It’s that time of year again. The one before the NFL Draft when there’s a number of workouts and chances to evaluate players. The NFL Combine has passed, but teams are still meeting with players at this point and the New York Giants are no exception to that, holding their local Pro Day on Friday and evaluating players from around the northeast.
How many of those players will draw interest from the team after working out there? According to head coach Pat Shurmur, the number is a handful.
“We had a lot of good players come in and compete. At the local Pro Days we can find players that are going to help us. I don’t think today was any different. There were a handful of guys who might get an opportunity,” Shurmur said to NJ Advance Media.
Some of the players to attend the event were more notable than others. Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley, who is also a former teammate of Saquon Barkley, was one of the quarterbacks to work out for the Giants. While McSorley is an outsider in terms of NFL prospects, many have chosen to not write him off completely following the end to a great college career.
Other players aren’t immediately recognizable. The Giants worked out a number of players from Wagner, Stony Brook, and Albany, which aren’t exactly blue bloods in the world of college football. Or even FBS programs.
There’s also some players who aren’t completely obscure but aren’t from powerhouse schools, either. Potential sleepers, such as Temple’s defensive tackle Michael Dogbe, who attended the local Pro Day after registering 7 sacks and 12.5 tackles for a loss last season.
The most important thing here is that the Giants are evaluating talent from both the known and the unknown sources, reducing their chances of missing out on a potential under-the-radar but productive player.
“Last year we had Rob Martin, Sean Chandler and Grant Haley. Two famous ones were Victor Cruz and Chris Hogan, who was originally on the Giants roster,” Shurmur said.
In a year where the Giants roster needs all the help it can get, another low cost addition like the players Shurmur listed would be perfectly welcome.