Don’t look now, but we’re five weeks into the NFL season, and the New York Giants aren’t projected to have a top-10 selection. Does that mean the John Harbaugh era is already a success?
The 3-1-1 Giants currently stand alone atop the NFC East, and they’re on pace to pick No. 26 next spring. Most fanbases typically only care about the draft this early if they believe their team (read: the Browns and Dolphins) will take a quarterback.
Bleacher Report’s Brent Sobleski doesn’t have the Giants finding Jaxson Dart’s replacement, which is an entirely separate discussion. He instead believes John Harbaugh and Joe Schoen should pursue Oregon defensive tackle A’Mauri Washington as a belated Dexter Lawrence replacement, and he certainly has the talent to help stop the run.
“While [Washington] may not win frequently enough as a pass-rusher, he can impact the passing game with how good he is at batting passes at the line of scrimmage,” Sobleski wrote.
Does Oregon defensive lineman A’Mauri Washington make sense for the New York Giants as a 2027 NFL Draft prospect?
A consensus four-star prospect and the state of Arizona’s No. 1 prospect in the 2023 signing class, Washington isn’t someone who puts up prolific stats. He enters Saturday’s showdown with Nebraska having tallied 16 tackles and no sacks for an underwhelming 3-2 Ducks squad.
But as Sobleski pointed out, Washington consistently turns heads in the passing game. The fourth-year tackle has 13 pass breakups since the start of 2024, including three this season. For perspective, the Panthers’ Derrick Brown and the Eagles’ Jalen Carter led all NFL defensive linemen with seven deflected passes last year.
Oregon lists Washington at 6-foot-3 and 325 pounds, which isn’t far from Brown’s (6-foot-5, 320 pounds) and Carter’s (6-foot-3, 314 pounds) official body sizes. That doesn’t mean he’s destined to become a Pro Bowler like those two, but the comparisons are still noteworthy. All three make their presence felt at the line of scrimmage, though Carter is the only one who regularly gets to the quarterback.
Washington theoretically makes sense for a Giants team seeking a long-term defensive tackle, but the lack of statistical production is concerning. Brown and Carter both had the TFL and sack numbers, as did Lawrence during his three years at Clemson.
Sobleski also listed Iowa interior offensive lineman Kade Pieper and Mississippi cornerback Kelley Jones as possible fits. We’re personally intrigued by Pieper, a fourth-year junior with experience at right guard and center; the Giants recently named Bryan Hudson their starting center after John Michael Schmitz held the role for three-plus seasons.
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