The quick summary is that the Giants did well in the 2024 NFL Draft. Did they hit the lights out? If you ask Dan Schneier (someone I respect greatly, he “gets it” about how the NFL works), he is super high on what the Giants did. If you ask us, we are very positive too, but a little bit more tempered. Wonder likes what the Giants did. We reviewed the picks positively for Round 1 (Nabers), Round 2 (Nubin) and Round 3 (Phillips). On Day 3, they took a TE (Theo Johnson), a RB (Tyrone Tracy Jr.) and a LB (Darius Muasau). We liked those selections too. Schneier was particularly emphatic, calling Johnson and Tracy two of his “guys.”
Where does all of this fall out for the Giants? The only player who is likely to “wow” as a rookie is Nabers. The rest are the meat and potatoes guys who will have varying degrees of success in making the roster and then making an impact in the NFL in subsequent years. Nubin and Phillips should see a decent amount of playing time. Yet, these are going to be the players who make a difference in the trajectory of the team. We all know that the Reese (except 2007) and Gettleman years were mostly awful developmentally. If you hit on 1-2 players per year, that is not enough. Some of those drafts were zeroes. You have to hit on 3-4 players. We believe the Giants will do that with these players. The important thing to do is remember that this class’s impact is not expected to be significant (beyond Nabers) this year. Yet it is a marathon, not a sprint. We need success for these guys to show in Year 2-3.
Success in Year 2-3 is a perfect seque for guys like Evan Neal. “Carmen Bricillo, a Scarnecchia disciple, may very well have been the biggest offseason move for the Giants,” says Wonder. “I still stand by my eval on Neal and think Bricillo can and should save his professional career. Neal is vulnerable to the speed rush, so Bricillo must help him correct his footwork.”
Critics of the Giants 2024 draft ask aloud why the Giants did not draft OL or DL. This goes back to the choice we preferred at 1.06, assuming the trade up for QB OR Joe Alt was not available. WE WANTED TO TRADE DOWN. If you did that, you would have reloaded with multiple additional picks, and Schoen would have been selecting line of scrimmage. Once they chose to stay put at 1.06, they made the correct decision to take a WR (Nabers). You knew they were going to address the secondary at CB + S. Lawrence Cager could not block, so TE Johnson was not a surprise. You draft a RB on Day 3 to get a warm body out there. And finally, the Giants are in varying degrees of draft neglect at LB, so getting one in R6 was not unreasonable. PLUS, the Giants addressed DL with Burns and OL with Runyan/Eluemunor/Stinnie in Free Agency.
We will have months to talk about the team. I will throw out one thought stewing in my head to get it out there. Drew Lock could be an intermediate or possibly a long term answer. Jones will not be ready Week 1. So Lock is going to get the preseason Training camp 1st team snaps. He will start Week 1. He will have a credible OL. He will have a WR corp ready to deliver separation.
Lock has a great arm. He has good touch. He has good athleticism. The only thing Lock has lacked is coaching. (He saw some in SEA and you saw decent results.) Daboll can make a difference here. A big variable we do not know is what Daniel Jones’ medical comeback looks like. That will affect what Lock can do. Wonder thinks Lock can be a steward of the offense in 2025 if the Giants draft a QB, and there is the possibility that Lock can actually be a long term answer. Call me a hopeful optimist, but I know what Daboll has done with Josh Allen, Daniel Jones and Tommy DeVito, so I believe there could be more there for Lock than what others are thinking. We’ve all been captured by the Giants QB draft talk. Now that that 2024 chapter is closed, maybe it’s Lock who gets a much bigger opportunity. It’s up to him (and Daboll) to make the most of it.