Giants’ gamble on their offensive line better be right, examining Kadarius Toney and more NFL Draft takeaways

Emptying the notebook with 11 takeaways, notes and thoughts on the Giants’ draft:

1. The Giants addressed most of their biggest needs this offseason.

They needed to upgrade their wide receiver corps, so they signed Kenny Golladay to a four-year, $72 million contract and drafted Florida’s Kadarius Toney in the first round. They gave Leonard Williams a three-year, $63 million extension to retain their top pass rusher and added Georgia’s Azeez Ojulari in the second round. Their second cornerback spot was a major weakness last season, so they gave Adoree’ Jackson a three-year, $39 million contract and took UCF’s Aaron Robinson in the third round.

Meanwhile, the offensive line appears weaker. The Giants cut their steadiest offensive lineman, right guard Kevin Zeitler, to create cap space to fund some of their spending at other positions. Their biggest offensive line investment in free agency was a one-year, $1.2 million contract for veteran guard Zach Fulton, who allowed a league-high 11 sacks last season. The Giants didn’t use any of their six draft picks on offensive linemen.

“It’s really apparent that we have a little more confidence in our offensive linemen than you guys do,” general manager Dave Gettleman said to reporters after the draft. “So I’m just going to say we’re happy with the group that we have.”

The Giants would have taken Oregon tackle Penei Sewell if he fell to them with the 11th pick in the first round, but they knew that was a long shot. Sewell went No. 7 to Detroit and the Giants had no intention of taking another offensive lineman in the first round a year after using the fourth pick on left tackle Andrew Thomas.

The Giants traded back from No. 11, passing on Northwestern tackle Rashawn Slater and USC guard Alijah Vera-Tucker, who went No. 13 and 14, respectively. The Giants had their eyes on a few linemen in the second round, but the Eagles took Alabama guard Landon Dickerson with the 37th pick, five spots ahead of the Giants. The Giants then traded back to No. 50 and another offensive lineman they liked, Notre Dame’s Aaron Banks, went to the 49ers with the 48th pick.

At that point, the Giants weren’t going to force a pick on an offensive lineman, especially since they got strong value with Ojulari at No. 50 and Robinson early in the third round.

The Giants liked Tennessee guard Trey Smith, but they didn’t draft him because of his medical red flags (he was diagnosed with blood clots in his lungs), according to a source. Smith, widely viewed as a third-round prospect, tumbled to the Chiefs in the sixth round.

“You’re not going to take a player just to take a player,” Gettleman said. “You take a player because you think he’s going to improve the value of your team. Right now, our offensive line is what it is, the players are who they are and we’re going to move forward.”

The Giants made a significant investment in the offensive line in last year’s draft. In addition to Thomas, they took tackle Matt Peart in the third round and guard Shane Lemieux in the fifth round.

Peart and Lemieux were predictably uneven as rookies, but the Giants believe they can develop. There’s a belief within the organization that many of the young line’s struggles last season can be attributed to coaching.

Head coach Joe Judge clearly wasn’t pleased with the job done by offensive line coach Marc Colombo, who was fired in Week 11 last season. Colombo was replaced by veteran O-line coach Dave DeGuglielmo, who was initially slated to join the staff as a consultant. The internal belief is that the line made strides later in the season, with Thomas’ progress the most apparent.

DeGuglielmo left after the season when the sides couldn’t agree on a contract, so Judge embarked on an extensive search to fill the vital role. Rob Sale, who worked with Judge at Alabama from 2009 to 2011, got the job.

Sale is respected for his work at the college level, but he has never coached in the NFL. So Judge added Pat Flaherty, who served as Tom Coughlin’s offensive line coach in New York from 2004 to 2015, as an advisor. Additionally, Freddie Kitchens transitioned from tight ends coach to senior offensive assistant, which will allow him to work more with the offensive line.

Thomas, Lemieux and Peart will be joined by fourth-year veteran Will Hernandez, who will likely be playing right guard for the first time in his career, and Nick Gates, who will be in his second season at any level at center. That has to be the youngest offensive line in the league. They have Nate Solder as an experienced backup tackle and still could add a veteran guard like Trai Turner, but the odds of landing a bona fide upgrade at this point of the offseason are slim.

