Was New York Giants' Draft Enough to Make Them Super Bowl Contenders Again?

For a team with an aging quarterback that has seen its win total drop in back-to-back losing seasons, the New York Giants entered the 2015 offseason with a lot of hope. 

It had to do with the fact quarterback Eli Manning was coming off a rebound season in new offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo's QB-friendly system. But more importantly, they found out in 2014 that they have one of the NFL's most dangerous weapons in Offensive Rookie of the Year Odell Beckham Jr. 

But Manning is 34, and the league's oldest head coach, Tom Coughlin, may be approaching the end of the road. As a result, the Giants' window is open only a crack. This is a team with the right pieces in place to make another Super Bowl run, but it was imperative that the G-Men have a strong offseason. 

This, after all, was a six-win team that ranked in the bottom 10 in football in terms of points allowed, yards allowed and turnovers. 

“We need to be a playoff team in 2015,” Giants president and CEO John Mara said on WFAN in January, per the New York Post's Dan Martin.

“It’s hard to convince anybody you’re close when you go 7-9 and then 6-10,” Mara added. “But I do think we have a nucleus to be successful.”

How do you make that jump from mediocre team to contender? Free agency is rarely the answer, and that hasn't traditionally been the Giants' bag. That's where they added some depth with Shane Vereen, George Selvie and Jonathan Casillas while also keeping top pass-rusher Jason Pierre-Paul with the franchise tag. 

No major shakeups, though, which meant the Giants had to make sure they found some NFL-ready pieces in this draft. There's little room for long-term projects at this stage, and the Giants appear to realize that. In the first three rounds of the draft, they added three prospects who should have a chance to make this team better immediately. 

Protecting Eli

A starter the majority of the time during his three years at Miami (Fla.), Ereck Flowers is a beast who should improve the offensive line dramatically simply by holding things down at right tackle, which will enable top 2013 pick Justin Pugh to move inside. 

Left tackle Will Beatty is already coming off a solid season, but Pugh struggled in his second season on the right side and is better suited to play guard due to his skill set and body type. With Pugh in a more natural position and talented guys like Flowers and 2014 second-round center Weston Richburg surrounding him, the line will have a devastating amount of young talent. 

Quarterback	Comp. %
Blake Bortles	36.4
Geno Smith	38.5
Brian Hoyer	39.3
Matthew Stafford	40.0
Joe Flacco	40.4
Derek Carr	42.6
Eli Manning	43.1
Colin Kaepernick	44.6

There are still a lot of question marks with that much youth, especially if versatile veteran Geoff Schwartz can't stay healthy after missing virtually all of the 2014 campaign. 

But Richburg and Pugh are trending upward, and Flowers has the raw size and strength to contribute this season. It might not happen overnight and he might not be ready to start Week 1, so I'm not in love with the idea of using a top-10 pick on a guy like that, but obviously the Giants believe they've got something here—and they might be right. 

Plus, it's not as though there were significantly better options that filled New York's needs in that spot. 

Manning's sack and pressure rates dropped because he worked in an offense that featured quicker passes and shorter routes in 2014, but he was still sacked 28 times and definitely still needs the help. He had the league's seventh-worst qualified completion percentage while under pressure in 2014, according to Pro Football Focus. 

He's not mobile and not particularly good while under duress. The Giants have already given him plenty of weapons, including a hell of a 1-2 receiving duo in Beckham and Victor Cruz, so the focus now had to be to ensure he'd have stronger protection. 

Defensive reinforcements 

Considering they got arguably the best safety in the draft in Round 2, the Giants were smart to use that first-round selection on an offensive lineman. They paid a price—a fourth and a seventh—to move up seven spots in order to land the sliding Landon Collins at the top of Round 2, but a lot of people gave a first-round grade to the Alabama product and New York was in desperate need of help at that position. 

Collins is a do-everything safety, which is huge because prior to the draft, the G-Men had just two safeties on the active roster. Gone are Antrel Rolle and Stevie Brown, and Quintin Demps remains unsigned, so they were desperate for help here. 

Look for Collins to start from the get-go and immediately help a run defense that surrendered a league-high 4.9 yards per rushing attempt in 2014. New York also gave up 17 20-yard runs, which ranked second in football. That had a lot to do with the fact Rolle and Demps missed a combined 27 tackles. 

Team	YPA	20-yard runs
Giants	4.9	17
Saints	4.8	19
Chiefs	4.7	8
Browns	4.5	16
Chargers	4.5	12

Collins offered tremendous value for the Giants while also filling the biggest need they had. He'd have been an acceptable pick in the No. 9 spot, but they instead got him 33rd overall. Pretty sweet considering he's the type of player who could contribute to a playoff run right off the bat. 

Pass rush help for JPP

In Round 3, the Giants somehow lucked out again by capturing a sliding best-player-available who also filled a need. The Giants know they wouldn't have won either of their recent Super Bowls without elite pass-rushers, and in Owamagbe Odighizuwa they bring in a guy who was made to rush the passer in a place like New York. 

New York's final sack and pressure numbers were a bit deceiving last year. Pierre-Paul did most of the work, and a lot of his production came late in a contract year. The 26-year-old JPP continues to have All-Pro potential, but he needs more support. Now, with 2013 third-round pick Damontre Moore and the 6'3", 267-pound Odighizuwa, Big Blue has as much explosiveness off the edge as anyone in the NFL. 

The opportunity is there

The Giants also look to have something in second-year linebacker Devon Kennard, and they'll get Jon Beason and Prince Amukamara back from injury. Odighizuwa, Pierre-Paul, Schwartz, Beason and Amukamara have injury concerns, and it's a concern that the G-Men have been hit harder by injuries than anyone else in football in each of the last two seasons, according to Football Outsiders. 

Team	Total
Giants	278.4
Chargers	210.1
Colts	205.4
Falcons	183.8
49ers	183.3

But you'd have to think the football gods will give this team a break eventually, and now they've added support to all of the key areas in which they've been hit hardest in recent years. 

So they have the talent, and in the NFC East they have an opening. The Dallas Cowboys had a bit of a tough offseason and could have trouble repeating in a division that hasn't had a team successfully defend its title in over a decade. The Philadelphia Eagles are toiling with their roster as they search for a franchise quarterback, and the Washington Redskins are a mess coming off a two-season stretch in which they won just seven games. 

With Coughlin, Manning and a supporting cast that got a lot stronger this past weekend, the Giants absolutely have the ability to defy the odds and make another run in 2015, just as they did in 2007 and 2011. 

Every four years, right? 

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012.

Follow @Brad_Gagnon