What Did the Giants Do in the Annual Fan Nation Publishers Mock Draft?

The 32 Fan Nation publishers recently held their 2024 mock draft. How did the board fall and where did that leave the Giants?

In less than a week, the first round of the 2024 NFL draft will be over, settling the countless debates about what the NFL community really thinks about the quarterbacks and, probably more importantly for New York Giants fans, what they really plan to do in the first round.

Until then, the Fan Nation site publishers recently ran their own mock draft, one that did not allow for trades. This mock saw five quarterbacks come off the board within the first 12 picks and seven receivers selected (aligning with what Giants general manager Joe Schoen predicted when he opined that several receivers would likely come off the board in the first round).

Speaking of the Giants, what direction did they go in the Fan Nation mock draft?

With the sixth overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the New York Giants select...

Rome Odunze, WR, Washington

Whenever I have been asked for my opinion on what the Giants will do in the first round of the draft, I have consistently said I believe they will go get a No. 1 receiver, and nothing that Schoen said during his pre-draft press conference has changed my mind.

Regardless of the quarterback, the Giants offense hasn't had a No. 1 receiver or any receiver who has recorded at least 1,000 receiving yards since Odell Beckham Jr. in 2018. In Odunze, I see everything the Giants hoped to get in Kenny Golladay when they signed him to a free-agent contract a few years ago.

Odunze,  (Ohio State's Marvin Harrison Jr and LSU's Malik Nabers being the other two and both having), is a big target with a tremendous catch radius and a guy who, if the quarterback gets the ball into his neighborhood, is more than likely to come up with the catch than not.

By the time the Giants went on the clock, both Harrison and Nabers were off the board, leaving Odunze as the last of the "Big 3." Not that it mattered because I still would have gone with Odunze, who, as I also noted in my explanation of the pick, is the type of receiver who should be able to fix a lot of what ails the Giants offense.

" With New York looking to become more vertical and improve on its last-place ranking in explosive plays last season,  to take the Giants’ offense to the next level."

Schoen agrees that adding a legitimate X-receiver could do wonders for a Giants offense that struggled to score last season and finished last in the league in explosive plays.

"It can really help you, especially the way we're constructed now," he said. "If you add another wide receiver there, whether it's in the top 10 or later in the draft because of the depth of the class, I do think it gives you options, and it's going to help the offense in general. ... At the end of the day, we need to score more points. Adding... just a better receiving weapon will help everybody."

For those wondering, Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy was still on the board (Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, and Drake Maye were not). McCarthy might become a good player, but I went with Odunze, the better value at that spot.

For those wondering, if trades had been permitted, I would have contemplated moving down a few spots (even if it meant missing out on Odunze) because as Schoen also said, the Giants still have a lot of needs and only six picks to fill them all. 

Given how deep this receiver class is, I believe the Giants might have had luck in finding a No. 1 receiver even if they moved down a few spots.

The team I would have looked to trade with is Denver, who holds the No. 12 spot. The Broncos, who need a quarterback, managed to come away with Bo Nix in this draft, but I can't help but wonder if maybe they would have preferred McCarthy, who went to the Vikings at No. 11 instead.

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