Prince Amukamara never expected to become a member of the New York Giants Thursday night during the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft,
"I actually never talked to the Giants. I didn't visit there and they didn't work me out," Amukamara said after hearing his name called.
Well, that would be because the Giants never thought Amukamara -- ranked in the top 10 on the draft boards of many top analysts -- would be available to them.
Sport Science: Prince Amukamara (via ESPN)
Here is Giants' Director of Scouting Marc Ross on the pick:
"It was a shock. It was a shock. It was a shock. I know we come in and say, "We picked the best player, and we were surprised." This one truly was a shock. Because you go through scenarios leading up to the draft where you kind of have realistic scenarios, somewhat unrealistic scenarios, of what could happen. And this one was just completely out of left field. We never thought this kid would have been still on the board at 19."
Here is the reaction of General Manager Jerry Reese:
"We were really surprised that he was there when we picked. We thought he would get picked a lot higher than that. But it happens like that sometimes in the draft. Guys can fall right in your lap. We think that is what happened. Everybody is excited up there. Our defensive staff is really excited up there. Our entire room is excited about it. His height, weight, speed - this guy is big and he is fast. There was some concern about his production on the ball this past season because he had more production on the ball the year before. But we think he can still play the ball really well. He is a good tackler; physical player. So there are a lot of things we like about Prince."
Finally, here is coach Tom Coughlin discussing the pick:
"The value of this pick, where he was ranked, there wasn't any question about the fact that this player should be on the New York Giants. At one point there were probably four or five players in position there, where we felt real good about it. Then, as we got close and our pick matured, there was Prince and he was clearly the highest rated player that we could take on the board. ... You can never have enough cover guys because if you watch the way people play today with the addition of the receivers, they go one, two, three, four, until they figure out what you're going to cover some of these third, fourth receivers with. The more cover people you have, the better off you're going to be."