RD 3 (99th): Jabari Zuniga – EDGE, Florida
With the elite pass rushers such as Chase Young, AJ Epenesa, Yetur Gross-Matos, Julian Okwara, Terrell Lewis, Darrell Taylor, Curtis Weaver, and Joshua Uche all off the board and Jonathan Greenard being selected immediately before my 99th pick, my options at pass rusher were limited.
I narrowed it down to Jabari Zuniga of Florida and Bradlee Anae out of Utah. Ultimately, I decided to select Zuniga with the third-round pick of the Giants. Zuniga was plagued by injury this past season at Florida or he would likely have gone much higher in the draft.
Zuniga is an excellent combination of speed and strength at pass rusher and his elite combine results were clear indicators of that, as he finished in the top-six among all participating defensive ends in the six events he participated in at the NFL Combine.
Despite missing much of last year, Zuniga finished his career at Florida with 118 total tackles and 18.5 sacks. With a lot of the elite talent off the board, I felt it was worth taking a shot on a guy who represented an absolute freak athlete with a bit of a checkered history in hopes that he can remain healthy and become a dominant pass rusher in the middle of the draft.
Even with the addition of Zuniga at pass rusher, I felt that the need still existed to add another player to get after the quarterback. As a result, I was targeting another pass-rushing talent with the 110th overall selection.
With the 110th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the New York Giants selected: