Creative Moves the New York Giants Can Pull on Draft Day
The pressure is on New York Giants general manager Jerry Reese to get this upcoming draft class right.
That means no gambles on picks, at least not at the top of the draft, no risky moves and no giving in to temptation to step outside of the value board that Vice President of Player Evaluation Marc Ross will be setting up in the coming week.
Still, making picks in the NFL draft is sometimes like going to the grocery store with the intention of picking up certain items only to end up being swayed by an unexpected sale on another item that turns out to be an even better value.
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Would Reese and Company consider jumping on any unexpected sales that come in the form of a trade offer from other NFL teams?
If so, what moves might make the most sense for the Giants to make?
Let’s look at three possibilities, using the draft-trade value chart found at WalterFootball.com to determine the necessary compensation where applicable.
Trade Down in the First Round with Miami (No. 14)
The last time the Giants traded down in the first round of the NFL draft was in 2006, when they swapped the 25th overall pick with the Pittsburgh, moving down to No. 32 overall and acquiring the Steelers’ third- and fourth-round picks in that draft.
By moving down, the Giants were able to grab defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka in the first round, a player who went on to have a long and overall productive career as a member of Big Blue.
The Giants might have received some offers since then to trade down, but as Jordan Raanan of NJ Advance Media pointed out, Reese, who has been the general manager since 2007, has not traded down in the first or second round of the draft.
There is a first time for everything, though, and this year more than ever, Reese definitely needs to keep his options open.
Sure, the Giants talk about drafting the "best available player." But this year more than ever before, best available player must also represent a need, or else the team risks having a lack of balance on the roster.
According to the mock drafts posted by the various analysts on NFL.com, all have receiver DeVante Parker on the board when the Giants' pick rolls around at No. 9.
Do the Giants take the playmaker ahead of an offensive lineman? ESPN’s Dan Graziano doesn’t believe that will be the case, explaining that using another top-15 resource on the same position from a year ago can create a potential imbalance of resources.
“When you commit too many of your high-end resources to one position, that's a recipe for roster imbalance,” Graziano wrote.
If the Giants don’t view Brandon Scherff as an offensive tackle, then it probably makes sense to trade down a few spots to get one of the other tackles projected to be mid-first-round picks, such as Andrus Peat (Stanford), La’el Collins (LSU) or Ereck Flowers (Miami).
A potential trade partner who would make sense in this instance is the Miami Dolphins, who hold the 14th overall pick and who have a need for a receiver.
If Parker, the 12th-best overall prospect, per NFL Draft Scout, is still on the board at No. 9, it might be worth it for Miami to swap first-round picks with the Giants, the latter of whom should be able to justify getting the Dolphins’ fourth-round pick as part of the deal.
The Giants can then use that 14th pick on Peat, Collins or Flowers, or, if they prefer a defensive player, defensive end Alvin Dupree (Kentucky) or cornerback Trae Waynes could very well be there waiting at No. 14.
Trade a Receiver and the No. 245th Overall Pick to Oakland
According to the Giants’ official website, New York currently has 11 receivers under contract.
Eight of the most recognizable names include Odell Beckham Jr., Victor Cruz, Rueben Randle, Dwayne Harris, Corey Washington, Preston Parker, Marcus Harris and Kevin Ogletree.
While Cruz is still a big question mark to be ready for the start of the season—it is wise to hope for the best but prepare for the worst—if he’s not, that would still leave the Giants with seven receivers at minimum, one receiver too many.
Although the receiver class is deep this year, might a potential trading partner be tempted to tap into the Giants’ stockpile for a receiver who knows the ropes and can contribute right away?
It’s possible, and more importantly, it could be a receiver who might not have a lot of pro experience as far as game snaps are concerned but who is brimming with potential.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s happened to the Giants once before. Just before the start of the 2007 season, New York shipped undrafted free-agent running back Ryan Grant, who hadn’t played a regular-season game for it, to the Packers in exchange for Green Bay’s sixth-round pick in the 2008 draft.
That acquisition gave the Giants two sixth-round picks who turned out to be QB Andre Woodson from Kentucky (No, 198 overall) and DE Robert Henderson of Southern Mississippi (No. 199 overall), neither of whom went on to make an impact.
The Giants may have another opportunity to move a player at a position where they currently have an excess of talent. That position is receiver, and a potential candidate who could be on the bubble is Washington, the promising receiver who was tied with the Oakland Raiders' Brice Butler for the league lead in preseason touchdown receptions (four) last year.