The Giants are banking on their young linemen to develop. They need to be right on that bet because the Giants have shown in recent years that an impressive collection of skill players can be derailed by a poor offensive line.

2. This probably isn’t much of a mystery, but the Giants would have taken Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith if he was available at No. 11, according to a source. The Eagles jumped from No. 12 to No. 10 in a trade with the Cowboys to take Smith.

The Giants took the Bears’ offer — No. 20, a fifth-round pick, a 2022 first-round pick and a 2022 fourth-round pick — over offers from the Vikings, who had the 14th pick, and, according to an SI report, the Saints, who had the 28th pick. The Giants were fielding more calls earlier in the draft, but interest cooled after Sewell went seventh and cornerback Patrick Surtain went ninth to the Broncos, according to a source. The Vikings were believed to be targeting Slater, who went 13th to the Chargers. The Bears took Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields with the 11th pick.

The Giants were wise to take Toney with the 20th pick rather than rolling the dice to see if he would be available in the second round. Jaguars coach Urban Meyer revealed that it “broke our heart” that Toney was off the board before their 25th pick.

3. Seeing how the draft unfolded, it was fortuitous that the Giants made the investment in Golladay in free agency. Because if they had banked on one of the top three wide receivers dropping to No. 11, they would have been stuck. Ja’Marr Chase went fifth to the Bengals, Jaylen Waddle went sixth to the Dolphins and Smith went 10th to the Eagles.

4. Digging deeper into scouting reports on Toney, my sense is he won’t be an every-down receiver as a rookie. A former high school quarterback, Toney played a variety of roles in his first three seasons at Florida. He only started at receiver in his final season, in part, according to Dane Brugler’s scouting report, because “it took time to develop trust with the coaches.”

“If I’m looking at him through the eyes of a quarterback, I think he’s kind of hard to read,” a scout told The Athletic’s Bob McGinn. “He does so much shake and bake that you don’t know if he’s going left, right or sitting down. Not to take away from his creativity, but to play within a scheme, you’ve got to stay within your own area with your route. This guy is a little all over the map.”

The Giants coaching staff obviously will focus on refining Toney’s route running, because a rookie receiver running unpredictable routes is a recipe for incompletions and interceptions.

The good news is that it should be simple to install packages to get the ball in Toney’s hands. It doesn’t take much creativity to hand the ball to Toney or put him back as a returner.

It shouldn’t be a problem fitting Toney in with the rest of the receivers because his skill set is totally unique. He’s a master of gaining yards after the catch, which was absent from the offense last season and wasn’t addressed by the Golladay signing. None of the other receivers can be motioned into the backfield and be viewed as a threat to take a handoff like Toney.

It will be fascinating to see how the Giants deploy him.

5. Toney and Odell Beckham Jr. have different skill sets, but their pre-draft athletic test results are remarkably similar.

Kadarius Toney (Courtney Culbreath / UAA Communications)

6. Director of college scouting Chris Pettit said the Giants were comfortable with some off-field red flags with Toney.

“If there was a concern with him, he wouldn’t have been on our board,” Pettit said.

That comment came across as dismissive considering the Giants ignored or weren’t aware of red flags with 2019 first-round pick DeAndre Baker. Baker lacked professionalism as a rookie and then was cut after getting arrested on armed robbery charges last offseason (the charges were eventually dropped).

One would hope the Giants learned from the Baker fiasco. A potential positive spin: Baker’s issues with his attitude and work ethic either weren’t detected or were brushed aside. But Toney had well-documented issues with guns that couldn’t be overlooked.

Toney was suspended for the 2018 season opener for his involvement in an on-campus confrontation between players and Gainesville locals where he painted an air-soft gun to look like an AR-15 rifle. Two months after that incident, Toney was pulled over by Gainesville Police and found to have a loaded authentic AR-15 rifle in his back seat (no charges were filed). He didn’t have any known incidents in his final two seasons at Florida.

