Regrading the New York Giants' Past 5 Drafts

The NFL draft is the lifeline of a team’s present and future.

So what happens if that team botches a draft class or two, or, as is the case for the New York Giants, several?

You guessed it! Losing seasons, no depth and a heavy reliance on free agency, which often means an influx of older veterans, many of whom are unfortunately past their prime, who are asked to plug a hole on the roster for the short term.

A secondary effect of poor drafting becomes an issue of continuity and chemistry, which, when you factor in the new CBA rules affecting when and what a team can do at practice, is just not a very good situation.

With all that said, let’s look back at the Giants’ last five draft classes. In regrading the 2010-2014 classes, I will give you where each pick was taken and the letter grade based on each pick’s production thus far.  

I’ll also give you my choices for the best, worst, most frustrating and “We Hardly Knew Ya” picks.

Class of 2010

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Player Grade
1	15	Jason Pierre-Paul	DE	B
2	46	Linval Joseph	DT	A
3	76	Chad Jones	DB	Inc
4	115	Phillip Dillard	LB	D
5	147	Mitch Petrus	G	C
6	184	Adrian Tracy	DE	D
7	221	Matt Dodge	P	F

Best Pick

This one is close because a case can be made for DE Jason Pierre-Paul and DT Linval Joseph, the first- and second-round picks respectively.

Based on durability and consistency in production, the winner, by a hair, is Joseph, who started 46 out of 53 games for the Giants before departing via free agency to the Minnesota Vikings in 2014.

Joseph finished as the second-best defensive lineman on the Giants in 2013 (behind his eventual replacement, Johnathan Hankins), according to Pro Football Focus.

While Joseph didn’t post gaudy numbers, he was the classic plugger who often times ate up the double-team blocks, freeing the rest of the front seven to wreak havoc.

As a postscript on Pierre-Paul, it says a lot that the team, who franchised the 2011 Pro Bowler, hasn’t committed to a long-term deal yet and may not do so this year, according to Ebenezer Samuel of the New York Daily News.

It’s the right move, as the Giants need to figure out if in Pierre-Paul, they have the real thing or a guy who will have issues staying healthy and producing at the same level as he did in 2011. 

Worst Pick

Punter Matt Dodge, the seventh-round draft pick, was a nice guy who really did try to transform himself into an NFL punter.

In retrospect, the decision to use a draft pick on him, even though it was a late pick, is looking more and more like an ill-advised knee-jerk reaction to Jeff Feagles’ retirement announcement just one month before the draft.

While hindsight is 20/20, the Giants would have been much better off pulling in a veteran off the street who had more experience with directional kicking than wasting a pick on a punter who didn’t meet expectations.

Most Frustrating Pick

Defensive end Adrian Tracy, the sixth-round pick, was supposed to be the next Osi Umenyiora pass-rushing sensation. So confident were his teammates in him that Tracy was given the moniker of “Yosi,” short for “Young Osi” at one point.

It wasn’t meant to be. Tracy, a productive college defensive end in a 3-4 system, couldn’t quite adjust to the 4-3 defense run by the Giants.

As a rookie, he spent the season on injured reserve after suffering a preseason elbow injury.

The following season, he failed to make the 53-man roster, instead landing on the practice squad. Then in 2012, it was announced by the coaching staff that instead of continuing to be groomed for an outside linebacker position, Tracy would be returning to his native defensive end position.

He returned to defensive end for the 2012 season, registering 12 tackles and one sack in 70 defensive snaps, per Pro Football Focus.  

Tracy competed for a spot the following summer, but the performances that are reflected in his minus-3.9 grade that included a minus-2.4 pass rushing grade likely convinced the Giants that Tracy was a failed experiment.

The “We Hardly Knew Ya” Pick

Safety Chad Jones, the third-round pick who looked so promising during the rookie minicamp that year, never made it onto the field for New York after suffering serious injuries in a June auto accident, right before his first NFL training camp.

Class Grade: D 

Class of 2011

Brandon Wade/Associated Press

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Player Grade
1	19	Prince Amukamara	CB	B+
2	52	Marvin Austin	DT	F
3	83	Jerrel Jernigan	WR	D
4	117	James Brewer	OL	D
6	185	Greg Jones	LB	D
6	198	Tyler Sash	S	D
6	202	Jacquian Williams	LB	C
7	221	Da'Rel Scott	RB	D

Best Pick

The Giants managed to get one solid starter out of this class—cornerback Prince Amukamara. The problem, though, with that pick is that Amukamara has played in just one full season (2013).

