New York Giants 7 Round Mock Draft: Fleecing division rivals with trades, adding starters

Round 5, Pick No. 173: Josh Johnson, WR, Tulsa

This pick makes me a little bit nervous, I won’t lie.

I don’t want to come out of the draft without a tight end, and none have lined up with our picks thus far. That said, Derrick Deese would be a bit of a reach here – and that’s not the way to build a championship franchise, even in the late rounds. James Mitchell is available, too, so hopefully, they don’t both come off the board in the next 15 picks.

I view Johnson as something of a boom or bust pick, which is fine in the fifth round. He’s got excellent hands, tracks deep balls extremely well, and has great body control. On the other hand, he’s only 5’10, 183 pounds, and ran a 4.62 40. That lack of size and speed is very concerning. Usually smaller players make up for it with speed.

So admittedly there’s a chance Johnson doesn’t stick in the league, but in college, he just had a knack for getting open, and those hands mean he doesn’t even have to create that much separation to be useful. There are examples of smaller NFL slot receivers who lack straight-line speed, but are crisp route runners and quick in space, thus getting open and being effective.