The NY Giants chose wide receiver Kadarius Toney with the No. 20 overall pick in last weekend’s NFL Draft, after trading back eight spots in a deal with the Chicago Bears, but he wasn’t the player some teams thought GM Dave Gettleman was targeting.
Moments after the Giants chose Toney, the Indianapolis Colts turned in their draft card with Michigan edge rusher Kwity Paye’s name on it. And were stunned to get him.
“I thought the Giants were going to pick him right ahead of us,” Colts midwest area scout Chad Henry said, in a video released by the Colts. “I was literally almost thrown open my mouth, I was so fired up about it.”
In the video, which you can watch below, the Colts’ war room was ecstatic to see Toney go off the board to the NY Giants, allowing Paye to fall into their laps at No. 21.
Clearly, the NY Giants valued adding another weapon to quarterback Daniel Jones’ arsenal in Round 1, and were content to address the edge rusher position in later rounds — as Gettleman did by trading back to select Azeez Ojulari in Round 2.
Paye, 6-foot-2 and 261 pounds, was one of the highest-graded players at his position in this year’s class, and finished last season with 16 total tackles, two sacks, and four tackles for loss. He’ll likely emerge as a starter along the Indianapolis Colts’ front-seven, come September.
You can check out video of the Colts’ war room reacting to Paye sliding to them, below:
Matt Lombardo is the site expert for GMenHQ, and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday for FanSided. Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL