parlintm

He hits VERY hard. I think he'll be lot of fun to watch. (once he finally gets onto the field).

I guess we should start at the beginning, a breakdown of the squad before the draft. Since most of you know this, we'll do the cliff notes version. Offense: OL - solid. Luke P. is a big question mark. I attribute that entirely to his penalties, not his post-snap play. I think he's our LT for this year and next year regardless of whether or not we draft a LT in the first round, (debatable after todays events). QB - set rb - good. any RB we draft fights w/ ward for a spot. te - set wr - pretty good #1, aging #2, #3? fb - i love jim finn. Defense: de: 2 probowlers. 1 retiring soon. justin tuck is up and coming but has he proved he is mikes replacement? dt: willie joe, fatties lb: lavar, hehehe. ap, suck it washington. torbor/emmons. short/blackburn backing up (good but not great). cb: madison, webser (for those of you who think we had to draft a cb, remember corey webster was THE SHIT when we drafted him. he's a talented mofo. i think he will be good but thats beside the point. no rookie that we could have drafted even had a chance of taking his spot. period. they would be fighting w/ deloach and walker for the nickel.) So our team is pretty set for this season, regardless of who we draft, except at DT if we are able to bring in a solid player The Draft: Round 1: Mathius K. -- A very talented DE. If you don't think so, you don't watch college football. I think I could make the case that he was the best player available. I think the only people that were possibly BPA's were: Winston Justice, Santonio Holmes, Chad Jackson and Jimmy Williams. Now, obviously I'm talking about pre-trade. I think, especially if you're targeting Moss in the 2nd) you pass on the WR's. WR's are no sure thing transitioning from college to the pros. IMO, there are too many players like Charles Rogers and Peter Warrick for WR's to be sure things. Let alone the fact that we have Carter and Taylor who I really think would contribute something to this team if they could stay healthy. If. Anway, Mathias could be a PHENOMENAL pass rusher if he added some muscle. He's also proven that he is productive with his consistent sack numbers every year, even when injured. I think in order to have a great pass rush, you need 3 solid pass rushers. Right now we have Strahan, Osi and Tuck. In the future, ideally we will have Osi, Tuck and Kiwi. We all know Osi will be great but chances are one of the other two will be very good as well and worst case scenario, all three are great. Round 2: Santana Moss -- A player most people would have rather had than Mathius K. in the first. For those of you that think this, pretend like we took moss in the first and MK in the second. Anway, Moss adds a true speed daemon (with hands) to the offense. Also, a potentially GREAT punt/kickoff returner. Granted, I think Jackson has a better pro of turning into a great pro than Moss, but in reality Moss isn't really that much of a downgrade. Espcecially since he brings the punt returning to the table. Round 3: I think we've arguably taken the two BPA in the previous rounds and it's now time to address an area of need. AFter some speculation, a few seemingly quality DT's fall to us in the third round. PERFECT!! Instead, EA drafts Gerris Wilkerson!! I mean, of all people!! Now, Gerris Wilkerson has the potential to be phenomenal. Most times I think getting him this late in the draft would be a great pick but with Watson and Babatunde on the Board!??! We NEED at DT and here are two guys who at the very least would clog the middle and require too occupy them instead of our beloved LB's. I mean, I'm speachless. So heading into round 3 I actually thought the draft was pretty good. We added two players who had great chances to contribute to this team in the long run. We added two dynamic guys who should have a positive impact this year and had the potential to be big starters in a few years. But we needed a DT in round 3 and a quite a few guys dropped to us that seemed more than worthy of a pick. So why did EA pass them up? I'd like to think he's not retarded (although the fab 4 seem to think he is). I mean, he's done quite well lately. Eli, Tuck, Umenyiora, Joseph (actually quite a good draft of his if you check it out, give the other players in the draft). Regardless, it seems obvious that we need a DT. I mean he MUST have some plan for that position. Here is what I think the options are: a) Joseph (starter in every scenrio) and Robbins as starters. I dont even know who would back these guys up. This is not a realistic possibility and I think the least likely. b) Quite few quality DT's fell this far in the draft. Maybe EA knows/thinks a certain player will be available in the fourth and will address this issue by making a GREAT pick in the fouth. c) He has a certain DT in mind that he still will sign. d) We're switching to some crazy defense and we only need WJ as the NT or we switch someone to DT like Tuck or MK. I mean, are there any other options? So in summary, I think our first 2 picks are great picks for the future of the franchise but we could have used one of our picks on our only key position of need, DT. It seemed so obvious that passing it up is confusing and I hope that this gets answered tomorrow or someone has some insight as to why EA didnt take a DT with the third round pick... other than him being retarded. I actually like Wilkerson a lot... but I thought Watson was the only option there. Although, as Money said, one of our coaches worked with him once upon a time and had some experience with him. If we're passing up Watson there, maybe the other DT''s werent worth the pick. Thoughts?

