Takeaways and What We Learned Following Giants GM Joe Schoen's First Draft

We have a monster-sized notebook filled with takeaways and things we learned about the new Giants' way of roster building through the draft.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
May 1, 2022 1:53 PM EDT

In this story:

New York Giants

If there was any doubt about it, this is not the old Giants' way of doing business.

The best available players were picked to help replenish the depleted talent on a Giants roster that, over the last four years, won just 24 games. That will never change, regardless of who's running the draft.

But there were some differences brought in by new general manager Joe Schoen, a man who came from outside the organization to save it from its nearly decade-long floundering and decay.

From how the press conferences were set up--Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll spoke together, showing a united front so that the disseminated message was consistent--to the bringing in the Day 1 and Day 2 picks a day after they were drafted, it's clear that this regime has a much different approach to doing things.

"It went pretty much how I would plan it to go," said Schoen of his first draft as a general manager. "The only difficult part was with the players being in here two weeks early with the next head coach. So our schedule when we typically would have had uninterrupted meetings for a week or two with the coaches involved, those days were a little choppy. We had to move our schedule around."

Schoen isn't wasting much time getting started on next year. It's anticipated that there will be some tweaks made to the personnel department--there usually are when a new general manager comes in after a draft.

But unlike some teams who take a month or two after the draft to recharge, Schoen isn't wasting any time.

"It will start now. May and June, we'll already start looking at the players for next season, and our scouts have already gotten a list of the Top-5 UFAs, Top-5 players from their areas," he said.

"Next week, I may take a week, but we'll start looking down the road at what the players look like through free agency and the draft next week."

Here are a few other thoughts from the Giants' 2022 Draft.

A receiver in Round 2? The Giants selection of receiver Wan'Dale Robinson is interesting because, technically, the team now has three slot receivers--Sterling Shepard and Kadarius Toney--with similar skill sets.

As we all know, Shepard is recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered late last season, so there is a very strong possibility he's not ready to start the 2022 season on time. (He's also in the final year of his deal after agreeing to a revised contract.)

That leaves Toney (whom Schoen emphatically said is not being shopped despite reports to the contrary) and Robinson to man the slot. But if you're thinking that's still overkill, don't, because new head coach Brian Daboll isn't afraid to line up two slot receivers on either side of the formation as part of his 11-personnel package.

Oh, and for what it's worth, although Robinson and Toney are largely regarded as slot receivers, Daboll believes they can also play on the perimeter in certain circumstances.

That all being said, one player whose status is of interest is Darius Slayton. With the addition of Robinson, Slayton likely gets bumped down to the fourth receiver role. He's due to count for $2,598,721 against the cap this year--a rather big number given where he projects to fit on the depth chart.

Removing Slayton from the roster would save the Giants $2.54 million. So it should be a no-brainer, right?

Well, yes and no. Schoen and Daboll are conscious of the message they send to the rest of the locker room and that it probably would be frowned upon if they cut a young player (even though his production sharply declined since his 2019 rookie campaign) without giving him a chance to compete at least during the spring.

That's the only logical reason I can come up with as to why Slayton is still on the roster. Heck, he might very well turn into a solid contributor with a chance. But he needs to get that chance first, and if he does, who knows? Maybe Schoen gives him a modest extension that lowers that rather hefty cap number.

James Bradberry's Status. So much for the speculation that the Giants would trade cornerback James Bradberry during the draft. Hindsight might be 20/20, but in reality, as teams were adding younger and cheaper cornerbacks to their roster, it became more and more obvious that any iota of a market for Bradberry was going to dry up rather quickly.

So now what?

"We are going to work on that. We have had some conversations," Schoen said. "I've talked to his representative. We’ll see where that goes. I don't have a definitive answer on that right now, but we are working towards some contingency plans."

For those wondering, the contingency plans involve massaging Bradberry's $21+ million cap hit, of which $2 million of his $13.4 million base salary is already guaranteed to be on the Giants books.

The most likely scenario is for the Giants to lower that base salary to $3.035 million (the $2 million guaranteed plus the $1.035 million base for a player with Bradberry's accrued experience) and convert the rest to a signing bonus.

Therein lies the challenge. The Giants already have Bradberry on the books for 2023, thanks to a voidable year in which they'll have a $1.363 million dead money cap hit, so the Giants would need to figure out how to disburse the $10.365 million difference so as not to clog their cap.

The obvious way to do it is to add additional voidable years to Bradberry's deal to spread the $10.365 million out as thinly as possible. If the Giants spread it over two years, that's $5.182 million extra per year. Three years (the best case scenario) would make it a $3.455 million hit.

Schoen wasn't able to give a timetable as to when the contingency plan would be put in motion, but for the time being, he has time on his side since the rookies don't need to be signed until training camp.

Cap Crunch. At the start of the draft, the Giants were projected to need $12.5 million to sign their entire class. But with the trades in the second round, that number rose slightly to $12.676 million.

When it’s all said and done, Over the Cap estimates the Giants rookie class will cost them $20,431,645 against the cap (if all 11 picks make the 53-man roster).

That might not sound like good news for a Giants team that, as of May 1, has $6.22 million (per the NFLPA public cap report) of space to its name. Still, if the Giants can come to a resolution on James Bradberry’s number, they should be able to get enough to get the rookies signed before training camp.

Then, as cuts get made when the roster is reduced from 90 to 53, additional cap space should open up to give the Giants some breathing room to start the season.

How much remains to be seen, and there’s no question the Giants will have to tighten their belt and hope they don’t get hit hard again by injuries, but there is a small glimmer of optimism they’ll be okay financially once the season starts.

The Impact of This Year's Draft on 2023. A lot of people were hoping for the Giants to trade down in the first round and get an extra first-round draft pick just in case they need to compete to get a quarterback next year.

That, of course, didn't happen, not that many people are likely complaining given the Giants' selections of edge Kayvon Thibodeaux and offensive tackle Evan Neal in the first round.

But let's take a step back and try to get into the minds of the Giants brass regarding what their plan might have been when the opportunity to trade out of No. 7 never materialized.

In an ideal situation, quarterback Daniel Jones finally has the monster season everyone has been hoping he'd have, and the Giants don't have to worry about drafting a quarterback next year.

But if he doesn't, chances are that will mean the Giants will draft in the top half of the league again next year (since, you know, they wouldn't be very good if their quarterback play falters). And if the Giants do need a new quarterback, what's to stop them from finding their next Eli Manning by engineering a trade similar to what they managed to assemble to get Eli Manning.

Think about it. In 2004, the Giants were set to draft fourth overall, but they desperately wanted Manning. Unfortunately, they didn't have a second pick in the first round that year.

So to get him from the Chargers, they had to draft Phillip Rivers, the Giants' first-round pick that year and sent him their third-round pick (No. 65) and their first- and fifth-round selections in 2005 to the Chargers for Manning.

That deal left the Giants with four draft picks in 2005, but they had their franchise quarterback.

We don't know the draft order for next year, but with the Giants having loaded up on picks this year, who's to say that Schoen isn't making a contingency plan for 2023 to where if he needs a quarterback, he'll be prepared to give up a boatload of picks to move up for the guy he wants?

Forecasting Future Draft Interests? I found the relationship between the Giants' reported top-30 draft visits and their actual picks fascinating.

Evan Neal and Kayvon Thibodeaux were two top prospects known to have had a Top-30 meeting with the Giants. Receiver Wan'Dale Robinson, defensive backs Cor'Dale Flott and Dane Belton, and defensive lineman D.J. Davidson all alluded to having made visits to East Rutherford.

That's six of the 11 draft picks--at least 20 percent of their top 30 visits landing on their roster while the rest had personal meetings with either assistant general manager Brandon Brown or a position coach.

To be clear, previous Giants regimes had personal meetings and Top-30 visits with draft prospects. But quite often, those went nowhere, either because the players and team weren't a fit or because the Giants were hoping to disguise their intentions.

"Not to show my hand in the future--you guys are good at tracking this stuff -- but, yeah, we want to feel comfortable with the individuals as well as the player, and I think pretty much all these guys we spent a significant amount of time with, whether it was coming here or going to see them," Schoen said.

Draft Class Notable. I'm not sure if this was intentional or a happy coincidence, but one characteristic that jumped out at me about this year's Giants draft class is the group's average age, 21.5 years. Five players (Thibodeaux, Neal, Robinson, Belton, and Bellinger) are 21 years old. The youngest (Flott) is 20, and the oldest (Davidson) is 24.

Usually, the older the pick, the more experienced, more developed, and more mature the player. And can we all agree that this is what this Giants team desperately needed if it's to get back on track?

On the Offensive Line. Thus far, I have to say I like how Schoen has handled the offensive line rebuild.

The strategy always was to stock up on veterans for the interior, and to sweeten the pot, they landed a center in Jon Feliciano, who is familiar with the offensive principles Daboll likes to run, an understated but huge factor in the rebuild.

Meanwhile, Schoen restocked the cupboard, which had lacked young developmental talent, with guys like interior Joshua Ezeudu and Marcus McKethan. Both listed as guards, Ezeudu and McKethan will probably cross-train at center to increase their positional value to the team.

We won't know for certain if the offensive line is fixed, but certainly on paper, this unit looks as good as it's looked in quite some time. And if you add back in Nick Gates (hopefully) and Shane Lemieux (Mat Peart is likely not going to play this coming season as he recovers from a torn ACL), things appear to be looking up for the Giants offensive line's future.

A Subtle, Yet Key Draft Weekend Change. I mentioned this previously, but it's worth noting again. I like that the Giants brought in their Day 1 and Day 2 draft picks to the facility the day after selecting them.

No, it's not because it was a chance to get some additional quotes for a story--though that was a nice benefit. Rather, if my assumption is correct, this was a chance for these rookies to come in and get acquainted with the layout of the building, the staff, and other stuff that normally waits until they report for rookie minicamp.

Rookie minicamp can be a stressful time for young players, as is without having to wonder where the cafeteria or restrooms are, who to see if they need special equipment, and so forth.

So kudos to this regime for having the foresight to bring as many of these kids in early to get part of their eventual orientation out of the way in time to focus on learning the playbook and performing during the upcoming rookie minicamp.

By the Numbers. Maybe this only interests me, but back when Schoen was hired, he spoke of having 11 draft picks with which to work. Of course, at the time, he only had nine, but in the end, Schoen, who expressed a desire to get as many at-bats as possible, did end up with the 11 he first mentioned having.

Final Thoughts. For those screaming about the Day 2 picks, how the Giants reached, how this was the worst Day 2 draft in history, and whatever other embellished overreaction you might have, may I suggest you calm down and see how things unfold before you continue on a path that might jeopardize your blood pressure reading during your next doctor's visit?