According to Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News, Amukamara said that he is about 90 percent back from his latest injury, a season-ending biceps injury in Week 9. He was well on his way to having his breakout season.

He posted a career-high three interceptions and a career-best 58.2 NFL rating, according to Pro Football Focus.

He was also solid in run support, finishing with 46 tackles en route to a 2.5 grade.

Worst Pick

When it comes to players who look the part of an NFL offensive lineman, James Brewer was it.

Standing 6’6” tall and weighing 330 pounds, Brewer was an imposing figure off the field.

When he was on the field, things changed—that is, when he was actually on the field and not in the trainer’s room.

Brewer missed his rookie year with an elbow injury, he had issues with his back in years two and three, and, when he wasn’t a healthy scratch in 2014, he ended up on injured reserve with a concussion.

First, he failed to progress at tackle, so the coaches decided to move him inside to guard. In 2013, Brewer had a golden opportunity to nail down a starting job at guard.

His inconsistent play resulted in a minus-9.2 overall grade from Pro Football Focus that included negative marks in pass blocking (minus-5.5) and run blocking (minus-5.0).

Brewer, who is now with the Jets, wasn’t even an afterthought during the free-agency period, as the Giants continued to weed out the disappointments of past drafts.

Most Frustrating Pick

Receiver Jerrel Jernigan briefly flashed at the end of the 2013 season when he filled in for Victor Cruz, so much so that team co-owner John Mara, at his 2013 year-end press conference with reporters, questioned why Jernigan hadn’t seen the field sooner.

It was a valid point at the time considering Jernigan’s performance in the final three games of the season that saw him catch 19 of 25 pass targets for 237 yards and two touchdowns in relief of Cruz.

This past summer, we found out why.

Not only did Jernigan again fail to secure a role on special teams while Trindon Holliday was nursing a balky hamstring, but Jernigan averaged just nine yards per reception in the preseason, per Pro Football Focus, and came up with no touchdowns.

A season-ending foot sprain in Week 2 last season marked the end of Jernigan’s four-year tenure with the team. He currently remains an unrestricted free agent in search of a new home.

The “We Hardly Knew Ya” Pick

The Giants' bad luck with trying to find a replacement for middle linebacker Antonio Pierce continued in 2011. That year, they chose Greg Jones out of Michigan State with one of their three sixth-round picks, but Jones, who had to step into the starting lineup on day one, just wasn’t impressive as the man in the middle.

Per Pro Football Focus, Jones finished with a minus-1.0 overall grade and a minus-1.6 grade in coverage. He did post a positive grade in run defense; however, he only managed 24 tackles in 123 run-defense snaps (19 percent), which wasn’t good enough for the Giants to give him a second season the following year.

Class Grade: D 

Class of 2012

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Player Grade
1	32	David Wilson	RB	Inc.
2	63	Rueben Randle	WR	C
3	94	Jayron Hosley	CB	D
4	127	Adrien Robinson	TE	C-
4	131	Brandon Mosley	G	D
6	201	Matt McCants	OT	F
7	239	Markus Kuhn	DT	C-

Best Pick

Receiver Rueben Randle has run hot and cold during his four seasons with the Giants, but he still might be the best pick of this class, as he is only 23 years old.

Hailed by Giants vice president of player evaluation Marc Ross as being “NFL-ready” before the second-round pick even set foot on the field for the Giants, Randle proved he was anything but NFL-ready.

Even last year, his first as a starter, Randle was still engaging in knucklehead-like behavior that had the team wondering what it was going to get from him each week.

Randle twice violated team rules, drawing a partial-game benching from head coach Tom Coughlin in both the Jacksonville and Washington games late in the season, the first benching for reportedly being late to a team meeting, according to Nick Powell of NJ Advance Media.

However, Randle, who in 2013 was the targeted receiver on eight of quarterback Eli Manning’s 27 interceptions, per Pro Football Focus, did try to redeem himself at the end of 2014.

He posted consecutive 100-yard receiving efforts, finally looking like the NFL-ready receiver the Giants hoped he’d be.

Moving forward, will the Giants get that version of Randle or the inconsistent version who tries to take shortcuts in his prep work? 

Worst Pick

When not spending time in the trainer’s room, cornerback Jayron Hosley has shown virtually nothing despite being touted as the next slot cornerback after he was drafted.

He didn’t help matters last season when he received a four-game suspension after having been found in violation of the league’s substance abuse policy.