If we hadn't already drafted a receiver, I would love to land Demetrius Williams this round.

great player but over all of the available DT's??? he better have some DT prospect that he's shipping in from the pacific islands who is like 6'8 376 and runs a 4.32 that nobody knows about.

hes a very highly rated LB but over DT!?!?!?!

i bet EA's about to crap his pants in anticipation....

sooo close!!! cmon WATSON!!!!!

Well its almost our pick and we should have our choice of a few different DT's. Watson Oshinow Lewis thats my order.

watson, lewis or babino better be our pick....

wow, if gabe watson were to fall to us this would be a phenomenal draft. round 1: Gabe Watson -- since you all hate kiwi, pretend like we got Watson here, someone everyone would have accepted yesterday round 2: moss -- maybe not as a first rounder but not bad for the second round 3: kiwi --- first round talent in the third, way too good to pass up!! that right there is an A+ draft.

id rather have wright instead of harris.

I think at this point we should try to trade up and get Watson.

There are much worse things than having 3 talented DE's. Chances are one of them won't be a pro-bowler (that guy becomes the situation player). Also, all 3 of them won't be healthy 100% of the time. That's why it's important to have quality backups.

He's a situational player until Strahan retires and then he becomes a starter. That's the idea. Anybody would have been a situation player this year. There are no positions at which a rookie would have taken the starting spot (except DT) and there wasnt one worth taking at 25.

I think on passing downs we will get Osi, Strahan, Lavar, Mathias and Tuck onto the field. There's just no way that teams will be able to block them. Soooo many sacks this year. I think Tuck at DT on passing downs and Mathias at OLB.

Media Q&A With Director of Player Personnel Jerry Reese: Q: What are the positives? A: We got another pass rusher; you can never have enough pass rushers. Just thinking back to the playoffs, when we played against the 49ers a couple years back, we ran out of guys, had no pass rushers and we lost the game because of that, in my opinion. You can never have enough guys that can rush the passer. Q: Why this pass rusher? A: He has got 21 sacks, he is 6-6, he runs 4.75. He got a 29 on his test, he played at a high level of competition. He plays hard, he is smart. It is all in front of him. Everything wrong with this guy is strength related. When this guy gets stronger he is going to be a really, really good player. Q: Does he have the kind of frame that can add some pounds? A: Most definitely. He is 6-6 and he weighs 266 pounds. He is going to be 275 pounds in a second. He has just got to get in the weight room and get a little stronger and learn the pro game. Q: Did he slip because of strength issues? A: It is probably strength issues, because you know he is not as strong as you like against the run but this guy makes plays against the run with his legs. He chases people down from behind and this guy plays hard. You’ll be surprised when you see this guy play, he plays hard. Q: At what point in the scouting process did this guy kind of separate himself from the other cluster of guys you had an interest in? A: This draft is kind of funny. It has a few good “A” players but it’s got a lot of good “B” players. You see players come off all over the board because there are a lot of good “B” players. We liked him from the very beginning. Again, you can never put your pass rushers up high enough on the board. Q: What did you take away from the meeting you had with him face to face? A: We came away with a very smart, driven young man who we felt that all you had to do was plug him in the mix with the Pro Bowlers that we have. This guy is going to help us on special teams. I always talk about this when I come down here with you guys; you always want to get guys who can help you on special teams. I can see this guy blocking kicks or field goals; he can run down on the kickoff team. This guy is a big athlete and he’s very smart and physical. It’s all in front of him. I can’t express to you how good this player has a chance to be for us. Q: Where did you rank him among the defensive ends? A: I don’t like to talk about our board and where we rank people. There is still a lot of draft left and I don’t want to say where we had a guy ranked. Of course he was after Mario Williams but we had him ranked pretty high. He’s a pass rusher; the guy had 21 sacks in the last two years. We had him ranked up there….we like him. Q: Any concern with the knee injury? A: It wasn’t an issue for our doctors. He limped around with it a little bit during the season trying to get it healthy. It probably wasn’t healthy after he got hit on that knee until the last couple of games of the season where he dominated the games. Look at the Maryland and N.C. State games and you’ll see a dominating football player. Maybe he got lost in the sauce because of that, he limped around a little bit and wasn’t really healthy, but he played through it and showed some toughness, so you like that about him. But you can see him healthy the last two games of the season and you see a dominating football player. Q: Does his size make it possible to play him at another position? A: Absolutely. At the combine he worked out as a linebacker as well. It’s not out of the question for this guy to stand up and play some kind of outside linebacker. Put them all in there, put him, Tuck, Osi, Strahan in there and let them all rush. Who says you can’t do that? On a passing down put them all in there and let them rush. Q: Did you guys hold your breath at all after you traded back a few picks in fear that you may have lost him? A: No, we didn’t hold our breath because there were several guys there that we liked. It was worth the risk for us to move back and get some extra picks because we still had five or six guys on the board that we liked. We felt safe about moving back and getting extra picks

read the coughlin interview above. obviously this is who they thought was the bpa and they've spent much more time on this than we have.

