Wide receiver remains the primary curiosity as Giants’ 2023 NFL Draft nears
Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley, Darren Waller and the rest of the Giants’ skill players looked like they had a productive and enjoyable workout in Arizona last week.
All that was missing was a star No. 1 wide receiver. At least that’s what it seems like with the NFL Draft two and a half weeks away.
Brian Daboll has a lot of very good players on offense, including a new ‘X’ factor tight end in Waller, a new versatile receiver in Parris Campbell and a new veteran playmaker in Jamison Crowder.
Isaiah Hodgins and Darius Slayton re-signed after strong seasons on the outside. Sterling Shepard and Wan’Dale Robinson are working to get healthy. And tight end Lawrence Cager seems to have untapped, receiver-like upside.
But this franchise hasn’t had a true star receiver since Odell Beckham Jr. was traded in 2019. The Giants have either underestimated the severity of their need at the position or tripped over themselves trying to fill it since.
And so, for good reason, the Giants fan base is eyeing the NFL Draft’s first round on April 27 wondering what in the name of Golden Tate, Kenny Golladay and Kadarius Toney this new regime is going to do about it.
That isn’t the only need this team has, though. The Giants don’t pick until No. 25 overall, so there will be a lot that’s out of their control on draft night.
Several league sources don’t believe that top receivers such as Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba and USC’s Jordan Addison will fall to the Giants’ pick. Boston College’s Zay Flowers has generated serious buzz, too.
The board might set up better for the Giants to get an outside corner or interior offensive lineman, which would be far less sexy selections even if they would dramatically help the team.
So what will GM Joe Schoen do? He holds 10 picks, including two fifth-rounders and three seventh-round picks. None of these receivers are viewed as transcendent talents, but could Schoen entertain a trade up to augment Jones’ receiving corps?
Daboll, when asked about Smith-Njigba at the NFL owners’ meetings, hinted at how that draft night uncertainty might play out.
“I think he’s a heck of a player,” Daboll said of the Buckeyes standout. “He’s got a lot of good qualities. He’s a great young man. It was a good visit. That’s just part of the process. This isn’t college. You’re not recruiting. You’re just getting to know people. You never know what’s going to happen throughout the draft or who’s gonna be there, or is there gonna be a trade down or a trade up? Or is something else gonna happen?”
The Giants know the need still exists. They’re not pretending like their offense is a finished product yet.
Co-owner John Mara indicated at the NFL owners meetings that another receiver could be on the way to New York.
“Our receiver room I think is better than it was a year ago,” Mara said. “We may end up adding someone else in the draft or possibly another free agent, I don’t know yet.”
Beckham was a free agent option if he was going to come on the cheap, just never near a price like the $15 million the Baltimore Ravens are paying him.
After signing Jones to a four-year, $160 million extension, the Giants organization has never been more motivated to add weapons to help their young quarterback’s growth.
As talented as Barkley is at running back, the Giants aren’t paying Jones $40 million a year to hand the ball off 25 times a game in a conservative, ground and pound offense.
They want to open this up.
Schoen’s trade for Waller in March, however, was clearly motivated in part by the lack of high-end options he saw in this year’s free agent and draft classes.
“He’s an offensive weapon. Again, who are those weapons that are available?” Schoen said at the NFL owners meetings. “You have a free agency cycle, you have players that are available for a trade, and you have a draft. So where can we find a player that has a dynamic skill set that can help us?
“The value met what we were willing to play,” he said of Waller. “So adding him, he’s a blue player [on the Giants’ grading scale], a Pro Bowl type player.”
In addition, the receiver trade market for proven players like the Broncos’ Jerry Jeudy and the Cardinals’ DeAndre Hopkins seemed too rich.
That’s not to say Schoen can’t still fill his need with a trade.
Bills wide receiver Gabe Davis could be a trade target if Buffalo doesn’t extend its No. 2 wideout. That might be difficult for GM Brandon Beane to do with Stefon Diggs already on a big contract.
Schoen helped draft Davis in 2020, so he knows the big-play wideout and his No. 1 potential better than most.
It’s also important to remember that the Giants don’t have to draft a receiver in round one.
Schoen danced around the draft board last spring to select the undersized Robinson (5-8, 185 pounds) out of Kentucky, after selecting edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux and right tackle Evan Neal in the first round.
This April, a player like Cincinnati’s Tyler Scott (5-9, 177), a high school former track and field star with 4.37 speed, might be an attractive big-play addition in round two.
“This kid can run,” NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell said on The Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard podcast. “He is vertically explosive, but there’s more to him than that. His speed shows up on tape. He plays to his speed. That’s important.
“Then you get caught up with how the game is today with bubble screens, tunnel screens, jet sweeps. Those plays have become important in today’s NFL. You want to get guys who can run the ball on the move to take advantage of their speed.”
Of course, no matter what Schoen does on draft day, it will be Daboll’s job to make it all work.
The coach had success last season harnessing the talents of under-the-radar players like Hodgins and James but also failed to get anything out of Toney, who was traded to Kansas City and made two of the biggest plays in the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
It will take all the Giants’ parts to make this work.
But first things first: the NFL Draft, and another opportunity for Schoen to upgrade Jones’ improved — yet incomplete — arsenal.
