My Realistic 1st round Big Board
With the 2008 NFL Draft a little more than a month away its time for the New York Giants organization to continually study prospect tapes and to adjust their big board of prospects accordingly. With that in mind I thought I would share with you what my big board would be if I were in the Giants position. This is based on players that have a realistic shot of being available when the Giants pick at slot 31.
 1. Kenny Phillips S Miami (FL)
Now you see a varying degree of grades placed on Phillips as a prospect depending on which draft site you visit but if you take the average it’ll grade out to be a little bit higher than where the Giants select at 31. Phillips is a prototypical Free Safety and is trying to follow along the footsteps of Ed Reed, Sean Taylor and Brandon Merriweather as the next great Safety from “The U”. Phillips has very good size and speed with good hands. He is aggressive which is a good thing but it can also hurt him at times. He also does a good job in run support. Phillips did not have a good junior year, but you can’t ignore what he did in his sophomore year. The Giants have reportedly very interested in Phillips and he would be a great fit a FS for this defense. Â
2. Reggie Smith DB Oklahoma
The thing that makes Reggie Smith such an intriguing prospect is his versatility. Smith can probably play both safety positions and corner back in the NFL. This gives the team that drafts him multiple opportunities to try and plug him into the right spot on their defense. Smith is extremely athletic and can start right away in the NFL if he finds his niche in training camp. I feel that if the Giants were to draft him he would be another good fit at the Free Safety position. One of the reasons Smith may fall to 31 is because he has been hurt and was unable to perform at the combine. A lot of teams put a lot of stock into combine numbers and this could end up hurting Smith in the long run.
3. Antoine Cason CB Arizona
Cason, like New York Giant Aaron Ross the year before him, had a great year as a cornerback and ended up winning the Jim Thorpe award for the best Defensive back in the nation. Cason has good size for a corner and has very good ball skills. The only knock on Cason is that some people feel he is a little too slow for a man to man scheme. He proved most of those haters wrong when he ran a 4.48 40 at the combine. Cason has many of the same questions that Aaron Ross had last year and they are very similar players. The pairing of Ross and Cason could make a very solid tandem in the Giants secondary for years to come.
4. Dajuan Morgan S North Carolina State
Some people feel this might be a stretch but Dajuan Morgan is steadily rising up draft boards and has worked himself up to the top of the 2nd range. It is well documented that Mike Mayock has Dajuan Morgan as his best safety prospect which was a very bold move but in a few years when we look back on this draft he very well might be right. Dajuan Morgan is still growing as a player and is a great athlete with good speed and size for the safety position. He has only started one year at safety during his career but he has all the tools you look for and could end up being a great player in this league. Â
5. Tracy Porter CB Indiana
Tracy Porter is another player that has a varied ranking depending on where you look but he is a solid 2nd round prospect and many people feel he can sneak his way into the first. Tracy Porter had a very good showing at Indiana’s pro day and is a solid corner prospect. He has great speed and great hands and is a real playmaker. He needs some coaching on his technique and I think he could excel under Spags’ defensive system. Porter is a very underrated prospect and is definitely a good candidate for pick 31.
This entry was posted
on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 7:13 pm and is filed under Giants 101.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
THE AUTHOR
RECENT ARTICLES BY DIVISION RIVALS
ARCHIVE
SPONSORS
Online Seats
NY Giants Tickets NY Mets Tickets
Ticket Specialists
New York Giants Tickets New York Jets Tickets
Coast to Coast Tickets
New York Yankees Tickets Tickets NFL Football Games New York Giants NFL Tickets Game Tickets Ð Super Bowl Sports Tickets Ð College Football
Great Seats
New York Giants Tickets Jets Game Tickets Tickets - New York Yankees Mets tickets Broadway Tickets
21 Responses to “My Realistic 1st round Big Board”
March 24th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
That’s not a very big board…
March 24th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
hey R.eubert is locked up untill 2012, this is good news.
