It’s not yet clear if the New York Giants are going to take a player at number four overall in the NFL Draft or whether they’ll make a trade down and pick up more draft picks to use in the rebuilding process, but there’s still plenty of predictions coming out about who the team will take if they do spend their first pick without trading it.
Most areas of the team at this point need an upgrade in some way or another, and there’s a lot of positions competing for the limited draft picks the Giants have in the first couple of rounds. But according to Pro Football Focus, the Giants will deem the offensive line and the pass rusher position the most pressing needs. Those are the positions that PFF has the Giants taking in the first and second round respectively in their two round mock draft.
The two players in specific are Jedrick Wills Jr. from Alabama, and Yetur Gross-Matos from Penn State – respectively, an offensive tackle and a defensive end/edge rusher. The former, however, is believed to be a much more solid prospect in terms of safeness, while Gross-Matos has known upside and was a consistent performer for the Nittany Lions but could have put up larger numbers in college.
Here’s what PFF had to say about Wills.
Wills is the most athletic tackle in a very athletic tackle class. He is a work in progress still in pass protection, but the strides he made toward the end of 2019 — when he allowed only four pressures over Alabama’s final six games — have us encouraged.
Of course, some may be skeptical about taking a tackle – the last time the Giants took a work in progress tackle this high up in the draft, the result was Ereck Flowers, who turned out to be a major bust. There’s also other needs to be addressed, such as the defense.
But PFF also has the Giants investing in potential rather than raw numbers when taking Gross-Matos high in the second round as their second selection in the draft.
Gross-Matos’ physical tools are too much to pass up here. He may not be an instant impact rusher, as his hands have a long way to go, but the Giants can afford to swing for the fences with their current roster construction.
The Giants do, however, still need a strong pass rusher following several departures over past years that haven’t been fully replaced – the big question is, just how possible is it to find that in the second round if they decide to take an offensive tackle in the top five instead of trading down?