Ranking the top 5 options for the NY Giants at pick #4
The NY Giants will be making one of their most important draft picks in team history when they are on the clock with the #4 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Here are the team’s top 5 options.
While that may seem like hyperbole, hear me out. The NY Giants have been stuck middling in utter mediocrity since their last fabled Super Bowl run in 2011. Since then, this proud franchise has made the playoffs just once and has been plagued by some of the same problems throughout the entirety of this stretch.
Namely, the offensive line play has been the Giants’ Achilles heel. Former GM Jerry Reese wasted the last few years of Eli Manning’s prime by first neglecting the offensive line altogether, and then failing to hit on the important draft capital he finally used on it in a major way. Current GM Dave Gettleman has invested more into the offensive line but has failed to improve the unit much, mainly due to missing badly on his marquee free-agent signing of Nate Solder.
If there’s one thing that’s synonymous with NY Giants football throughout the team’s history, it’s a strong defense with a ferocious pass rush. This too has eluded Big Blue in recent years to the point where Kyler Fackrell appears to be the team’s main pass-rushing threat heading into 2020.
Before this year’s free agency period, the Giants’ main needs were offensive tackle, edge rusher, and center. $70M dollars later and the team’s main needs remain the same, putting extra emphasis on this draft pick.
This will be the third year in a row that the Giants are picking inside the top 5, and it just feels like if they whiff badly on this pick it could play a big part in keeping them towards the bottom echelon of the league while wasting the years of Daniel Jones on a rookie deal.
Obviously, the prudent move here is likely to trade down and acquire extra capital to help make up for the fact that the Giants don’t own an extra pick outside of their own inside the first six rounds, while the team also doesn’t pick from #36 to #99 due to the Leonard Williams trade debacle.
The good news for Big Blue is that the 2020 draft is loaded with potential starting offensive tackles; the bad news is this draft is one of the worst ever in terms of edge talent.
I weighed this, positional value, and obviously the individual players’ talent, ceiling, and floor while making this top 5 list.
Again, this list presumes we don’t trade out of #4, which is a real scenario due to the fact that the Lions could be the ones trading back from #3, leaving us without a potential trade partner.
For the purposes of realism, I’ve left Chase Young off the list of possibilities as he’ll more than likely be off the board (sigh).
Here are the NY Giants’ top 5 options for the #4 overall draft pick.