In my post Why the Giants Should Select Rashod Bateman In Round One of The Draft I refer to an article on the seven cornerstone positions that a team should get one blue-chip player to be a playoff caliber team. The Giants I evaluated were good at five of the positions with only wide receiver and edge rusher lacking. Today I revisit that evaluation with a slightly different view.
The following file shows the 2020 Giants seven cornerstone positions and their top player there with the PFF grade on each. Following that is the same for the two Super Bowl Teams for the 2020 and 2019 seasons.
While the Giants don’t have an elite player at any of the cornerstone position, they do have above average players at five of the seven cornerstone. The wide receiver position with Sterling Shepard compared higher than two of the Super Bowl contending teams. The Giants were average at left tackle and edge rusher. Considering this plus the fact that PFF ranked the Giants 2020 offensive line as 31st in the league, I had another take on the draft priorities. As stated in the previous post even though the Giants lacked a blue-chip player at edge rusher, they did relatively well pressuring opposing quarterbacks in 2020.
The new take is that the biggest need is still the offensive line and particularly the left tackle cornerstone position. Our right tackle position with Cameron Fleming had only a 58.4 grade. That is below average.In 2020 Daniel Jones had the fourth highest pressure percentage and the fourth most sacks. This is not the environment you want to be evaluating your third year quarterback.
So a tackle could be a potential left tackle upgrade over Thomas or fill in a need at Right tackle. With that in mind the alternate view is to go tackle in the draft first round followed by an edge rusher in round two, Then a wide receiver in round three. Here is a mock draft I did with that philosophy. I was able to trade down in round one and got an extra round two pick.
Over the last 18 drafts two teams have selected a first round tackle in consecutive drafts. The Packers in 2010/2011 and the Seahawks the same two years. Both tackles selected first played well. In fact the Packer’s 2010 tackle made the All-Rookie team. Both teams had succeeding years of playoff appearances.
Over the past decade there have been 68 wide receivers chosen in the first round and five have made All-Pro for 7.3%. In contrast there have been 67 Tackles chosen with nine making All-Pro for 13.4%.
I still like the idea of a round one receiver and think Rashod Bateman is that quality. However I would also be happy with this draft going OT in round 1.
