Pretty much every year since we started doing this back in the late 1990s we have joked that pretty much every year there were 32 NFL GMs claiming the morning after that they ‘couldn’t believe’ that the guy they got in the opening round of the draft that year was still on the board when they got on the clock! And its almost always hyperbole! But not so much this year for the Giants. John Harbaugh, for example, called getting former Ohio State LB Arvell Reese with the 5th pick this year a ‘pipe-dream’ and something they hadn’t even mocked on the first episode of the Giants Life draft videos. It was also pretty clear from Harbaugh’s musing when Arizona was on the clock that if the Cardinals did pass on Jeremiyah Love the Giants were guaranteed a shot at one of their two top-rated players that Reese was either 1, 1a or 2 on the their board. Of course, the Giants did need some help from their friends: in particular, the Jets taking David Bailey over Reese with the 2nd pick, as well Tennessee shocking the world by taking Carnel Tate over his more highly-rated teammate with the 4th pick, but hey the Giants were due a little help from the draft god’s.

One side note on the Reese pick. It is also very possible that Reese wasn’t necessarily all that thrilled about going to the Giants. Not that he had hard feelings toward the team or its management, but he had made it pretty clear during the draft process that he would prefer to go to a team that was going to use him more as an edge rusher as opposed to as an off-ball LB, presumably because ERs generally make a lot more money than pure LBs. Of course, that isn’t going to happen with the Giants who are already pretty well stocked with ERs, at least right away. Just something to keep an eye on going forward.

In fact, in getting to Reese, the Giants don’t appear to have done much more than sit tight and watch developments unfold over the picks ahead of them. On the other had, it appears they may have been a little more pro-active getting to the 10th pick where they selected rugged Miami G/T Sisi Mauigoa. Indeed, while it hasn’t received much public discussion, the Giants actually appear to have tried to trade up, presumably with Cleveland with the 6th pick, again presumably to get the guy they were intending to take at #5 had either of Love or Reese not been available.

We say presumably Cleveland because Harbaugh and Joe Schoen were both seen on the video anguishing about including the 37th pick in the discussed deal to move up and the 10th and 37th picks combined in fact would have actually have been enough to get the Giants close to the 4th pick. It was also true that the Browns were talking with Kansas City which eventually did make the move up to #6 in a deal that included the 9th pick along with the Chiefs 3rd and 5th round selections. And because the Giants did not have a #3 – damn you Jaxson Dart!! – it makes some sense that they would have had t0 consider giving up their 2d rounder to beat the Chiefs’ offer.

Unfortunately, while the Giants Life video did provide some neat info, it also left us wanting more such as if the Giants were in fact considering that deal who ultimately put the kibosh on it: Harbaugh? Schoen? Mara? or did Harbaugh/Schoen make some kind of collective choice. The other question, of course, was which player were the targeting. We would case it was either LSU CB Mansoor Delane, who the Chiefs did select with the 6th pick, or Arizona State WR Jordyn Tyson, who went two picks late to New Orleans. If we had to bet we’d say Tyson as it was the WRs in general that the Giants were talking about. Harbuagh mused rather sardonically bout Tate and Tyson going earlier than expected; Schoen announcing that Tyson was off the board after the Saints pick; that the Giants focus on Mauigoa only appeared after the Tyson pick; and lastly that when the Giants did make a bold move up on the second day of the draft it was for a WR.

We would add a disclaimer, though, on our ‘bet.’  During the draft process, we did get out ahead of the pack in suggesting that based on our reading of the tea leaves that WR in general, and Tyson, in particular, were the most probable Giants’ targets at #5. We are also wary of reading too much into the GL videos as they are edited by the team to make the team look good; plus way too much, at least for our tastes, is left out.

As interesting as the Giants first day picks were, the second may have been even more revealing, not so much in the players they ultimately selected – and they were good prospects – but in how they got to those picks which may have belied a lot of how fans and the media think NFL teams in general, and the Giants in particular approach the draft.

Again, one always wants to maintain a certain skepticism about edited videos like the Giants Life draft editions, but if they are to be believed, the Giants entered the second round intending to either select Tennessee CB Colton Hood with the 37th pick or to trade down if he was not available. And it appears that they in fact had at least one reasonably attractive offer on the table at that time. Then once the Hood pick was made, the Giants pivoted almost immediately to Malachi Fields. In fact, it appears as if Schoen was rebuffed by several teams before finally finding a taker in Cleveland will to send over the 74th pick. Again the video didn’t offer up much in the way of details, but my guess would be that because the Giants still didn’t have a 3rd round pick (double damn you Jaxson Dart!!) they were going to have to pony up a 2027 selection to complete the deal. However, they were likely unwilling to part with a top 100 pick in next year’s rich draft and the Browns were the first team willing to accept a 2027 3rd day pick.

What makes the Giants second day picks so interesting, again if one is to believe the video, is that the Giants appear to have gone into the day very much focused on just two players. There was no sitting around checking names off their board as other teams made their picks and then selecting a guy they viewed as either the BPA or who met a major need when they finally got on the clock. And that was especially true of Fields who appears could have gone to the Giants anywhere from pick #40 thru 80, just when ever they could finally get him at a price with which they were comfortable. Basically stuff that’s worked out before the draft even finer than say a short list, although one has to figure that part of the deal would also include  Plan Bs and beyond when things didn’t workout.

One of the other things we really like to do watching videos like the Giants Life draft pieces is to try and pick up on the interactions between the team’s main players. If there is a call to be made who makes it? Who has a voice at the table? What’s ownership’s involvement in the draft room? Etc. Unfortunately, as we have noted, the videos do tend to be a little limited in that regard in that they tend to show what they want to show us. But certainly what we saw this year appeared to be a pretty smooth draft-day working relationship between John Harbaugh and Joe Schoen with the former leading the content discussion and the latter working the phones.

It is certainly hard to imagine Schoen going anywhere in the short-term. We also note, for example, that there are a couple of poster photos out there these days, one an ad for a Giants team hall which featured Dart, but also included Harbaugh AND Schoen, and a second with first-round picks Reese and Mauigoa that again included but Harbaugh and Schoen. They simply aren’t going to be prominently displaying someone they are thinking of firing that way.

A couple of other thoughts on the Harbaugh/Schoen dichotomy. One is that by keeping Schoen around for at least another year, gives Harbaugh a chance to extend his honeymoon if things did not go as well this fall as hoped. If the team struggles blame it on Joe; and trust me the fans will buy it. The other part of the equation is Schoen himself and does he want to stay in this relationship. My guess he would have been queried as to Harbaugh’s elevated status prior to the signing. Not that it would have stopped the Giants from bringing in Harbaugh, but clearly they would have wanted everyone to be comfortable with the new situation.

We also had a thought watching Harbaugh and Schoen run the draft that it reminded us of the old ‘two-chairs’ drafting system introduced by George Young when he arrived in New York back in 1979. Essentially the picks in those days were made by the head of scouting (Tom Boisture) working with the head coach with Young casting the deciding vote if there was a major disagreement. As far as we can figure, the Giants largely moved away from that system in the early part of this century as it caused so much friction between the coaching and scouting staffs, and evolved more towards a short-list system that were put together by both groups prior to the draft. So watching Harbaugh and Schoen sitting side-by-side, heads together, exchanging thoughts on the evolving situation, had a little bit of that old-time feeling!