Pro Football Focus Mock Draft: Jerry Jeudy to the Giants?

Drafting early and with pressing needs at cornerstone positions, mock drafts for the New York Giants have quickly become boring to read (and report on) over the last few years.

But every so often an outlet throws a curveball.

Pro Football Focus released a mock draft before 2020 NFL Scouting Combine, the highlight of which was a defiance of current mock drafting convention and not giving the Giants an offensive tackle. Instead, the nerds at PFF decided to get the Giants a playmaker on offense to make life easier for Saquon Barkley and Daniel Jones.

4. NEW YORK GIANTS – WR JERRY JEUDY, ALABAMA

Giants’ faithful is begging for the team to address the pressing need at offensive tackle at No. 4 overall in the 2020 NFL Draft, but Jeudy is a better prospect than every offensive tackle in this class. Rookies, especially rookie offensive linemen, don’t fill pressing needs. Over the past five NFL seasons, only nine rookie offensive tackles have played 400-plus snaps and earned overall grades above 70.0. None have earned an overall grade above 82.0. Don’t address pressing needs in the draft; just draft the best players available.

Raptor’s Thoughts:
And you guys killed me for Derrick Brown ... There would actually be a lot to unpack with this pick. I’m not going to get too into the weeds here, mostly because it would be stepping on the toes of something I have planned for a bit later in the week.

But that being said, a true number one wide receiver does fill a pressing need for the Giants. It also fits with Dave Gettleman’s history as a GM, as he has drafted five skill position players in the first or second round of his seven drafts. I’m not going to get into PFF’s grading system either, but they are right in that the draft is a poor place to find immediate help on the offensive line, particularly at the tackle positions as they face a very sharp learning curve.

We should probably expect the Giants to try to address the right tackle and EDGE positions in free agency so they can enter the draft without those pressing needs. That would free them up to draft the best player on the board at fourth overall (or perhaps engineer a trade down) then find developmental players a bit later in the draft.

The other question to ask is whether or not Jeudy is the right player for the Giants at fourth overall. He has been considered one of the five best players in the draft going back to September. He is an uncommonly good route runner for a college player and has the athletic traits to be a home-run threat just about any time he touches the ball. For the Giants, I think I would expect Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb to be higher on the board, simply because he is a bit bigger than Jeudy and Dave Gettleman likes big players.