Mel Kiper Jr Mocks Receiver to Giants At No. 6

NFL Mock draft season is in full swing, and famed ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper, Jr is out with his first mock draft of 2024.

Kiper has the Giants landing LSU receiver Malik Nabers in the first round after mocking the top three quarterbacks in the draft (Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, and Drake Maye) to be the first three picks off the board.

Kiper then has Ohio State receiver Marvin Harrison Jr mocked to the Arizona Cardinals at No. 4, Georgia tight end Brock Bowers to the Los Angeles Chargers at five, and then Nabers to the Giants at No. 6 after debating whether to mock an offensive lineman to the Giants or a receiver.

New York's quarterbacks were sacked a whopping 85 times, the most in the league, and the offense ranked 30th in yards per play (4.5),” Kiper wrote. “The Giants used top-10 picks on offensive linemen in 2020 (Andrew Thomas) and 2022 (Evan Neal), but I absolutely could see them doing it again, as tackles Joe Alt (Notre Dame) and Olu Fashanu (Penn State) are still available in this scenario.

Still, I keep coming back to getting Jones more help, as he has never played with a true No. 1 wide receiver. Nabers could be that. He's coming off an 89-catch, 1,569-yard season catching passes from Jayden Daniels, and he has a rare combination of speed and route-running ability. He led the FBS with 17 catches of 30-plus yards. The Giants had just 15 total 30-plus yard receptions last season, five of which were from rookie third-rounder Jalin Hyatt.”

If the top three quarterbacks are off the board, going the wide receiver route makes the most sense despite the acknowledged problems on the offensive line. The Giants have two core pieces on the offensive line in left tackle Andrew Thomas and center John Michael Schmitz.

Evan Neal, coming off his second straight disappointing season, may or may not flourish under new offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo. However, it remains to be seen if Bricillo agrees with general manager Joe Schoen’s belief that Neal is a right tackle.

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The Giants could also look to land a veteran offensive lineman in free agency, which would make sense, especially given the youth on the current unit. We all saw how Justin Pugh, a veteran, came in and helped to calm down an offensive line unit that was giving up far too many jailbreaks and blowing assignments at an alarming rate. Landing a veteran presence would not only help maintain that sense of calm, but if it’s a good enough player, it would give the Giants at least three potentially solid players on the unit.

Then again, perhaps the Giants are ready to run it back with Neal at right tackle, figuring that between injuries and a lack of quality coaching in the two years he’s been in the pros, there is still more they feel they can get out of him. Neal's lack of development is the elephant in the room that the Giants cannot continue to ignore or just hope goes away. So, the argument for an offensive tackle makes sense if they’d rather devote financial resources in free agency to other positions.

Getting back to receiver, the Giants had hopes of tight end Darren Waller being their go-to guy on offense. Unfortunately, the 31-year-old Waller’s injury history continued to play a factor, leaving the team with questions about his long-term future with the club.

And while the Giants do have a solid enough receiver core group in Darius Slayton, Wan’Dale Robinson, and Jalin Hyatt, none are regarded as a No. 1 receiver cable of regularly drawing double coverage in the way that Odell Beckham Jr, the Giants’ last No. 1 receiver, used to do regularly.

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