Because of Hosley’s failed development, the team had to use Terrell Thomas, Walter Thurmond III and Trumaine McBride as its slot cornerback in each of the last three seasons.

The slot cornerback probably sees just as much playing time as the starters, so don’t be surprised if the Giants continue the search for a player who can take on that all-important role for more than one season.

Most Frustrating Pick

Tackle Matt McCants, chosen in the sixth round, didn’t work out with the Giants, landing on their practice squad as a rookie. He then failed to make the 53-man roster a second time, this time landing with the Oakland Raiders, where he turned out to be a decent right tackle.

Per Pro Football Focus, McCants played in 266 snaps in 2013, all at right tackle. He finished with a 6.4 overall grade, allowing just three quarterback pressures and zero sacks.

While things went south for McCants with the Raiders the following season, the fact that the Giants couldn’t get anything out of McCants when he was here makes this a bittersweet type of pick.

The “We Hardly Knew Ya” Pick

Fresh off a Super Bowl victory, the Giants picked up running back David Wilson at the bottom of the first round. However, Wilson struggled to make an impact as a rookie, mainly because of an inability to grasp the pass-blocking part of his job.

Although the Giants remained intrigued by Wilson’s scat-back qualities and threat as a receiver out of the backfield, his career was cut short due to a neck injury

Class Grade: D

Class of 2013

Mark Zaleski/Associated Press

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Grade
1	19	Justin Pugh	OT	B+
2	49	Johnathan Hankins	DT	A
3	81	Damontre Moore	DE	C
4	110	Ryan Nassib	QB	Inc.
5	152	Cooper Taylor	S	Inc.
7	225	Eric Herman	G	Inc.
7	253	Michael Cox	RB	D

Best Pick

The Giants came away with two starters out of this class, offensive lineman Justin Pugh (first round) and defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins (second round). Of the two, Hankins edges Pugh out by a hair as this class’ best pick.

Since moving into the starting lineup in 2014, Hankins has been the defense’s best player, and it’s not even close.

Per Pro Football Focus, Hankins finished with a 20.2 overall grade in 700 defensive snaps. Hankins was also the team’s best run-stopper on defense, finishing with a 12.1 grade, besting defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul’s 11.9 mark.  

The last time a Giants defender had that high of an overall grade from PFF was in 2012, when Pierre-Paul finished with a team-best 20.8 overall mark.

Not only was Hankins solid against the run, but he did his thing as a pass-rusher as well. Hankins finished with 7.0 sacks in his first full season as a starter. That number puts him roughly in the same neighborhood as big-money guys such as Gerald McCoy of Tampa and Miami’s Ndamukong Suh, both of whom had 1.5 sacks more than Hankins last season. 

Regarding Pugh, he did struggle through some injuries in his second season, specifically to his elbow earlier in the year and to his quad later in the season, so that obviously needs to factor into the equation.

Where Pugh loses points in the race for best pick of the 2013 class is that as a rookie, he struggled in pass protection, finishing with a minus-7.1 grade, yet he was solid in run blocking with a 5.9 mark.

Last year, the grades reversed. Despite his injuries, Pugh improved in the pass-blocking department (3.8 grade) but struggled as a run-blocker (minus-3.6). It will be interesting to see what Pugh does this year and if he remains at right tackle.

Worst Pick

Normally, when a team makes a trade up in the draft, even if it’s in the middle round, the presumption is that pick is going to get on the field at some point.

So when the Giants traded up in the fourth round to get quarterback Ryan Nassib, and then general manager Jerry Reese, after making the pick, goes on to say that he hopes Nassib never has to play for the Giants because that would mean starter Eli Manning would be unavailable, it’s a head-scratcher.

Granted, it’s rare that every draft pick ends up contributing to the roster, but what is the point of wasting an early-Day 3 draft pick that you traded up for on such a player?

Couldn’t the Giants have stuck with David Carr as their backup quarterback or gotten another veteran on the cheap and used that fourth-round pick on a player they might have been able to use by now?

We’ll never know.

Most Frustrating Pick

Defensive end Damontre Moore, nicknamed “Damonsta,” was supposed to be a third-round steal.

After two seasons, though, Moore has still not taken that leap forward to becoming an every-down defensive end.

Part of the reason why is that Moore, whom the Giants list at 250 pounds, has been unable to put on the necessary bulk to better hold up in the trenches against the run.

