Big Blue View
Good morning New York Giants fans! Happy New Year and welcome to the second round of the College Football Playoffs!
We only have three games today, each with a four-hour block of the day. That’s fitting considering each of the three games is chock full of future NFL players.
ESPN – noon
This game promises to be an exciting one, and a potentially crucial one for the Giants. The story of the game is going to be whether Oregon quarterback Dante Moore ultimately declares for the NFL Draft. There are some draft analysts operating under the assumption that he will, but the red-shirt sophomore has plenty of eligibility left, and only has one year of starting experience.
If the Giants get the second overall pick, they’ll certainly hope he does declare — if only to facilitate a trade down.
Moore won’t have it easy this game, as Texas Tech boasts the best pass rushing duo in college football.
I’d also like to call attention to Oregon safety Dillon Theineman. The Giants could lose Dane Belton to free agency, and the 6-foot, 205 pound Theineman has plenty of experience in both deep zones as well as the box. He also leads all active players in tackles-per-game over the length of his career.
(4) Texas Tech – Jacob Rodriguez (LB, 10) – It’s difficult to ignore Texas Tech’s duo of David Bailey and Romello Height, who might be the two best EDGEs in college football. But the Giants are pretty well stocked at the position at the moment. So instead I’ll focus on TTU’s Butkus AND Nagurski Award winning linebacker, Jacob Rodriguez.
(Yes, he was voted the best linebacker and the single best defender in the country.)
Rodriguez has good (but not great) size at 6-foot-1, 235 pounds, but is an ELITE run defender, an excellent coverage linebacker, and an absolute tackling and turnover machine. He finished the season 13th among all linebackers in run stops, 3rd in coverage stops, has had 244 tackles over the last two years, and has generated 11 turnovers this year (4 interceptions, 7 forced fumbles).
(5) Oregon – Isaiah World (OT, 76) – World is a big, long offensive tackle at 6-foot-8, 320 pounds, but has surprising agility for a man his size. The Ducks’ left tackle has all the power you’d expect from such a large tackle, but is also more nimble than you’d expect, allowing him to match speed off the edge. That will be of paramount importance this game against Texas Tech’s fantastic pass rushers. There are two main questions with World. First is whether he can polish his technique to the point where he can match NFL pass rushers without having to rely solely on this physical tools. The second is whether he is simply too big to be a tackle in the NFL, as failures to play with proper leverage will be exacerbated by his rare...