i feel that this line is top 10 in the NFL if not better Top 5. however this may mean that the gaints maybe not be looking to move DD fomr LT. infact he maybe the long term answer which i agree 100%. to be realistic he maybe in the top tier LT in the NFL to date. great on the run and struggles on speed rushers but does better than most.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
not one LB? and arc isnt even up here
March 24th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Gman24-
I agree with you, the signing is a lot bigger than it seems. I wrote an article expressing my thoughts on the matter just below this. Also, Diehl very well could be the answer, and knowing the Giants’ staff, that’s just their thinking. Diehl did a stellar job this season playing at LT for the first time. With a year of experience at the position under his belt, I think he’ll be even better next season. I would, however, agree to picking up a LT in the draft in the later rounds for support and depth. As they say, “If it ‘aint broke, don’t fix it.”
March 24th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Sean are you serious? You have Morgan ahead of cromartie, Conner….Morgan is at best a late 2 rd pick
March 24th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
love the gmen - there is no way Cromartie is going to be there when the Giants pick. and if he is, then 20 of the teams in the nfl are idiots. (9th Bengals - 30th Packers).
Sean - if the Giants got any of these picks I’d be happy. many think Morgan is a reach at the 31st spot, but i think he is definite late 1st round material.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Kevros- I felt any one else won’t be around when the Giants selected or would be big reaches at the 21 spot. The only other person I seriously considered adding was Brandon Flowers.
love the gmen- Cromartie will be long gone by the time the Giants pick so that is why I did not include him. This is a realistic big board. And I was hoping everyone would catch the theme of my big board; The Giants need to go with the best DB available when they pick. I also don’t like Dan Connor for the Giants. He doesn’t really fit Spags’ scheme. Plus he’s more of an ILB and if anything the Giants need depth at OLB but I don’t feel LB as big as a need as others do.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Sean….the only one I disagree with is Morgan. True, he’ll be available at the bottom of the 1st round….but he’ll most likely be available at the bottom of the 2nd round as well. I think to take Morgan in the 1st would be huge, huge reach.
Also, Conner projects as a very good starting WLB…not a ILB. From the various reports on the internet, he projects as a “only” a average/above average ILB/SLB.
March 25th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Groves may be available at LB because Conner will be gone.
But Safety and CB or CB and Safety in the first two rounds makes sense.
Morgan may be a reach at 31. Can the Giants trade their 2nd and a 5th for a higher pick in the second round and get a CB at #1 and Morgan at #2?
Nice draft that would be. Good board Sean.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:58 am
MSP Giant - iwas actually thinking the opposite.I was thinking we should trade down into the 2nd round to grab Morgan and get an extra 4th in the process from a team desperate to move up to #31 and grab someone they covet
March 25th, 2008 at 11:06 am
It has been mentioned before, and I agree. If Atlanta does not select Ryan you may find Miami and Atlanta trying to out position one another for Brian Brohm. Miami may want to out bid Atlanta, and keeping Atlanta from moving ahead of them into the Giant’s spot. (We did this ourselves years ago, that being moving up just one spot). Or Atlanta may offer a deal. Either way we may see our spot become a hot commodity. Whether JR finds value with the offers over our available pick, if they even come, time will tell.
I’m surprized I don’t see more mention of Baker the OT out of USC (available at Atlanta’s second round spot?). Securing Seubert doesn’t signal to me that he has locked up the LG spot. He is versatile and might have been harder to sign later if we had him in a backup role, so you sign him now. By being able to move DD over to LG you have upgraded 2 positions LG and hopefully LT (in time). Also RS would then provide improvement as quality debth yet another upgrade. I believe Eli is most effective when he is totally confident the his back is covered. Remember how Eli’s performance went down after Luke got hurt. Not that DD hasn’t improved nicely, and you can’t complain about Eli’s performance of late (see my point?), but I’m not sure that the JR will want to resign DD for LT money. (Someone will read that as me saying the Giant’s wouldn’t want to resign DD at all, NOT!). With the left side then having debth and flexability would Guy Whimpler then become the RT in grooming?