The Giants kept Washington on their 53-man roster, presumably to keep another team from snapping him up off waivers. However, head coach Tom Coughlin rarely played the rookie last year; per Pro Football Focus, Washington took just 57 snaps on offense, where he caught five of seven pass targets.
A frustrated Washington vented to Tom Rock of Newsday in December about his lack of opportunities as a rookie.
While that was several months ago and possibly a byproduct of the Giants’ disappointing 6-10 2014 season, if the Giants have their eye on another receiver with the size (6'4", 214 lbs) and potential that Washington showed, perhaps they’ll try to move Washington and one of their extra seventh-round picks to Oakland.
The Raiders have the third slot in the fourth round, and they are in need of some big receiving targets for quarterback Derek Carr.
Why the fourth round? Remember, the Giants need to come away with at least four players who can be instant contributors in this draft.
Ideally those players will come from Rounds 1 through 4, which means that once they get to Rounds 5 through 7, in most cases—last year was an exception thanks to LB Devon Kennard, a fifth-round pick—the Giants would be looking at developmental prospects.
The Giants are slotted to pick ninth to start Day 3, which, while not a horrible spot, still means they have to hold their breath as far as getting the player they probably will identify before they close up shop for the night on Day 2.
The fourth round represents the final round in which they can come away with a player who, while not likely to be a starter, should offer some solid depth.
Trade QB Ryan Nassib to Cleveland for the Third-Round Pick and a Conditional 2016 Pick
The final creative move—and the least likely to happen—would be to designate backup quarterback Ryan Nassib, whom the Giants originally traded up to get in the fourth round of the 2013 draft, as trade bait.
It’s no great secret that this year’s crop of quarterbacks is thin. Top prospects Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota are projected as the top two picks on NFL Draft Scout’s prospect board.
Both are also projected to go in the first round of the draft, Winston to Tampa Bay at No. 1, according to the NFL Draft Scout analysts, and Mariota to the New York Jets at No. 6.
If that scenario plays out, the only logical team left that appears to be in need of a quarterback is the Cleveland Browns, whose quarterback situation remains a mess, even with Johnny Manziel having completed his stint at a treatment facility.
Manziel might still turn out to be a serviceable NFL quarterback, but he has a long way to go in terms of proving himself on the field and regaining his coaches’ and teammates’ trust.
That brings us to Nassib, who has been the anti-Manziel prior to treatment. Head coach Tom Coughlin spoke glowingly about Nassib, telling reporters at the combine that the third-year player has improved.
"If you studied our preseason, there was no doubt that he improved. He is a guy that works very hard below the surface and behind the scenes. He is in the weight room right now, all the time, pretty much four or five days a week. He studies on his own. He is very, very serious about being an outstanding football player and he is willing to pay the price to do it.
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Reese also praised Nassib during the combine, telling Matthew Fairburn of Syracuse.com that he was confident in Nassib’s abilities to step in for starter Eli Manning if Manning couldn’t play.
Manning, by the way, is about to enter the final year of his contract. While team co-owner John Mara has publicly expressed a desire to see Manning retire as a Giant, the team has not made any noteworthy progress on making sure that happens.
To be fair, that lack of a contract extension could be related to the team’s view of the 2015 free-agency crop, which Mara described to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post as being “mediocre.”
If the Giants were to trade Nassib, they would have to start from scratch with a new backup, which is why this move is probably not going to happen no matter how tempting it might be.
Reese has mentioned to reporters in the past that Manning isn’t getting any younger, and while the two-time Super Bowl MVP has been an iron man, going without a quality backup quarterback would be tempting fate.
What, If Anything, Will the Giants Do?
Mara made it clear at the end of last season that this team needs to get back to the playoffs—anything short of that might very well result in a massive housecleaning of the football operations department, from the roster to the coaches to the personnel department.
While the draft in general is a risky proposition considering there are no guarantees, Reese has reduced the number of gambles he has historically taken during the draft after seeing several of them blow up in his face.
In the last two drafts, the Giants have made just one trade during the actual draft, that in 2013 when they traded up in the fourth round to get Nassib. (They also traded their 2014 seventh-round pick to the Carolina Panthers for LB Jon Beason, but they made that trade in October 2013.)
Given that the window is fast closing on head coach Tom Coughlin and his staff and possibly even Reese, now is probably not the time to start wheeling and dealing.
The Giants are still several players away from fixing the mess of the last three seasons. If they are patient and continue on the path they’ve taken in their last two classes, they should be able to finish erasing the mistakes of past drafts that put them in the hole that was the 2012-2014 seasons to begin with.
Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and other information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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