The New York Giants missed the playoffs for the second straight season since winning the Super Bowl and now that the team has hired Ben McAdoo as offensive coordinator, the NFL draft is the next major event of the offseason and with the team picking in the top 15, they will have a chance to get an impact player and some names include Jordan Matthews, Mike Evans, Allen Robinson, Marqise Lee, Jace Amaro and Cyrus Kouandjio.
The Giants usually draft the best player available and don't go into things based on need, but this season a strong combination of the two in certain rounds could be a very effective plan. For the first round pick, the team will have to see how workouts play out and what the teams ahead of them do, but an offensive pick is likely a smart pick and would follow the past two years after Jerry Reese took Justin Pugh and David Wilson. The team is likely to lose Hakeem Nicks to free agency and with Rueben Randle still emerging, the team may go with a wide receiver pick in this draft as well.
The position is deep this year with Vanderbilt wideout Jordan Matthews, PSU star Allen Robinson, as well as Mike Evans, Marqise Lee, Sammy Watkins and Kelvin Benjamin. The Giants will be looking to fill needs on both the offensive and defensive lines and after Will Beatty broke his leg and the team dealt with injuries to a number of veterans, including David Diehl and David Baas and that could focus the draft on the line early or late, including with names like Greg Robinson and Cyrus Kouandjio. The team likely will sign Kevin Boothe, but the team has numerous questions with free agents, as Justin Tuck, Andre Brown, Terrell Thomas, Aaron Ross, Brandon Myers, Stevie Brown, Louis Murphy and Mark Herzlich along with other contributing players are all set to hit the market.
The Giants have missed a few times over the past few years in the draft and Reese will be looking for one of those "bounceback" classes that can help a team get back into the playoffs after missing out for a couple seasons. The Giants know they have a championship quarterback in Eli Manning and after the tough season he had, new coordinator Ben McAdoo will be looking to shake things up with an up-tempo offense that could really turn things around.
According to ESPN.com, the Giants are projected to have about $20 million in space to work with this offseason and while that's a nice number, the amount of free agents the team has means there isn't much to go around for a "big splash" signing, which the team isn't usually into anyway. The tight end situation is something to address after switching starters in each of the last four seasons and Myers will likely be allowed to leave, as that did not work out last season. Amaro is an interesting option and the team could look to that as a pick in the first round.
