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How Giants Off-season Moves Have Shaped Their Draft Plans

Joe Schoen's plan to continue building the Giants roster has come into focus, and it's not a bad one, all things considered. Here's what's likely next.

When free agency officially opened on March 15, the New York Giants worked to improve their roster.

But as was the case last year, due to a lack of financial resources, the Giants, despite being in a much better financial situation, refrained from going crazy in the free-agency pool.

Their lone multi-year deals included former Colts linebacker Bobby Okereke to a four-year contract worth $40 million, acquiring via trade from the Raiders tight end Darren Waller, signing defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches to a three-year deal to help improve the run defense and re-signing receiver Darius Slayton (their receiving yardage leader last year) to a two-year deal.

Before the start of free agency, the Giants signed quarterback Daniel Jones to a long-term contract and applied the franchise tag on running back Saquon Barkley.

Otherwise, the Giants' moves have been modest at best. They added inexpensive veterans to their roster that could step in and fill roles, such as receiver Jamison Crowder, who is still a reliable target underneath over the middle of the field, and tight end Tommy Sweeney, who spent 2019-2021 under Giants head coach Brian Daboll as offensive coordinator in Buffalo.

These moves might not seem glamorous on the whole, but they all serve important purposes. Schoen told reporters at the end of the season that among his goals was to build the talent around Jones and to improve the run defense, two things these moves suggest were done.

But there are still other glaring holes that need to be addressed. In the offseason, the Giants have done little to improve the cornerback room instead of bringing in former Detroit Lion Amani Oruwariye and undrafted free agent Leonard Johnson, the latter a 2022 NFL Draft prospect that got injured and didn’t get an opportunity last year.

For a position that was marred with injury and dealt with poor play for much of 2022 in a defense that requires quality cornerback play, it’s surprising that the Giants haven’t invested more in cornerback this offseason.

While there is still time to add veterans like Marcus Peters, who has experience with Wink Martindale, the expectation should be for the Giants to target cornerbacks early in the 2023 NFL Draft.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone if the Giants target multiple cornerbacks throughout the draft in a year where the position is about as deep as ever. Players like Maryland’s Deonte Banks, South Carolina’s Cam Smith and Darius Rush, and Miami’s Tyrique Stevenson are among those who are available and who could be there in the first round if the Giants decide to go cornerback at that point.

Then there is the elephant in the room: the offensive line. Last year's offensive line was okay but certainly needs some upgrades, particularly along the interior. Thus far, the unit has worsened thanks to the departures of centers Jon Feliciano and Nick Gates.

Luckily again for the Giants, this is a relatively strong draft class on the interior of the offensive line with prospects like Florida’s O’Cyrus Torrence, TCU’s Steve Avila, and Minnesota’s John Michael Schmitz, and Ohio State's Luke Wypler all being names that could fit with the Giants scheme and draft picks.

Overall the team's approach was to target positions in free agency where they didn’t want to invest in early-round picks, like linebacker and tight end. Though they didn't ignore other spots like running back (re-signing Matt Breida) and cornerback, and they did refrain from adding to the interior offensive line, it's clear to us that the intention is to add talent to positions where the draft class is deep, perhaps even double-dipping at some of these spots.

Later in the draft, the Giants will likely look to draft younger players at positions where they already have a veteran presence or positions where they added veteran depth that they could hopefully get out of contracts after 2023 or 2024.

Look for the Giants to add players at wide receiver late, despite it being one of the thinner receiver classes we’ve seen in recent years, as well as looking to bring a youth movement to the interior defensive line, tight end, and maybe even taking a late flier on a quarterback, which every team should do every year.

The offseason approach isn’t a difficult one to figure out, but it will be interesting to see how the Giants adapt as certain players and positions thin out throughout the remainder of the offseason and the NFL Draft.