With the league year starting soon for the NFL, preparations for the Draft and free agency are well underway – and that involves, for many coaches, visits to various colleges following the Combine to get a look at how a number of prospects are performing at their own Pro Day workouts.
Some of the members of the New York Giants staff were seen earlier at the Auburn Pro Day where defensive line prospects Derrick Brown and Marlon Davidson were working out, but more recently, offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and assistant Derek Dooley went in a different direction and attended Oklahoma’s Pro Day.
Oklahoma, of course, is more known at the moment for their offense than their defense. The prospect they’re likely interested in the most is wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, who finished last season with 14 touchdowns and over a thousand receiving yards as a junior – Lamb has shown consistency too, as this is his second straight year with double digit touchdowns and more than a thousand receiving yards.
The Giants aren’t likely to spend the number four pick on a receiver, or even trade down and take a receiver, but the prospect has been mentioned since the start of the offseason due to the team’s problems keeping Sterling Shepard on the field after Shepard’s new deal made him the number one at the position. Despite that big contract, however, the Giants didn’t see much of Shepard in 2019 after two concussions kept him out for a stretch of games.
Lamb has been mentioned in some mock drafts as an option due to this but the more popular theory about the Giants drafting a receiver these days is that they could do it in one of the following rounds rather than the first – there’s too many other needs to address in round one, and it looks like offensive line could take the most precedence.
Still, it’s interesting to see an important member of the staff feel that it was important to check out Lamb in person.
Oklahoma’s Pro Day wasn’t the only recent one attended by the Giants. Bret Bielema also returned to Wisconsin, the team that he formerly coached, for their own Pro Day – however, there’s no prospects on Wisconsin’s team yet that have been linked as players the Giants could be interested in. Could some interest be brewing? We’ll probably find out in the coming weeks leading to the Draft.