ESPN's Matt Mosley has a tremendous piece on New York Giants' No. 1 pick Hakeem Nicks over on his NFC East Blog.
Here are a couple of snippets.
No matter how much you hear from the Giants about their talented -- if not raw -- group of receivers, Nicks is supposed to eventually replace Burress as the team's big-play receiver. Don't get distracted by all those Ramses Barden features you're reading. He may be built more like Burress, but it's not fair to mention them in the same sentence.
Nicks, though, drew comparisons to Cowboys Hall of Famer Michael Irvin while playing for one of Irvin's old coaches at North Carolina. Butch Davis was on Jimmy Johnson's University of Miami staff in the late '80s and then followed him to the Cowboys, where Irvin was waiting. Davis told Nicks that his fearless style reminded him of Irvin.
Several scouts have told me, though, that Nicks reminds them most of Boldin, a player the Giants have coveted for years. You would think all the expectations might wear on Nicks, but he doesn't seem fazed.
"I really don't feel any pressure," Nicks told me via phone Tuesday. "I just have to keep doing what I did all through college. Actually, it's a lot of the same stuff. We had the same style of offense at North Carolina, so it doesn't feel like a big leap."
Following is a paragraph where I think Mosley is absolutely 100 percent dead-on in his assessment.
Publicly, the Giants will talk about how Domenik Hixon and Steve Smith are projected to start in '09. But in reality, they're hoping Nicks forces his way into the starting lineup during training camp. Everyone always talks about how it takes awhile for receivers to make an impact in this league. Well, the Giants watched Eagles rookie DeSean Jackson make a large impact in '08 and they remember what Boldin did his first couple of seasons with the Cardinals. At some positions, the Giants can afford to have three-year plans. Receiver is not one of those.
Your thoughts?