Giants Senior Bowl preview

January 25, 2021

With the scouting combine pretty much cancelled and the pro day schedule almost certain to be limited this year, the Senior Bowl which gets underway tomorrow in Mobile takes on added importance in this year’s draft process. And this year’s Senior Bowl presents an interesting opportunity for the Giants in their draft prep. In particular, while WR and CB, two positions the Giants are widely expected to be looking to upgrade in this year’s draft, are the deepest areas in this year’s draft class overall, a pretty good case can be made that DEs and ERs is the strongest position overall in Mobile. That could benefit the Giants as edge rusher is another position they are known to want to address this off-season, but of the three areas of greatest concern its going to be the most difficult to accomplish this year. Certainly, unless they take a gamble on a DE/ER like Greg Rousseau with the 11th pick this coming April, its unlikely they’ll be able to address the pass rush in the opening round. That means if they are going to do anything at the position in this year’s draft they’ll most likely have to do it in later rounds.

Fortunately, there are a number of DE/ER types worth checking out in Mobile this week including, in no particular order, DEs Patrick Jones and Rashad Weaver of Pittsburgh, Carlos Basham of Wake Forest, small-school star Elerson Smith of Northern Iowa, Jordan Smith of UAB, Tarron Jackson of Coastal Carolina, and Iowa’s Chauncey Golston; Miami ER Quincy Roche; and OLBs Hasmilcar Rashed of Oregon State, 6-7 Charles Snowden of Virginia, Chazz Surratt of North Carolina and LSU’s Jabrill Cox.

The Giants will obviously also want to take a close look at Alabama WR DeVonta Smith. Our thinking at this moment is that if the draft were held this week they would go into it with the primary goal of coming away with one of this year’s top three WRs including Smith, his Alabama teammate jaylen Waddle and Ja’marr Chase of LSU. However, if all three of those receivers are selected before the 11th pick – and its maybe 50-50 whether they are – the Giants will be in something of a ‘What if … ‘ mode. And one of those ‘What if … ‘ modes could be looking at Florida WR Kadarius Toney, one of the fastest most explosive receivers in college football this year, who now looks like he’s flirting with a top 20 grade on a lot of boards around the league. He’ll be in Mobile as will several other intriguing second-tier receivers including Amari Rodgers of Clemson, Oklahoma State’s Tylan Wallace and sage Surratt of Wake Forest. The Giants will also note doubt be looking at Boston College TE Hunter Long, another skill position guy who’d make sense in the 3rd round, while Aaron Robinson of Central Florida is arguably the top-rated corner scheduled to be in Mobile this week. Meanwhile, offensive linemen the Giants could be interested include Oklahoma C Creed Humphrey, OG Aaron Banks of Notre Dame, Tennessee G/T Trey Smith and OTs Dillon Radunz of North Dakota State and 6-9 Spencer Brown, yet another Northern Iowa grad.

Enjoy the week!!