New York Giants 2020 Combine Preview

Year 3 of Giants general manager Dave Gettleman's roster rebuild will be the most critical one to date if new head coach Joe Judge is to successfully launch his tenure.

The Giants are hoping that when it comes to their new coaching staff, the third staff implemented since 2016, will be a charm.

Giants ownership is confident that this time they got it right by plucking former Patriots special teams coordinator and receivers coach Joe Judge out of a small candidate pool to be their head coach. Although there's a long way to go before determining if the gamble pays off, Judge did share an overall vision for what he wants the Giants football team to look like moving forward and has a plan to get them there.

He told reporters at his introductory press conference that he wants a fundamentally sound football team, and to help the players become that, he was interested in hiring teachers for his staff.

A little more than six weeks later, Judge has his coaching staff in place as well as his off-season football program which will begin April 6, the earliest teams with a new head coach can commence their three-part off-season program.

In addition to having a new coaching staff, the Giants will go into the offseason without long-time veteran quarterback Eli Manning, who retired after a 16-year career.

Although Manning told reporters that he felt he could still play the game, he was not willing to play second fiddle behind Daniel Jones, whose continued development will be high atop of Judge's to-do list this off-season.

2019 Season in Review

After an encouraging end to the first year of head coach Pat Shurmur's tenure, everyone in the organization was expecting bigger and better things for 2019.

Unfortunately, those bigger and better things never materialized, as the Giants, despite adding some new talent on both sides of the ball, finished one win less than they did in 2018, a record that resulted in Shurmur's termination.

There is a strong case to be made that the Giants team assembled last year was not a four-win team. One can point to the use--or is that misuse?--of critical players like running back Saquon Barkley and tight end Evan Engram on offense, and linebacker Lorenzo Carter on defense.

One can also point to the coaching that resulted in the offensive line taking a collective step backward or the defensive secondary making the same mistakes in Week 17 as it did in Week 1.

Whatever you want to point to, the perfect storm of events led to the Giants finishing third in the division and with their fourth top-10 draft pick in the last five years. The hope is that the addition of Judge and his staff of teachers combined with another solid offseason of personnel additions will finally get this train moving in the right direction.

2020 Draft Position

The Giants currently hold the No. 4 overall pick in the draft, the fourth time in the last five seasons they have held a top-10 draft pick and the second time in the previous three drafts that they've been in the top five.

In all that time, the Giants have never moved down in the first round to acquire more assets despite having many needs that even the most efficient of draft classes can't address. (The last time they traded down in the first round was in 2006 when they dropped six spots to get defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka at No. 32.)

With the Giants having acquired a franchise quarterback and running back, they need to rethink that practice. Ideally, the Giants try to work out a deal with a quarterback-needy team allowing the Giants slide down a few spots and still be in a position to select an offensive tackle while also acquiring additional draft assets.

Helped Wanted/Needed

When a team is continuously finding itself drafting in the top-10, that's never a good thing.

But with that said, when the opportunity is there to draft potential building blocks that can be a part of the franchise for years to come, the decisions made must be wise.

Enter the Giants, who since 2015, have used a top 10 draft pick on left tackle Ereck Flowers (No. 9 overall, 2015), cornerback Eli Apple (No. 10 overall, 2016), running back Saquon Barkley (No. 2 overall, 2018) and quarterback Daniel Jones (No. 6 overall, 2019). neither Flowers or Apple, drafted by the previous management regime, made it through their respective rookie deals while the prospects for Barkley and Jones look more promising.

So what approach might the Giants take regarding matching need to value?

On the surface, the defense is in dire need of playmakers, with many mock drafts having the Giants grabbing Clemson linebacker Isaiah Simmons with that fourth overall pick.

In terms of value, the Giants must ask themselves if Simmons can give them double-digit sacks in consecutive seasons or if they might be better off using their first pick on an offensive tackle that can be a pillar of the offense for years to come.

Five Players the Giants Must Watch

The Giants currently have three picks in the top 100 (Nos. 4, 36, and 100). Although they're likely to get a compensatory pick at the end of the third round (for having lost safety Landon Collins in free agency last year), given their needs, they'd be much better off if they could work out a deal to trade down in the first round to acquire more assets.

The Giants' two most significant needs are offensive tackle and edge rusher. At offensive tackle, they not only have a hole at right tackle given that Mike Remmers will be a UFA, but they'll also probably want to address the left tackle position since Nate Solder is not the long-term solution at the position.

