Big Blue View
During this slow part of the seemingly year-round NFL season, writers need something to keep fans and themselves engaged. Chad Reuter, an NFL.com draft analyst, does a yearly “mock draft,” not of college prospects, but of players already on NFL rosters. Everyone is available, and the only criterion is that each team’s draft is intended to give the team the best chance of winning the Super Bowl this year. No prospects with bright futures but with development needed, just guys you could put out there right now to give you the best chance of bringing home a ring come next February.
It’s just for fun, obviously, but it does serve a few purposes. It gives you a chance to think about just how much you like particular players on your team’s roster vs. a chance to do better. More interesting to me is to see one NFL draft expert’s take on what he thinks of the Giants’ present roster. Reuter doesn’t discuss that, but it can be inferred from how many of the Giants’ current players get drafted at all in his mock.
His ground rules ignore comp picks, picks gained or lost in trades, and current free agents, and he just uses the original first round draft order 1-32, except that he flips it each round so that the team that drafted No. 32 in Round 1 drafts No. 1 in Round 32, etc. He does take into account the head coach and where he sees the strengths and weaknesses of the existing roster. Let’s see what he thinks the Giants’ biggest needs would be for them to win it all this year. Here is the Giants draft he comes up with:
Just like in the real NFL, it’s all about the quarterback. Reuter’s first 12 picks are all quarterbacks, in the following order: Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Matthew Stafford, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Drake Maye, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, Jared Goff, Trevor Lawrence, Jayden Daniels, Dak Prescott. He finally breaks the string to have Atlanta take Myles Garrett at No. 13. Then it’s back to the QBs with Caleb Williams and Baker Mayfield going next, and four more QBs go later in Round 1 (Sam Darnold, Bo Nix, C.J. Stroud, and Brock Purdy). Jaxson Dart doesn’t come off the board until Round 2, pick No. 40 by Chicago.
So, question to Giants fans: To win this season, would you take Lamar, whom Harbaugh obviously knows everything about, over Maye, Herbert, or any of the rest who were still on the board? For that matter, would you take him over Dart for this season only?
Reuter does give the Giants two of their actual players back to them: Brian Burns in Round 2, No. 60, which is good value, and Patrick Ricard in Round 7, No. 197, because…well, Harbaugh. In Round 3, Derrick Henry at No. 69. Henry is 31 years old now, but you wouldn’t really know it from his 1,595 rushing yards and 16 rushing TDs last...