Ok, who do I think knows more about football, you or Tom Coughlin. It's close but I'm sorry, Ill have to go w/ TC on this one. Here is his take: Tom Coughlign after Giants 2006 first round draft selection Mathias Kiwanuka April 29, 2006 We’re excited about this pick. It’s truly a valuable pick at this point. Picking 32nd, you know we traded down and got extra picks. We had a group of players that we really liked and from that group, without a doubt, he’s the highest rated player and we’re excited because of 11.5, 11.5 and 9.5. Those were his sacks over the last 3 years. Everyone was aware of the fact that this year he was injured for a little bit. But you’re talking about a quality, quality football player. A quality young man, a two-time captain who played and performed well in the first year that Boston College was in the ACC. The ability to put pressure on the quarterback is a paramount need on any football team. We just felt that this particular individual was very good at that and with the combination of the players that we have, this will again allow us to continue to fortify our defense. Q: Ernie said he wouldn’t have made this pick if he didn’t think he would see the field right away. How is that possible? A: Scheme-wise we can arrange that. And we’ll work on that at this point. I think right away, when you have a young man with this kind of talent, you’re talking about all the second-and-long, third-and-long situations that are presented in our game. The personnel combinations that we might be able to utilize to create some problems with the defenses…I like of those options going forward. Q: He is a defensive end? A: He can play standing up but I think he’s a pass rusher. He’s better in that role and I think that is the spot we will start with. Q: What did you see on the tape and in his workouts that will translate to him playing on the NFL level? A: 11.5, 11.5 and 9.5. The kid can rush the passer. He’s smart, he’s aware. He has a great sense and feel for the game even though he’s relatively new to the game, so we think it’s all in front of him as well. Q: Waiting after trading down, is there any part of you that says, let’s just make this pick? A: We had lengthy discussions as we saw this thing taking place and in each of those discussions every aspect of trading down or remaining where we are was discussed. So we felt thoroughly confident in going over all the options. We had players that were available that we really liked in a section there in our minds and on the board and we thought that by picking up extra picks, we’d help ourselves down the road. Give ourselves some flexibility, who knows how we might use them but give ourselves some flexibility and still have a player of very high quality that could help our team. Q: If you didn’t make the trade would you have picked this guy at 25? A: I think that Ernie answered that question before, didn’t he? As I said, he was very highly rated on our board and in all likelihood could have been our pick right there as well. Q: Do you think you had him rated a little higher than most other teams? A: I don’t think so. We didn’t think so at all. We did a very thorough analysis. We had a large number of people evaluate him. Our scouting staff. Our coaches. The young man had very, very high grades. We discussed in our meetings each individual as we do every year, we put a final grade on him and after discussing and reading the player and talking about it with all the people in the room, the grade was a very high grade and we felt good about it. Q: Does this pick affect Justin Tuck at all? A: No I don’t think so. Tuck is one more solid, solid young football player that we are excited about. Tuck has the ability as we saw a year ago to play on the outside and the inside. Q: Is it a little surprising that you took a pass rushing defensive end when you already have two Pro Bowlers at the position? A: No, because again the statement being that this player represents the highest rated player on the board at the time we made the pick. He is a solid defensive player. You can never have too many pass rushers. Again we’ve fortified our defense. It may not have been a specific need as pinpointed prior to, but this is a guy who will pay huge dividends

I think it's impossible to say that Jackson was the BPA in the draft. Historically, WR's are the toughest to transition from college to the pro's. They are completely hit or miss, just go look at the past drafts and see who the first round WR's were. Many are no longer in the NFL. Also, as a rule of thumb, the dropoff in talent from the first to third round is much higher for all other positions.

We are drafting Mathias to replace one of those 2 pro bowlers. So that hopefully in the future we will still have 2 pro bowl DE's playing for us. I firmly believe White will be a bust in the league. He's a "big" back who is not very big. I think he will be out of the league in 5 years, especially if he has a poor work ethic like everyone says he does.

Who? Justice? - 1 arrest I can understand but 3? Jimmy Williams - character issues too. youboty? -- less talented holmes/jackson?? -- i actually think moss will have a bigger impact immediately than either of these guys would have on our offense this year. who is more talented?

You need more than two quality DE's. Notice we use Tuck, Osi and Strahan? Well in the future we will use Mathias, Osi and Tuck. You draft by talent, not need. Pretend like we drafted Moss in the first and got Mathias in the second. That's pretty good. And we got an extra fourth rounder along the way. So this is actually a pretty good draft, IMO.

No, but the more quality players you have the better chance that one will emerge as a great player. Jackson -- we just got moss so we addressed that area of need. Ryans -- LB is locked up even longer than DE. there's a good chance matias beats Tuck out for Strahans spot. so cant say that we had to go w/ LB over DE. Jimmy Williams -- lots of potential but a few too many issues. i think mathias will be better than williams when its all said and done.

Carbo, 38 seconds ago you were complaing about EA not drafting a vertical receiving threat. Now he has just done that, so please shut the fuck up.

Mathias K. is a MUCH better prospect than Tuck. I love Tuck as much as the next guy but he has NOT proven to be an every play DE. Between Tuck, Osi and Mathias our DE's are set for a long time.