It’s looking more and more like the New York Giants were able to get a steal in the second round of the NFL Draft. The team took Georgia pass rusher Azeez Ojulari, who was one of the top ranked prospects at his position and definitely a first round talent. One of the main reasons for his fall into the second round is a knee problem that was reported a week before the draft. However, that problem appears to be of little concern to Dave Gettleman and the Giants.
Gettleman on @WFAN660 on Ojulari health concerns: "I don't know where the knee thing came from… We had no concerns with that."
— Tom Rock (@TomRock_Newsday) May 3, 2021
Gettleman came out on WFAN on Monday and said that he didn’t know where the knee rumors came from. He also pointed out that the Giants had no concerns about Ojulari’s knee.
This seems in line with Ojulari’s college career. He did suffer an ACL tear in high school, but was a healthy player throughout his college career and further examination by James Andrews reportedly didn’t turn up any problems. The rumors about a degenerative knee condition came up only a week before the draft, and the exact source of where these ideas came from hasn’t been revealed.
As I reported last week, Azeez Ojulari/Edge/Georgia had a bunch of significant medical red flags (knee/ankle) diagnosed during Combine medicals, which is the reason he's dropping down draft boards.
— Tony Pauline (@TonyPauline) April 30, 2021
If it’s true that there’s no real knee problems with Ojulari, it looks like the Giants came away with a massive steal due to his highly rated status before the draft. After all, some had linked Ojulari to the Giants with their first round pick in the weeks before the event. But after his slide, the Giants were able to acquire him without even spending a first round pick.