Through the first three rounds of the draft, the NY Giants look to have addressed some major needs on their roster. Here is an analysis of their draft so far:
Coming into the 2020 NFL Draft, the NY Giants had a number of glaring holes on their roster which needed to be addressed. Through the first three rounds of the draft, it appears as though general manager Dave Gettleman has managed to address some of the biggest deficiencies in the roster.
Before the draft began, the NY Giants were in dire need of help along the offensive line. Last season, the line was extremely porous in front of Eli Manning and Daniel Jones, allowing a total of 43 times while being pressured and hit countless times.
Additionally, running back Saquon Barkley seemed to struggle throughout a lot of the season to find holes to run behind on the offensive line.
While some of his struggles could certainly be attributed to the high ankle sprain that he sustained early in the year, there wasn’t exactly any evidence of road grading from the offensive line in front of him.
As a result of the struggles of the offensive line during the 2019 season, the Giants were in need of massive upgrades along the line. This was especially true at both the left and right tackle positions and the center position along the line.
Besides offensive line help, New York was also in dire need of additional depth at safety. Prior to sustaining a season-ending injury, Jabrill Peppers was fantastic for the NY Giants after coming over in the Odell Beckham Jr. trade. Rookie Julian Love showed a great deal of promise last season after he made the conversion from cornerback to safety.
While the tandem of Peppers and Love were viewed as a solid starting safety duo, the GMEN were lacking depth at safety beyond those two players. As a result, they were expected to add more safety depth during the draft.
Pass rusher was also an area of need for Big Blue coming into the draft. Last year’s team leader in sacks, Markus Golden looks unlikely to resign with the Giants in free agency, leaving a major void in the pass-rushing department. While New York did sign Kyler Fackrell, who had 10.5 sacks in 2018 with the Green Bay Packers, there appears to still be a major need for pass-rushing talent on the roster.
The Giants could also use additional depth at the wide receiver position, ideally, a big-bodied red zone target to compliment speedy receivers Darius Slayton and Corey Coleman and slot receivers Sterling Shepard and Golden Tate.
Given the current trend in the National Football League of utilizing a greater number of cornerbacks in defensive schemes than ever before, the Giants might also look to add more depth to their cornerback corps in the draft.
With all of that in mind, let’s examine what Dave Gettleman and the NY Giants have done through the first three rounds of the draft and what impact that could have on the roster going into 2020.