the linebacker position is much more shallow than tackle and pass rushers this year, there are still high-level candidates that would remain after Isaiah Simmons is off the board.
If the Giants are able to add additional picks, they could decide that their secondary is a need, based on their assessments of Deandre Baker, Julian Love, Sam Beal, and Corey Ballentine, following their rookie campaigns.
Should they look to fill needs in the secondary with potential additional first-round picks, they could look at players such as Grant Delpit of LSU, Xavier McKinney of Alabama, Trevon Diggs of Alabama, C.J. Henderson of Florida, Paulson Adebo out of Stanford, or Cameron Dantzler from Mississippi State.
With a draft that is considered extremely deep, the Giants would be wise to utilize the value of their fourth pick to trade back to accumulate as many draft picks as they can. By not fixating on just selecting the best player available at the 4th position and instead, creating a bidding war for the pick, the Giants could set themselves up nicely for the future.
It remains to be seen what Dave Gettleman and the Giants intend to do with their draft picks but trading the 4th overall pick in exchange for a fifth overall pick and a late first-round pick and then trading the 5th round pick for two first-round picks and a third-round pick sets the team up for a huge draft.
The result of the suggested trades would mean that the NY Giants would have three picks in the 1st round, a second-round pick, two third-round picks, a pick in each of the fourth-sixth rounds and three seventh-round picks. The team would place itself in a much better position next year if it were selecting 12 players from what is shaping up to be an extremely deep draft.