If the Giants go offensive tackle in the first round, a name to watch is Georgia left tackle Andrew Thomas (6-foot 5, 320 pounds). One of Thomas' many strengths is his run blocking, where he particularly excels in working on combo blocks.

He is also a solid pass blocker as well and consistently excelled against some of college football's toughest competition. Thomas could easily be a Day 1 starter whose presence would likely prompt the shift of Solder to the right side.

If the Giants decide to go defense in the first round, Clemson linebacker Isaiah Simmons (6-foot 4, 230 pounds) is a name to watch.

Simmons is the very definition of a "chess piece"--a guy whose skills enable him to fill multiple roles (which he does at a high level), which would make him a tremendous value for an NFL defense looking to be multiple.

In the past, the Giants have struggled with adding linebackers who are proficient in rushing the passer and dropping back in coverage, two things Simmons has shown himself capable of doing.

Wisconsin center Tyler Biadasz (6-foot 3, 316 pounds) is a player of interest who could project in the second round. Biadasz is currently projected as a Day 2 pick and is someone who plays with a nice combination of power and smarts in getting the protections set and sealing off defenders.

Incumbent Jon Halapio is recovering from an Achilles injury suffered in the 2019 regular-season finale. While there is optimism that he'll be ready to go, the Giants were likely going to upgrade that spot anyway.

Short of moving Kevin Zeitler to center (which would open up a spot on the starting line for Nick Gates), the Giants are going to have to bring in a new starting center from the outside.

The big question is whether they would feel comfortable throwing a rookie right into the deep end or if they would prefer a seasoned veteran to handle to complexities that come with playing in the NFL.

Wisconsin linebacker Zack Braun (6-foot 3, 235 pounds) s another potential Day 2 prospect. Braun, who was college teammates with Giants linebacker Ryan Connelly, plays a similar type of game, wasting little movement and taking smart angles to the ball carrier.

Braun wasn't asked to do much in coverage, but when he did, he showed the range and quickness to close in.

LSU defensive back Grant Delpit (6-foot 3, 208 pounds) is another name to watch for a potential "Swiss Army knife" type of player.

Delpit, in many ways, reminds one of fellow LSU alumni Tyrann Mathieu, who just recently helped the Kansas City Chiefs win a Super Bowl. A "Swiss Army knife" talent who can be used in a variety of different roles, including as a deep safety, a slot cornerback and as a pseudo linebacker.

For years, the Giants have been toasted by running backs and tight ends able to exploit the middle of the field. Delpit has shown that he can keep up with these players at the college level. He is also a sound tackler who often doesn't let ball carriers past him for large chunks of yardage after the catch.

Who Makes The Call and Recent Draft Hits and Misses

The Giants have always insisted that the draft selection process is collaborative. Still, given the high number of swings and misses they had before the arrival of Dave Gettleman as general manager, it's hard to believe that both the personnel department and the coaching staff were always on the same page.

For further evidence that the Giants are trying to get better at personnel selection, team president John Mara recently mentioned how the franchise has revamped its approach to roster building under Gettleman, which likely why Gettleman was retained for at least another season.

Gettleman himself has always said that he believes in collaboration with the coaching staff to make sure they have what they need to win. But that doesn't mean that the coaching staff is going to get everything they ask for as if there is a split in opinion, Gettleman will have the final stay.

Still, it's believed that rather than imposing his will without explanation, Gettleman holds open discussions to promote buy-in, especially in instances where a cluster of players have similar grades.

So far, his approach has worked as since taking over as general manager, Gettleman's first two draft classes have yielded eight starters (out of 16 picks) and five backups with only one player (quarterback Kyle Lauletta) no longer on the team's roster. And after just one year, his 2019 draft haul earned the top grade among the NFC East teams, according to NFL.com.

Before that, in the 2015-17 drafts, which were the last three of the Jerry Reese regime, the Giants concluded the 2019 season with three starters and one backup remaining from the 18 picks made over that period, with nine players having moved on to other teams and five out of the league.

Given how barren the Giants talent levels were before Gettleman's hire, there is still a very long way to go before the problems on this team are fixed.

Gettleman appears to be on a three-year rebuild plan and that if this team doesn't begin showing progress in the form of more wins this year, he too might be sent packing, thus making this upcoming off-season one of the most important yet of Gettleman's short Giants tenure.