Jerry Reese has gotten lots of credit for the 2007 draft, in which every draft choice made the team and several played significant roles for the Superbowl win. This credit is well deserved and the players he picked up continue to play well this year and form an important part of the team. To refresh your memory, the draft choices in 2007 were: Aaron Ross (1), Steve Smith (2), Jay Alford (3), Zak DeOssie (4), Kevin Boss (5), Adam Koets (6), Michael Johnson (7A), Ahmad Bradshaw (7B). That was a very good draft class.
I maintain, however, that the best draft anyone ever had was the Giants 2005 draft. Before we analyze it, let's get the setting straight. In 2004, Giants drafted Phillip Rivers and traded him for Eli Manning, giving the Chargers a boat load of draft picks along with Rivers. Giants gave up a 3rd rounder in the 2004 draft and in the 2005 draft, also gave up a 1st and 5th rounder. Since they had already traded their 7th round pick in another deal, the Giants had only four picks in that 2005 draft, in rounds 2,3,4 and 6. Before we jump to that 2005 draft, you could argue that the 2004 draft was pretty good also, since we got Manning, Snee and two other productive players that are no longer on the team: Gibril Wilson and Reggie Torbor. A budding star in Snee and the Superbowl MVP might be considered a pretty good draft by most standards, but I'm trumpeting that 2005 draft as the best ever. With those 4 picks in 2005, Giants drafted one DE, Eric Moore in the 6th round who got injured, never made the team and did not get picked up by any other NFL team. That was their one miss. With picks 2-3-4, Giants drafted Corey Webster, Justin Tuck and Brandon Jacobs. Giants already locked up Tuck to a long term contract- rightfully so, because he is one of the top 2 or 3 DL-men in football. Webster is an absolute star at CB. Giants would not have come close to winning the SB last year without him. He neutralized TO in the Cowboys game, made the big INT to win the Packers game, and held Randy Moss in check in the SB, mostly in single coverage. He opened up the field for Spagnuolo to give help elsewhere in the secondary where needed and give the opening to blitz more aggressively if that was the right call to make. My friend Ray pointed out that the biggest proof that a CB is feared is when the opposing team doesn't throw at him. A recent example: against the Cardinals a few weeks ago, Warner threw 52 passes and only 5 tested Webster.
I don't need to tell you about Jacobs. He is a stud and in a league where RBs are practically commodities, Jacobs is a one-of-a-kind RB who forces opposing defenses to game plan for him and opens up the possibilities for the rest of the offense.
The priority for re-signing Giants own FA's is clearly Webster, because great CB's transform a defense and besides qb and perhaps OT, might be the most important position on the team. I'd like to sign Jacobs also, but Ward and Bradshaw form an effective running combination also and his re-signing is a lesser priority in my opinion. Ward is also a FA as is Amani Toomer. Now that Plax is gone, Toomer has a better chance of coming back next year. Oh - it might be a good idea to re-sign Eli also, even though he is locked up for a few more years.
Back to that 2005 draft..... Giants had four picks and found three stars that form the foundation of the championship team. I rest my case.
BTW - Reese looks like he's doing pretty well with the 2008 draft class too: Phillips at S is already a stud and Terrell Thomas at CB looks like a very good player also.
6 comments:
Comment to my own post:
This post was written a few weeks ago and was saved on my disk waiting to post it at the appropriate moment.
In this post, I said that the Giants should make signing Corey Webster as their top FA priority. Looks like that happened: Giants signed Corey Webster before the Cowboy's game through the 2013 season.
The next priority should be Eli.
wm
What about Jarrod Bunch?
Jarrod Bunch was before Jerry reese's era.... and he was a good player. Injuries did him in.
If you want to go back to rotten draft picks - Rocky Thompson, Butch Wollfolk.
and of more recent vintage: William Joseph, Ron Dayne. Even Ike Hilliard - he was decent player, but he was a high 1st rounder and should have done better.
Come on--Bunch was a horror!
Stephen Baker the Touchdown Maker was my man though...
Hi Wolfman,
I have to disagree in terms of signing BJ. I think our running game is exposed if we do not sign him. He is a power back, and he brings another element to running game.
We can much more afford to lose ward (who I think is also a FA this year) than Jacobs. A combo of BJ-AB is almost if not just as good as BJ-DW. But DW-AB is not as effective as either one of those.
Coach,
I guess it's hard to argue with you about Jacobs, especially as lame as our ground game has looked without him against the Cowboys and in 2nd half of Eagles game.
Big picture, the league has become a passing league and RB's are less important than the components of the offense that contribute to the passing game.
Having said that - look at the success Giants and Panthers have had on the strength of the running game and it's hard to argue with old-school-running and general balance in the offense. Based on that, Jacobs made himself a lot of money sitting on the bench against the Cowboys and watching the offense struggle.
One more comment - as good as our OL has been this year, I think it would be upgraded tremendously if we could get a stud at LT and slide Diehl over to the RT or back inside.
It is obvious that we have to make a big push to get a big time WR to replace Burress next year.
-wm
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