Okay, the first day of the NFL Draft is in the books.   The Jets had one pick, the Giants had three.

Gang Green took Quinnen Williams, the monster Alabama defensive tackle, with the third pick overall.  Lots of analysts had ranked him as the best player in the entire draft, so he seems a good get.   Still… if it had been me, I would have taken Josh Allen, the edge rusher.   The Jets have not had an edge rusher worth his salt since… could the last one have been Mark Gastineau?  Surely not.  Maybe John Abraham.   The thing is, they need sacks and QB pressures.   And they already had a monster defensive tackle named Williams (Leonard).   Now they have two.   I hope it works out.   The main thing is to give Tom Brady nightmares, though, and I am not sure Quinnen will do that.   Time will tell.   Overall, though, a very solid pick.

The Giants, on the other hand…

Daniel Jones from Duke at number six?   Yes, they need a young quarterback to groom as Eli’s successor.   But Dwayne Haskins was right there.   Why not him?  I don’t follow college ball, but by every measurable Haskins is way better than Jones.   Jones threw 52 TDs in three years at Duke, Haskins threw 50 in one year at Ohio State.  Within fewer interceptions.   Against much tougher opposition.   Dave Gettleman must have seen something in Jones that no one else could see.   But even if you accept that, taking him at six seems insane.   He would have been there at 17.   Why not take Josh Allen or one of the other defensive studs at 6, and Jones at 17?   Makes much more sense.   Who else was going to nab him?  The Skins?   The Skins preferred Haskins, that was common knowledge.   Everyone in the world except the G-Men preferred Haskins, so far as I can see.

And then we got to number 17, the pick the Giants got for Odell.   What did they pick there?  A huge 342 pound defensive tackle out of Clemson.  Very very strong, they say.   Not going to get a lot of sacks, but terrific against the run.   Who does that sound like?   It sounds like Snacks Harrison to me.  Who the Giants cut in mid-season because… ahem… “all he did” was stop the run, he didn’t get sacks.   After his release, Big Blue spent the rest of the season getting gashed by runs right up the gut.   Had to fix that.   So to fill the Snacks hole, we draft Young Snacks.   All it cost us was a Hall of Fame receiver.

The Giants did trade up late in the round to get a third pick, which we used on a cornerback.   Supposedly the best CB prospect in the draft.   That was good.  They need good cornerbacks in the worst way.   Maybe this kid will help.

Neither the Giants nor  the Jets have a second round pick today.

Big Blue has a couple in the third round, and more later in the draft.   I hope Gettleman can find some gems.   Because right now, the team looks a lot weaker than the one that entered the 2018 season, and that squad finished 5-11.

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Current Mood: depressed

Last year’s regular season was a nightmare for both the Giants and Jets, and thus a double nightmare for yours truly, who suffered through twice as many defeats every Sunday.   But November’s woes are April’s thrills, since that means both New York teams are picking high in this year’s NFL draft.  Gang Green has the third overall pick, behind the Cardinals and the Niners.   Big Blue picks sixth… and also 17th, thanks to trading away Odell Beckham Junior.  That was still a terrible trade imo, the Giants did not get nearly enough for a player of Odell’s calibre… but at least they got something, and now at least we get to find out what.

First round is Thursday night, and I’ll be watching, as I always do.   I’ll be watching the whole thing, actually, but by the time we get down to the fifth and sixth and seventh rounds it is just a bunch of names I have never heard of flashing by, so it’s round one where all the excitement is.

The Jets got their quarterback of the future last year in Sam Darnold so the thought is that they go defense this year.   The key to that is the Arizona Cardinals, picking first.   Almost all the mocks have them taking quarterback Kyler Murray, a small, swift, scrambling signal caller who has been compared to Michael Vick and Baker Mayfield.   Mel Kiper says it is 99.99% certain the Cards take Murray, even though they still have Josh Rosen, the qb they traded up for in the first round last year.   If he’s right, that means the Jets at three will have their pick of the top-rated defensive talents. Nick Bosa, Josh Allen, Quinnen Williams are the names you hear most often.  If the Cards take Murray and the Niners take one of those three, the Jets will have their choice between the other two.   I just hope, if it comes to that, that they pick the right one.   We need the next Lawrence Taylor or the next Reggie White.  The danger is that instead you find yourself with the next Vernon Gholston.

The Jets could also trade down with some qb-hungry team, and regain some of the picks they had to give up last year to snag Darnold.   I wouldn’t mind that… so long as they don’t go TOO far down, and get a good package of picks for moving, not just something lame like a fifth rounder.   But all in all, I think I’d prefer that they stay at #3 and take Josh Allen.   If for no other reason than they are in the same division as the Buffalo Bills, who drafted a quarterback named Josh Allen last year.   We could have years of Josh Allen sacking Josh Allen to look forward to.

There’s even more suspense swirling around the New York Giants with their two first-round picks (and a high second, never forget).   The vast majority of talking heads out there have seemingly given up on Eli Manning (though the Giants themselves clearly haven’t), and are insisting that the G-Men draft a young quarterback as his successor.   The most likely choice is Dwayne Haskins out of Ohio State, who grew up a Giants fan.   I will freely admit I do not follow college ball as I do the NFL. so I can’t claim any expertise… but Haskins does look mighty impressive from what I’ve seen of him leading up to the draft.   He is likely to be there at #6 — unless the Raiders, who are lurking in the weeds at #4, surprise everyone and grab him — but everything we are hearing out of Jersey suggests the Giants are going to go defense with that pick.   Haskins is not likely to last until #17, not with so many other quarterback hungry teams in between (the Dolphins, the Redskins, the Bengals)… but it could be that Dave Gettleman the Giants GM prefers one of the other quarterback prospects, and it is possible that either Drew Locke or Daniel Jones or both will still be there, and Gettleman could snag one of them.   Hell, it could even be that one of them will still be there at the top of round two, for the Giants to draft then.

If Big Blue does not take a quarterback at #6 OR #17, though, prepare for a bloodbath.

Only time will tell who is right.   The thing about the draft is, you never know.   The legendary 1983 draft, when six QBs were taken in round one, is proof of that.   Three of those players turned out to be Hall of Famers.   A couple were solid NFL starters with long careers, though they always labored in the shadow of the three guys who were better.   One was an out-and-out bust.   And then there was the year that Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf went one-two.  Some people insisted that Leaf was better.   Boy, were they wrong.

But that’s the fun of it.   You never know.

Myself, I am hoping that whoever the Giants draft, he spends the year on the bench.  Eli Manning is a class guy, and I’d love nothing better than for him to have a great season and lead the Giants to another SuperBowl, making all his detractors eat a big crow pie along the way.

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Current Mood: hopeful