Peter King Mock Draft: OLB/DE Vic Beasley Is Selection For Giants

This morning's four-round mock draft from 'Invictus' not enough for you? Well, Peter King of 'Monday Morning Quarterback' has weighed in with his first pseudo-mock draft of 2015 (he only made 15 picks). His choice for your New York Giants? Vic Beasley, the Clemson DE/OLB who was among the most impressive players at the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine.

King wrote:

With the Giants having divested themselves of so much pass-rush skill in the recent past, I think they draft into the teeth of a strong group of rushers. Maybe Shane Ray, maybe Beasley. But new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo will find the cupboard fairly bare in the pass-rush area when he does a thorough roster review, and he'll need reinforcements. The all-time sack leader at Clemson is a start.

Valentine's View

I agree with King that the Giants could be looking for pass rushers. Head coach Tom Coughlin admitted during the Combine that a pass rusher would be a "great addition" to the team's defense.

I also understand the love for Beasley, a guy considered a probable top 20 pick before the Combine who could now be selected earlier than that.

What I don't get right now is analysts continually connecting these smallish edge rushers to the Giants. They have been a traditional 4-3 team, not a 3-4 team and not a team heavily reliant on 'multiple' fronts. The sub-250 pound guys like Beasley, Shane Ray of Missouri and Randy Gregory of Nebraska might be talents worthy of being selected ninth overall -- or earlier -- but they don't seem like players who schematically fit what the Giants do.

While I believe Steve Spagnuolo will bring more creativity to the front seven than we have seen from the Giants in recent years, there is no indication the Giants are moving away from their core belief in using four hand-in-the-dirt defensive linemen nearly all of the time.

With that in mind, I find it hard to believe that Spagnuolo and Tom Coughlin would sign off on an under-sized defensive end who would struggle to hold up against the run -- an area the Giants struggled in last season and Coughlin has emphasized as a 2015 priority.

In my view, if an when the Giants select a defensive end in the upcoming draft it seems far more likely to be a player who fits the traditional physical mold of what they have always looked for. Players like Bud Dupree of Kentucky (6-foot-4, 269 pounds), Owamagbe Odighizuwa of UCLA (6-3, 267), Preston Smith of Mississippi State (6-4, 271), Danielle Hunter of LSU (6-5, 252 ... who also might be a little lighter than the Giants like) and Lynden Trail of Norfolk State (6-7, 269). A couple of those guys, particularly Dupree and Trail, have experience dropping into coverage and would offer some scheme flexibility.

I could be wrong here. Especially if they Giants believe Beasley can play the WILL in a 4-3 alignment. As talented as they may be, however, I just don't see Beasley and these other under-sized players as fits for the way the Giants have played defense during the Coughlin era.