There is no more enlightening and sobering way to chronicle the ebb and flow of an NFL franchise than to recount its NFL Draft experience. Year by year, round by round, pick by pick, a story emerges, revealing a history that can either excite or indict.
The 2022 NFL Draft begins Thursday night with the first round, the start of a three-day orgy of selections, knee-jerk evaluations, hot takes, premature assignment of grades, hope and despair coming to a city near you.
This will be my 29th draft covering the Giants, and the significance of this player procurement endeavor has never been more pronounced. The Giants have picks Nos. 5 and 7 in the first round, three of the top 36 picks and five of the top 81. This is Year 1 for general manager Joe Schoen. If he has more hits than misses, he’ll set a sound foundation for the Giants for years to come.
The first-round pick for the Giants in 1994, my first as a Giants’ beat writer, was Thomas Lewis, a sleek wide receiver from Indiana. He had four receptions as a rookie and just 12 in his second season. Two years later, he was out of the league. Lewis was a product of his environment: In his four years, the Giants never identified a legitimate starting quarterback and the passing attack was always suspect. It was my first clear indication that the success or failure of a player is based on many factors and only some of those factors are under his control.
