Giants mock draft tracker, 7.0: What about a tight end at No. 25?

As usual, wide receiver is the focus in version 7.0 of our weekly New York Giants mock draft tracker. Twenty-seven of 56 mock drafts used this week (48.2 percent) have the Giants selecting a wide receiver with pick No. 25 in Round 1 of the 2023 NFL Draft.

Honestly, though, it gets boring week after week to simply discuss wide receivers. So, let’s talk about something a little different.

What if the Giants want to get receiving help for their offense, but want to do it a different way? What if they decide their is a tight end on their draft board they like more than any of the available wide receivers?

Would that really be outside the box thinking? Maybe not.

After all, there is more than one way to build an offense. A passing attack does not have to be almost exclusively reliant on ‘11’ personnel, as the Giants were down the stretch of the 2022 season. We have seen teams build effective passing attacks around two-tight end offenses before.

Doing that would require some changes for the Giants. Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka are, though, nothing if not creative.

There are three top-tier tight ends — Michael Mayer of Notre Dame, Darnell Washington of Georgia and Dalton Kincaid of Utah — in what is billed as a deep, talented tight end class. In this week’s tracker, each of those three players is chosen one time for the Giants.

Mayer is considered the most complete of the tight ends. 33rd Team says:

Michael Mayer is a top-level tight end who will give you production in the passing game and can hold his own in the run game. He is a well-rounded overall player who does everything well.

To me, I don’t necessarily see Mayer as a complementary player to 2022 fourth-round pick Daniel Bellinger. I see him as a similarly-skilled player with a higher upside.

Kincaid is the pure pass-catcher of the group. 33rd Team says:

Dalton Kincaid is a first-round caliber tight end who will be very productive in the passing game at the next level. He will need a complementary player alongside him in the run game.

Kincaid is the player I see as the perfect complement to Bellinger. He is not an in-line player. He is better detached, placed in the slot, played out wide, even put on the move. Bellinger can handle in-line duties. I would have no issue with seeing the Giants pair these two.

Washington is the wild-card. He is a 6-foot-6½, 264-pound monster who can be a dominant blocker, some even consider him an extra offensive lineman, and a developing, potentially devastating weapon as a receiver.

33rd Team says:

Darnell Washington is a massive-bodied tight end who has good athletic ability for a guy his size. He is primarily a blocking tight end with ability to be used in the passing game in the red zone.

For me, Washington is the biggest gamble and a player I would probably be uncomfortable selecting at No. 25. Some want to compare him to Rob Gronkowski. I see the better comparison as the 6-6, 275-pound Martellus Bennett, who caught 433 passes during an 11-year career. Bennett was a second-round pick by the Dallas Cowboys in 2008.

As for the wide receivers selected in this week’s tracker, there was an interesting split. Jalin Hyatt and Jaxon Smith-Njigba were each chosen seven times, Zay Flowers and Jordan Addison were selected five times and Quentin Johnston was the choice in three mock drafts.

Previous trackers

Version 6.0
Version 5.0
Version 4.0
Version 3.0
Version 2.0
Version 1.0