This is my second post about a left tackle. Why? George Young would say that you draft into the strenght of the draft, and never pass on a big body as they are few and far between. I invite anyone who’s interested to look back on the Giant’s past drafts at all the OT’s we have drafted in rounds 3 and beyond; none stuck, waisted picks. It’s a very key position that in most years takes a top 15 pick, When will we have one of those, or inflated free agency bucks to secure one? This is a rare year. My faith in JR and his staff tells me that if they were to go after a LT early trading up or down it would only tell me that they have their eyes on someone else for the FS and LB spots. I also think that Webster is about to prove his value at CB. His interception in the second half against Buffalo in that key come back win and playoff performances should not seen as a fluke. Talk about not getting any respect. He is only entering his third year. We have seen many good to great players come to age in year three. Strahan and Osi both. In JR and staft we trust, but don’t rule out a LT as a possibility. It’s not just about this year it’s about getting them when you can. And sure I’d love a solid FS.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:38 am
If we trade out of the 1st round for a mid-2nd round pick……
I think we’d pick either Smith or Morgan in this order. Smith seemed to have graded out better and would be a better value in the mid 2nd round since he’s projected to go in the bottom of the 1st round in some mock drafts. I think Morgan would be a good pick mid-late 2nd round as well but if both are available….I think Smtih is the pick
With our original 2nd rnd pick…I think we’d pick either Adibi, Henderson or Justin King. I’m hoping the LBs will be there but it doesn’t seem likely.
I’m all for trading out of the 1st round this year. We’ve got good overall depth at every position so we don’t really need an impact type player in the 1st round.
But I’d actually prefer if we trade our 1st rnd pick this year for a 1st round pick next year. Having 2 1st rounder in the ‘09 draft(actually in any draft) would definitely gives a lot of options.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
justin king is very good and could go to the chargers in the first round thats what espn has
bowman could be a surprise 1st round pick but i think he would be a bust
March 25th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Sean–I think left tackle is more of a pressing concern. Diehl was only average and I don’t think it’s his natural position.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Dani G- Justin King is not a first round prospect. Mel Kiper must not have seen Penn State play at all this year because King got beat A LOT.
And I don’t feel LT needs to be adressed. I’m in the if it aint broke don’t fix it group. Our O-Line has great chemistry and we should not mess with that.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Mike D - Guess it depends on where Morgan gets picked. I see him as not a first rounder but gone by late 2nd round. Hence the idea to move up and take him. Take a CB at 31.
Lots of strategies I guess.
I just see a need for TWO starting safeties in a year or two and as much as I hope Webster has turned it around I am not sure you can count on that. Madison and RW are on last legs. Dockery is merely adequate as a nickle. This year’s CB pick may be starting in 2009.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
It was pretty broken in the Super Bowl and he very nearly cost us the game. Love the guy, just not as a tackle.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
The picture and need changes if you are not interested in out bidding others for DD. I believe he is under contract for just one more year. If he walks can we turn to GW. Only the brass knows that answer. If you are not going to give DD big time LT money someone else will, and with JR’s record that might be the case. Then it’s time now to go shopping and get someone to step right in after DD goes and gets rich and protect your biggest investment Eli.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I just read that DD is signed through 2011
March 28th, 2008 at 2:47 am
I think that Phillips and Cason would be the two secondary players that would fit in best with the Giants scheme. They both have the size to match up with big receivers and I think that Casons speed is underrated, proving that with a good time at the combine. Phillips is reguarded as the better player right now, but I think Cason would upgrade last years secondary as well. To be compared to Aaron Ross is pretty complimentary and would make for a solid unit.
March 28th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I agree 1 million percent … I am a die hard miami hurricanes fan and i love Gibril so to be able to fill that huge void with a big time talent if he is still there would solidify in my opinion our greatest need right now then if that happened i would also love to us be able to work a deal and try and move up in the 2nd round pick cason if he is still there because he is sooo underrated y i have no idea and u will have a top 3 secondary in 2010 no doubt but thats just speakin in fantasy what i really think will happen is we get cason or connor in the first round and pair that up with the other position in the second rd in case u dont kno wat i mean ill give u an example if we take cason in the first pair it up with an adibi/Tavares gooden type linebacker with our second pick … if we take connor the n pair that with morgan or smith if they r still there but my hope obviously is that my fantasy plays out
Leave a comment