This makes him a bit of a one-trick pony, which wouldn’t be such a bad thing were it not for the fact that the Giants desperately need a complementary defensive end to play opposite of Jason Pierre-Paul this year.

The other thing worth noting about Moore is his decision to skip Phase 1, weight training and conditioning, of the voluntary offseason program to finish his degree, according to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post.

While it’s hard to be critical of a guy wanting to complete his degree, school will always be there, whereas an opportunity to do all the little things to be a success in the NFL will not.

With a new defensive coordinator and new teammates now on board, it will be interesting to see if Moore is able to keep up with everyone else who is attending the offseason program, both in terms of strength and conditioning followed by the actual classroom stuff that will begin in early May.

The “We Hardly Knew Ya” Pick

Running back Michael Cox was the Giants’ next attempt at finding the next Ahmad Bradshaw, a seventh-round steal in 2007.

Fifty-eight snaps later, Cox has carried the ball 26 times for 76 yards (2.92 average). His rehab from a severely broken leg suffered in November of last year might limit him this spring.

The emergence of Orleans Darkwa plus the signing of Shane Vereen in March could push Cox off the roster.

Class Grade: B- 

Class of 2014

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Player Grade
1	12	Odell Beckham Jr.	WR	A+
2	43	Weston Richburg	C	A
3	74	Jay Bromley	DT	C
4	113	Andre Williams	RB	B
5	152	Nat Berhe	S	C+
5	174	Devon Kennard	LB	A
6	187	Bennett Jackson	DB	Inc.

Best Pick

Odell Beckham Jr. Does this selection really need an explanation?

Kudos also need to go to linebacker Devon Kennard, who, despite being a fifth-round pick, looks to be the steal of the 2014 draft class. Kennard, who played in a 3-4 defense at USC, actually proved Jerry Reese’s belief that a player from a 3-4 can transition to a 4-3 defense.

All it takes is hard work, high football IQ and a solid pedigree, all of which Kennard brings to the table.

Lastly, Weston Richburg might have had his struggles as a rookie, but the fact that he was asked to play out of position yet mostly held his own speaks well about his football IQ and his willingness to be the best at his craft.

Worst Pick

Jay Bromley might very well develop into a solid defensive tackle; however, it’s still mystifying as to why the Giants felt the need to take him in the third round.

As a rookie, Bromley was extremely raw, so raw that when injuries hit Cullen Jenkins, the coaching staff went with veterans Mike Patterson and Markus Kuhn, both of whom were serviceable but ordinary, ahead of Bromley.

Most Frustrating Pick

There’s a good reason why head coach Tom Coughlin is typically squeamish about playing rookie running backs, and we saw part of that reason last year when Andre Williams had to step in and start for an injured Rashad Jennings. 

That’s because coming in, Williams looked to be strictly a one-trick pony—a guy who could run to daylight but couldn’t catch a ball out of the backfield and whose pass blocking was shaky.

Williams, like any other Giants running back, had the challenge of running behind an offensive line that Football Outsiders ranked 22nd in run blocking.

However, it was a slow go for Williams, who, in his first four games as a starter with Jennings on the shelf, never ran for more than 60 yards at first due to a lack of patience in letting holes develop.

Giants running backs coach Craig Johnson spoke to Nick Powell of NJ Advance Media about Williams last year:

"

I think for all young players, they have a tendency to really get in a hurry, but I think that he is getting more patient as he continues to go.

Sometimes with the young players because you'd rather have them be over-aggressive than not over-aggressive. Again, it's the rhythm and the flow every play. Every back that I know of wants to get with the rhythm and the timing of the linemen. There is a certain learning curve there and that's what he's experiencing.

"

To his credit, the hard-working Williams did improve as the year went on, despite the fact that Pro Football Focus had him finishing with negative overall grades in four out of the last five games of the season.

During that span, Williams twice rushed for at least 100 yards, while causing defenders to miss him 10 times (out of 27 for the season).  

Williams also came up with nine of his 18 receptions and 60 of his 130 receiving yards in that same time span.

Williams won’t be a frustrating player for much longer, but for a while there, he was, at times, painful to watch.

The “We Hardly Knew Ya” Pick

It wasn’t so much of a surprise that cornerback Bennett Jackson didn’t make the 53-man roster—the numbers were against him.

This year, he is going to have a better chance of making the final 53-man roster; however, if he does, it will be as a safety rather than as a cornerback, his original position.

Class Grade: A- 

Unless otherwise noted, advanced player statistics are from Pro Football Focus. 

Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.

Follow @Patricia_Traina