If the New York Giants decide to spend the fourth overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft on a tackle, they have no shortage of options. In fact, one could argue that they have too many options, and that there’s no clear player to take at this spot. There’s multiple tackles who are highly rated by analysts and the press, and it looks like this draft presents a large danger of taking the wrong player while another player at the position has a more successful career with another team.
As we come closer to the scheduled draft, however, the narrative is shaping up and its becoming clearer which players experts prefer and which ones they think will fall in the draft. Right now, it looks like Mekhi Becton is holding onto his earlier momentum, and Becton was recently rated the best tackle by a panel of 11 evaluators spoken to by ESPN. This panel includes scouts, executives, coaches, and analysts.
As the chart shows, Becton was our top-ranked tackle, edging Wills for first in total points with 32 and in first-place votes (5-4). The voting highlights how widely opinions vary when assessing the tackles at the top of this draft class.
Becton beat out Alabama’s Jedrick Wills for the top spot with 32 points compared to 31 – but had a large advantage to Tristan Wirfs and Andrew Thomas, who received 23 and 22 votes respectively and were some distance behind the top two.
Despite that fact, it’s Wills that Jordan Raanan links to the Giants rather than Becton, partly because Wills is a player that the Giants staff has more experience with due to Alabama connections.
The Giants already have former Alabama running backs coach Burton Burns on staff. He has seen what Wills can do and would likely provide another stamp of approval. Wills would be an ideal fit in an offense expected to be more run-heavy than most. No wonder the buzz on Wills to the Giants has been building in league circles. He would start on the right side and, depending on how things shake out over the next few seasons, potentially move to the left.
It’s also worth noting that Wills might come at a lower cost in draft position than Becton – and with multiple teams sitting below the Giants and looking to take a quarterback, there may be a chance to trade down a few spots and take Wills while Becton on the other hand would require keeping the fourth overall pick. At least, that’s the case if other teams value Becton as much as pre-draft analysis predicts – something that’s never a given in the chaotic NFL Draft.