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 year. Greg Roman would be happy.
On “Day 3” the Giants find some intriguing values. Kevin Dotson, a devastating run blocker and adequate pass blocker, comes off the board to the Giants in Round 4 at No. 124. Unless I missed it, Sisi Mauigoa went undrafted by Reuter. Defensive tackle Vita Vea, still a plus player at age 31, goes to the Giants in Round 5 at No. 133; it’s not clear that he’s a better run defender than D.J. Reader at this point but he has more juice in the pass rush. In Round 6 – hard to imagine he’s still on the board – it’s wide receiver Garrett Wilson. Yes, please.
That’s quite a set of additions to a relatively inexperienced Giants roster, but of course everyone on the current roster is exposed to this draft as well. How many of the Giants’ own players did they lose? I had to go through the entire draft to answer this, but if I didn’t miss anyone, the complete list is:
- Jaxson Dart (Rd. 2, No. 40) – Chicago
- Malik Nabers (Rd. 2, No. 57) – New Orleans
- Andrew Thomas (Rd. 4, No. 125) – Tennessee
- Abdul Carter (Rd. 6, No. 183) – Cincinnati
- Arvell Reese (Rd. 7, No. 204) – Dallas
So other than Burns and Ricard, who came back to the Giants in the draft, only 5 other current Giants players were deemed worthy of selection by other teams trying to win this season – none of them in Round 1, two on Day 2, and three on Day 3. That’s just one person’s opinion, of course, but that person is an experienced draft analyst, not some rando.
I think that reflects a couple of things. One, we in the BBV community tend to look at the Giants through rose-colored glasses, and after eight losing seasons in the past nine our desires are projected onto the roster in a way that may not reflect reality. Two, the purpose of Reuter’s draft is to create rosters to win this year. Thus, it necessarily downgrades young players who may have legitimate promise but have not yet fulfilled their potential. We’re rightly excited about young players such as Mauigoa, Cam Skattebo, and Colton Hood, but they have yet to prove themselves in the NFL over even one full season. Even Dart is still a big projection with only 12 NFL games under his belt, but any young QB with a pulse unsurprisingly gets drafted in such an exercise. Veteran players such as Jermaine Eluemunor and Tremaine Edmunds are solid players who should help the Giants this season but they are not among the elite.
With luck, we’ll come back next season and find Reuter drafting many more Giants than he did this year.
