About five seconds after the New York Giants traded Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals, just about everyone assumed they’d be drafting his replacement, myself included.
But you know what happens when you assume -- you make a you-know-what of “U” and “ME.”
Instead of abandoning their best player available approach, John Harbaugh and Joe Schoen stuck to their guns and drafted with conviction all the way through, leading them right to Tennessee cornerback Colton Hood in the second round.
But speaking of making assumptions, everyone and their uncle’s pet dog also assumed that when the Houston Texans jumped in front of the G-Men at No. 36 on Day 2, they stole Ohio State defensive lineman Kayden McDonald from them. That he would have been New York’s pick instead of Hood. Like I said, you know what happens when you assume…
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler gathered intel after draft weekend, exposing some of the worst-kept secrets in football... anonymously. When speaking with the Giants, one team source was asked if there was any truth to the McDonald buzz. The response was about as direct as it gets:
"No, Hood was our guy."Giants official
Giants shut down Kayden McDonald speculation with one blunt answer
This blunt answer pulls back the curtain on how Schoen and Harbaugh are running the show moving forward. While the outside world was sweating the 6-foot-4, 340-pound void in the middle of the defensive line, the G-Men were looking at the bigger picture.
You don't get anywhere by panic-buying a nose tackle just because it feels like a need. By sticking to the plan, New York proved they’d rather have a corner who feels like the perfect fit for the new-look defense than a consolation prize lineman who might never fill Lawrence's massive shoes anyway.
It's also a classic case of the draft-day smoke that makes us all look like amateurs every year. We see a team move up one spot, and we immediately think it’s a chess move to block another. But the reality is often much simpler: the Giants’ board was set, and if Hood was still there at 37, he was rocking a Giants jersey.
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Passing on the chance to take a defensive tackle shows a level of discipline that’s been missing from this building for a long time. They didn’t care about the optics of losing McDonald to Houston because, in their minds, they weren't even looking in that direction.
In the end, we all need to get used to this new way of doing business in East Rutherford. The Dex trade was a gut punch, but the Giants are all about value. So the next time we think we’ve got it all figured out, remember those five words and stop making a you-know-what out of ourselves.
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