What We Learned About New York Giants GM Joe Schoen Following Round 1 of Draft

There was a lot to be learned about general manager Joe Schoen following the first round of the NFL draft. And it all bodes well for the franchise's future.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Apr 29, 2022 11:30 AM EDT

In this story:

New York Giants

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the new Giants way.

The old way of building and running football teams, as we painfully learned over the last decade, had become so outdated that it led to a lot of misery and, to a degree, undue stress that emerged over attempts to do things "the right way."

That's why the Giants ownership, having finally had enough (or having realized that the George Young tree of football executives had dried up, take your pick), sought a fresh start with someone outside the building who had ties to a winning culture and program.

That someone, of course, is Joe Schoen, a first-time general manager who has come in and breathed new life to resuscitate a Giants football program that, for all intents and purposes, was dead on arrival the last several years.

Schoen has only been on the job for about four months, but based on what we've seen from him so far, he's got staying power, and he's also not going to allow himself to be pressured into doing anything he'll one day wake up to regret.

Let's take a look at what Schoen has shown and why Giants fans should rest easy at night, knowing that it won't be too long before the dark days of this franchise are about to end.

He's Patient

The best example of this is how Schoen is handling the James Bradberry situation. Whereas most new general managers would probably have taken whatever they were offered for Bradberry, the talented but cap-consuming ($21+ million) cornerback, Schoen has shown he's not about to settle for the sake of clearing cap space so he can re-invest in some new faces to build the franchisee according to his and head coach Brian Daboll's vision.

And nothing has changed in that regard, even though the top two cornerbacks in the draft, Derek Stinley Jr of LSU and Sauce Gardner of Cincinnati, are off the board.

"I've said it all along, there are contingency plans," Schoen said. "We still have three picks tomorrow night, a fourth, two fifths, and a sixth. There are plenty of picks to be had."

And if none of those picks are there that the Giants like and Schoen has to keep Bradberry, certainly it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world so long as the Giants can reduce the cornerback's monstrous cap figure.

He Goes With the Flow and Adjusts

Coming into this draft, it was widely believed that the Giants, come hell or high water, would take an offensive tackle with the fifth overall pick. Period. End of story.

But if you laid down money on that being the case, as much as it might hurt to lose, it was a blessing for the Giants. Schoen, as he watched the board take shape, knew that if he sat tight at No. 7, he would get his offensive tackle, so why not use the fifth overall pick to finally land a Batman pass rusher in Kayvon Thibodeaux, a player once regarded as the top overall pick in this draft?

That's exactly what the general manager did.

"We have been through these scenarios a million times," Schoen said. "We had seven or eight cards, and we just kept switching them back and forth based on different scenarios, and this is a scenario we went over. And if there were tackles on board and the pass rusher, we were going pass rusher knowing we could get a tackle at 7. We were ecstatic when that scenario came up."

So too were Giants fans, who can rest easy in knowing that this team finally appears to have a pass-rushing threat that can scare opposing offensive coordinators and a competent offensive line.

It's Nothing Personal

During my two-hour pre-draft LockedOn Giants podcast Wednesday night, the topic of fifth-year options came up, and I was adamant that I felt the Giants would decline quarterback Daniel Jones's option but exercise that of defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence's.

Several of the participants were quick to point out that doing so would send a bad message to the locker room because it would potentially show favoritism. But sure enough, that's what Schoen and the organization decided to do, and the decision made make total sense from a financial aspect.

That being said, if you're still of the opinion that this was something personal against Daniel Jones because Schoen didn't draft him (newsflash, he didn't draft Lawrence either), it's not.

"We met on it (Thursday), and it doesn't affect what we think about Daniel," Schoen said. "We like Daniel and the work he's been putting in. And we are excited where he is, and we are excited to work with him. It was a decision we thought was best for the New York Giants at this time."

He Ignores Outside Chatter

For as long as the draft has existed, there have been tactics used by teams to tilt the scales to their favor, and most of that has come through chatter that, thanks to the availability of social media, makes it far too easy to plant things that make one go "Hmmm" about players.

Such was the case for both the Giants' first-round draft picks, Oregon pass rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux and Alabama offensive tackle Evan Neal. With Thibodeaux, whispers began to pop up, questioning Thibodeaux's fire.

And with Neal, there were some late-breaking whispers about a medical issue that caused the offensive lineman to be medically flunked by some teams at the combine.

Schoen is not only too smart to fall for these old tricks but he's also shown he's thorough. Whereas he could have easily sat back and let the scouts do all the work on the top prospects and then read the reports, Schoen did his fair share of scouting as well--and then some.

In retrospect, he was at the pro days of those prospects that were thought to be on the top of the Giants' wish list.

He spent extra time with Thibodeaux, revealing that he had dined with the young man at a Korean barbecue establishment out in Eugene, Oregon.

When (Daboll) and I met with him during his visit, he was very calm, cool, and collected. And when I had one-on-one experiences with him--and when he's out and about in front of you guys, you might see a little bit more personality on him--but all in all, a really good kid, and got to like him throughout the process."

As for Neal, Schoen confirmed that eight percent of the teams had medical issues with the Alabama prospect based on the information that was shared, but Schoen noted that whatever issues Neal had, they didn't stop him from starting 40 games (the only game he missed was due to COVID).

"Our medical staff did a great job. They were on it," Schoen said. "Before any of that came out, we went through all that, and they mentioned what some teams had concerns with, and our doctors looked at it, and they were fine with everything. His play history backs that up."

He Came Prepared

The beauty of the NFL draft is you never know what's going to happen until teams get on the clock, so you better be prepared for everything and anything.

Sounds elementary, right? Yet that hasn't always been the case with Giants drafts, where you can probably make arguments that the team was caught flat-footed in 2016 when they lost out on Jack Conklin and Leonard Floyd only to make the knee-jerk reaction pick of cornerback Eli Apple and then again in 2021 when they traded down and settled for Kadarius Toney after losing out on prospects like defensive end Jaelen Phillips and linebackers Zaven Collins and Jamin Davis.

To that end, Schoen made sure to do a lot of extra work on at least seven players that might have heard their names called when the Giants were on the clock. Whether it was a pre-draft visit, extra time spent at pro days, or FaceTime calls, by the time this process was over, one gets the feeling that Schoen and the Giants knew everything there was to know about the top seven picks on the team's wishlist.

He's Not Resting on His Laurels

Remember how last year the Giants famously declared they felt good about their offensive line, so much so that they didn't address it in the draft or after?

We know how that worked out (though, to be fair, injuries did play a factor). That said, one of the biggest mistakes a general manager can make is to rest on his laurels and not continue to seek upgrades at all positions.

Schoen, at least so far, isn't like that. Although he's pledged his belief in quarterback Daniel Jones, he also said that wouldn't stop him from leaving his options open regarding potential upgrades.

As for the offensive line, don't expect Schoen to make any declarations about the line finally being fixed before they take the field in pads.

"We haven't been in pads yet. I hope so, but again, there will be competition across all positions, and I feel like we've upgraded it from where I was here. We had four or five offensive linemen when you got here, and we've added some veteran guys we like, Jamil Douglas, Garcia, Feliciano, Glowinski. We are happy with those guys, Gono," he said.

"And then now adding Evan Neal, I think it's an interesting group, and there's some interior depth. And Matt Peart, when he comes back, all of a sudden, I think we could potentially be operating from a position of strength at that position."