The 2022 NFL Draft begins Thursday, and the NY Giants will make two selections within the first hour of the draft. With nine picks in this year’s draft, it’s undeniable that this upcoming Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, will help determine the timetable for the Giants’ return to contention.
When Giants owners, John Mara and Steve Tisch, decided to go out to Western New York and hire Joe Schoen as general manager and Brian Daboll as head coach, their fourth hire in seven years, it was for two distinct reasons: Schoen’s scouting acumen and Daboll’s innate ability for Player Development.
In his five years in Buffalo, Schoen helped both scout and draft many productive NFL players including Tre’Davious White, Josh Allen, Tremaine Edmunds, Wyatt Teller, Dawson Knox, Ed Oliver, Spencer Brown, and Gregory Rousseau. In his four years in Buffalo, Daboll made Josh Allen, a quarterback who looked lost in his rookie year, into arguably one of the league’s best quarterbacks and a perennially MVP candidate.
Since Dave Gettleman drove the Giants’ ship into an iceberg, leaving holes at every position on the roster, Schoen and Daboll have their work cut for them to stop the ship from sinking. This work starts with the 2022 NFL Draft. Here are five predictions for the Giants’ 2022 draft class
The NY Giants will not trade back in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft
There are two main reasons why the Giants will not trade down. Firstly, there simply will not be a suitable trade partner. This is a very hard draft to find a trade partner looking to move up because there are not a lot of quarterback-needy teams.
There are also no quarterbacks worthy of a top 10 selection. The three teams most in need of a quarterback are the Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, and Seattle Seahawks, but all three of these teams already pick into the top 10 and it is unlikely any would feel inclined to trade just to move up a couple of spots.
It also seems unlikely, as of now, that any of them will draft quarterbacks. The New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers are the two other teams who need quarterbacks. Both of these teams pick later in Round 1.
It is highly likely that the quarterbacks these two teams are targeting will drop right to them. Therefore, there would be no need to bid against themselves if they were even inclined to draft a quarterback. While teams trade up for more than just quarterbacks, it is unlikely any team would offer the type of capital Schoen is likely looking for to draft a non-quarterback.
The second reason is that the Giants need blue-chip talent. Currently picking at five and seven, the Giants are slated to add two of Aidan Hutchinson, Travon Walker, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Sauce Gardner, Derek Stingley Jr., Charles Cross, Ikem Ekonwu, and Evan Neal.
The offensive line, defensive back, and pass rusher are the Giants’ three biggest needs and Schoen will not want to turn down the opportunity to add two franchise building blocks, day one starters. Schoen preached in his opening press conference about his desire to build the core of the Giants roster through the draft, and there is no better way to start that process than by drafting two blue-chip prospects.
NY Giants select two tight ends
In one of his first acts as Giants GM, Joe Schoen removed every tight end from the roster, releasing Kaden Smith and Kyle Rudolph, and smarty letting Evan Engram leave for free agency. Entering free agency, the Giants had zero tight ends on the roster.
Schoen signed Ricky Seals-Jones and Jordan Akins, two veteran tight ends, to one-year veteran minimum deals and re-signed Chris Myrick, who memorably caught a game-winning touchdown pass from Daniel Jones with his legs last season. However, since none of these players will likely have a future on the Giants roster past the 2022 season, the Giants must add to the tight end room in the NFL draft.
There are some great options to pick from in Rounds 3 through 5. Trey McBride, Cole Turner, and Isaiah Likely are all college standout tight ends who were the focal points of their school’s passing offense. Greg Dulcich, Jelani Woods, Cade Otton, Charlie Kolar, and Jeremy Ruckert are all versatile tight ends, solid in both run blocking and receiving.
Since tight ends seem to get overlooked in the draft, there is a decent chance all of the above tight ends are still on the board when Round 3 begins, with McBride being the likely exception.
My prediction is that the Giants will use the overlooked tight end position to their advantage and select Charlie Kolar in the fourth round. Kolar is a 6’6, 260-pound versatile tight end, who has upside both as a receiver and a blocker.
Kolar amassed 2,000 receiving yards in his college career and helped transform Iowa State from decades of struggle into a perennial contender, similar to what the Giants are trying to do. Kolar is similar to Bills’ tight end, Dawson Knox, whom Daboll helped turn from a mid-round pick into one of the focal points of one of the league’s best offenses.
