New York Giants News

Giants news, 4/3: Brian Daboll, draft scenarios, more

New York Giants headlines for Monday

By Ed Valentine@Valentine_Ed Apr 3, 2023, 7:11am EDT

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Good morning, New York Giants fans!

From Big Blue View

Other Giant observations

Brian Daboll and staff are clicking in second Giants season

“This year, it’s a little bit different,’’ Daboll said. “I’d say that the coaches are out a little bit more — Pro Days. The evaluation process of your team, which is most important, we did that right away and talked about things that we needed to improve on. Now, whether it’s free agents, on the road, then we do staff development, system development. But there’s a lot of guys that have been out on the road looking at college players right now during the free agency period.’’

How Giants could handle possible worst-case NFL Draft scenario

If the unknown Giants’ draft board matches the growing scouting consensus, then the top four cornerbacks (in some order) are Illinois’ Devon Witherspoon, Oregon’s Christian Gonzalez, Penn State’s Joey Porter Jr. and Maryland’s Deonte Banks, and the top four receivers (in some order) are Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba, USC’s Jordan Addison, TCU’s Quentin Johnston and Boston College’s Zay Flowers.

But what if none of those eight playmakers are available at No. 25? Flowers was the only one available (and taken by the Giants) in ESPN analyst Jordan Reid’s latest mock draft.

“They could wait until the second round or even later, especially with it being a deep receiver and cornerback class,” Reid said when posed that question by The Post. “If that’s worst-case scenario for them, I could see a center — but maybe not so at No. 25.”

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Favorite, least favorite free agency moves for all 32 NFL teams | NFL News, Rankings and Statistics | PFF

NEW YORK GIANTS

Favorite: Upgrading at linebacker with Bobby Okereke

Okereke burst onto the scene with an impressive rookie season that saw him stand out in coverage, allowing just 28 receptions from 34 targets on 219 snaps in coverage. However, 2020 and 2021 saw him struggle somewhat, with sub-60.0 PFF grades in both seasons, before a bounce-back year in 2022. This past season, his 53 defensive stops were tied for 12th amongst all players at the position.

Least favorite: No outside wide receiver additions, continue to overload slot options

For whatever reason, now spanning multiple regimes, the Giants continue to pour resources into wide receivers that belong predominantly in the slot. They made a huge expenditure on X-receiver Kenny Golladay a few offseasons ago, which backfired immediately, but they need size on the outside. Perhaps newly-acquired tight end Darren Waller will line up out wide a good amount going forward.