With 12 draft picks and several apparent needs, there’s much intrigue surrounding the New York Giants heading into the NFL Draft.
With the NFL Draft is just two weeks away and there has been much speculation over what the New York Giants will do with their two first-round draft picks and what they intend to do with their massive total of 12 selections.
The Giants have several needs they have to address. They need playmakers on defense, a right tackle, and they need to find a successor to Eli Manning.
There are a plethora of directions the Giants can go in the draft, so here are our predictions on what the Giants will do.
They won’t select a quarterback in the 1st round
Mock drafts have linked quarterbacks Dwayne Haskins, Daniel Jones and Drew Lock being selected by Big Blue with either the sixth or 17th overall pick.
The Giants need to find their quarterback of the future but with ownership committed to Manning in 2019 and not ruling out possibly giving him a one-year extension, Dave Gettleman will address other needs in the first round.
They could wait until round two or three to take West Virginia quarterback Will Grier, who possesses just as much upside as some of the quarterbacks projected to go in round one.
The Giants will go defense heavy in the draft
The Giants won’t take a quarterback in the first round because they have to fix their biggest problem, their defense.
Last time we saw the Giants defense on the field they surrendered 36 points and gave up 387 passing yards and four passing touchdowns to Dak Prescott in the season finale. What makes this worse is that the Cowboys achieved all of these with Ezekiel Elliott and Zack Martin on the bench.
Since then the Giants have acquired new players on their defense such as Jabrill Peppers, Antoine Bethea and Markus Golden, but Gettleman still has a long way to go to improve a defense that ranked 24th a season ago.
Fortunately for the Giants, this is a deep and talented defensive draft.
Rashan Gary, Ed Oliver, Montez Sweat, Brian Burns, Christian Wilkins and Clelin Ferrell are all viable options for the Giants at pick six or 17. Defensive tackle Jerry Tillery and cornerback Sean Bunting could be on the board in the second round when the Giants are on the clock.
There’s also a ton of defensive talent projected to be available in the third round such as Louisiana Tech edge rusher Jaylon Ferguson, Florida edge rusher Jachal Polite, and Ohio State lineman Dre’Mont Jones.
With a deep defense pool of players in this draft class, expect a majority of the Giants picks to be used on the defensive side of the ball.
Gettleman will make at least one trade
Gettleman has been very active this offseason in signing numerous free agents along with trading Olivier Vernon for Kevin Zeitler, and, of course, trading away Odell Beckham Jr.
But don’t expect Gettleman to stop wheeling and dealing now. With 12 draft picks at his disposal, he has the draft capital to trade up in the draft if he sees a player he likes slipping.
As he continues to mold the team he envisioned, Gettleman won’t hesitate to trade a pick or a player on the current roster for a player he feels will fit the New York Giants for years to come. Look for Dave Gettleman to make at least one trade during the three-day draft.