I would expect the Giants to double up on the tight end position with their fifth or sixth-round pick, with James Mitchell and Jake Ferguson being logical options.
NY Giants draft James Cook
In both the 2019 and 2020 drafts, the Buffalo Bills selected a running back in the third round. While the third round seems a little rich for me to take a running back, especially with Saquon Barkley still likely on the roster for at least the 2022 season, I think Schoen will add young legs to the running back position with the Giants’ second third-round pick and select James Cook.
Drafting a running back makes a lot of sense, as Barkley has a long-documented injury history, and is a free agent after the 2022 season, and Matt Breida and Gary Brightwell, who is more of a special teamer, are the only other two backs on the roster.
Cook makes a lot of sense for the Giants as he excels in both rushing and receiving, amassing 728 rushing yards and 284 receiving yards in his 2021 season at Georgia. Cook, who is Dalvin Cook’s younger brother, comes with the added benefit of playing in a running back rotation all four years of college, where he never had to be the featured back, ensuring that he took significantly fewer hits than most of the top running back prospects and lost less tread from his tires.
NY Giants select at least three offensive linemen
The Giants’ continual failure to properly address the offensive line for the past decade has been one of the primary reasons for the decade of disappointment in the Meadowlands. In his first year as general manager, Schoen is smart enough to address the offensive line issue and use his many resources available to fix it.
Year one of a general manager and head coaching tenure generally begins with an evaluation of the roster. The long-term prospects of Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley cannot properly be evaluated without giving them protection.
Schoen will draft one of the big three offensive linemen, Evan Neal, Ikem Ekonwu, or Charles Cross, with the number five selection in the draft. Neal and Ekonwu, regarded as the top two offensive linemen, bring tremendous versatility, having experience playing both guard and tackle, and would instantly turn the Giants’ offensive line from poor to average.
With the last decade of horrendous line play, many fans would settle with just average for now. Cross needs a little more development but he played at Mississippi State in Mike Leach’s Air Raid system, which would translate well to Daboll’s system but will also likely be pass-heavy.
The Giants will address their offensive line again in Round 3 and select Jamaree Salyer, an offensive lineman out of Georgia. Salyer is the perfect target for Schoen and Daboll as he is a versatile lineman who played snaps at all five spots on the offensive line in college.
Salyer has also played in big games his entire college career and seems to be unfazed when the lights shine brightest, as he displayed in the 2022 National Championship game where he allowed just one pressure despite playing snaps at both left tackle and right guard.
Versatility is something the Giants desperately crave on the offensive line. The Giants will then address the offensive line at least once more with Alec Lindstrom and Luke Fortner, two centers, being logical later-round targets.
NY Giants take a wide receiver earlier than expected
Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News dropped a Friday night bomb when he reported that the Giants are shopping 2021 first-round pick wide receiver Kadarius Toney. Toney posted a cryptic Instagram story shortly after stating “if you believe everything on the internet, you gullible.”
While I would be very surprised if the Giants traded Toney, it has become clear that the front office and coaching staff are uneasy about the receiver room, and rightfully so. Outside of Toney, the Giants awarded Kenny Golladay with a 4 year, 72-million-dollar contract last season, and he produced zero touchdowns and missed multiple games with various injuries.
Sterling Shepard is coming off an ACL tear and is on a one-year contract, and Darius Slayton has shown flashes, but ranks near the top of the NFL’s dropped passes list, including a potential game-winning touchdown in Week 2 last season at Washington.
The wide receiver position is very deep in this year’s draft which could push some of the elite wide receivers into the second round. While it seems rich to add a wide receiver in the second round, my guess is Schoen and Daboll will look to add stability to the position and select a wide receiver in either Round 2 or Round 3.
George Pickens, a wide receiver out of Georgia, could be an ideal Round 2 target. Pickens was highly productive in his first two college seasons, totaling 1,240 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns. Pickens tore his ACL in spring practice last season but battled through recovery to return for Georgia’s national championship win over Alabama.
Pickens is 6’3, 200 pounds, and excels in deep ball receiving, an area the Giants have sorely lacked recently. Treylon Burks, a projected first-round pick out of Arkansas, would also be a logical target should he unexpectedly fall out of the first round as he took a visit to the Giants facility a couple of weeks ago. Round 2 receivers have been the value of the draft in the last five years, producing DK Metcalf, Deebo Samuel, and AJ Brown.