The limited in-person interaction during the pre-draft process made vetting prospects more challenging, but the Giants insisted they were thorough. A benefit to having so many assistants on staff who were recently in the college ranks is that they recruited most of the prospects in this class. The Giants have no concerns about Toney’s past.

“It’s no secret I’m pretty particular about who I bring into this building,” Judge said.

7. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to readers here that the Giants used an early pick on a cornerback. Although the Giants spent big on Jackson in free agency, they weren’t nearly as content with their cornerback depth as many fans. So they traded up five spots to take Robinson in the third round.

The 5-foot-11, 186-pound Robinson has the versatility to play inside and outside, but he was primarily a slot corner in college. He’ll compete with 2020 fourth-round pick Darnay Holmes for playing time.

As noted repeatedly before the draft, cornerbacks Jaycee Horn (No. 8 pick) and Surtain (No. 9 pick) were serious considerations for the Giants with the 11th pick. The Giants want to play a ton of man coverage, so they need as many top corners as possible. Robinson isn’t on the same level as Horn and Surtain, but adding a quality corner should give defensive coordinator Patrick Graham more options this season.

The Giants have poured resources into the secondary in Gettleman’s four years as GM. They’ve used a first-round pick on Baker, a second-round pick on safety Xavier McKinney, a supplemental third-round pick on cornerback Sam Beal, a third-round pick on Robinson and four Day 3 picks on defensive backs, including Oklahoma State cornerback Rodarius Williams in this year’s sixth round. Between Jackson, cornerback James Bradberry and safety Logan Ryan, the Giants have invested a total of $119 million in free-agent contracts on defensive backs in the past two years. And safety Jabrill Peppers was a key piece of the return from the Beckham trade in 2019.

The mixed results of those investments haven’t deterred the Giants from continuing to add to their secondary.

“We feel like you can never have too many assets back there because players come and go,” Gettleman said. “You have injuries. People will say it’s a passing league, and it is to a degree.”

8. Upgrading at edge rusher was a top priority for the Giants entering the draft. The value wasn’t there at No. 11 — or No. 20 after trading back — but they still landed one of the best edge rushers in this class when they nabbed Ojulari with the 50th pick.

The Giants pursued Rams edge rusher Leonard Floyd on the first day of free agency, but he signed a four-year, $64 million contract to stay in Los Angeles. The Giants didn’t think any of the other top free-agent edge rushers were worthy of significant investment, so they pivoted to wide receiver and splurged on Golladay.

But the need for an edge rusher didn’t disappear. Yes, Graham was able to scheme a pass rush last season. But the complete lack of pressure off the edge was exploited at times.

Ojulari instantly becomes the Giants’ best edge rusher, although the 20-year-old undoubtedly will experience some growing pains. The Giants doubled down at edge rusher by taking Northern Iowa’s Elerson Smith in the fourth round. The 6-foot-6, 252-pound Smith’s size and athleticism are off the charts, so the Giants will be hoping to finally hit on a mid-round pick on an edge rusher.

9. There were reports that concerns over Ojulari’s knee caused him to drop out of the first round. Ojulari was surprised that his knee became an issue. He tore his ACL as a senior in high school and redshirted his first year at Georgia, but he never missed a game (or practice) during the past two seasons.

Renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews examined Ojulari in January and sent a letter to all 32 teams stating that the knee was strong, according to a source. The Giants clearly weren’t overly concerned with Ojulari’s knee. They think they got a steal after so many teams passed on the player who led the SEC in sacks last season.

“My attitude is maybe they made a mistake,” Gettleman said. “So it’s one of those deals where the fact that Azeez was dropping did not impact us at all.”

Off-field concerns can also cause a player to slide unexpectedly. There are no indications that was the case with Ojulari, who was named a captain as a redshirt freshman. When asked about Ojulari’s personality, a Georgia source responded, “The opposite of DeAndre Baker.”

10. The Giants’ affinity for Georgia players continued with the Ojulari pick. Gettleman has now used five of his 32 picks with the Giants on Bulldogs. Ojulari was roommates with Thomas at Georgia, and the Giants tackle was at Ojulari’s draft party on Friday night.

The Georgia link has grown even stronger since Judge got hired as he worked with Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart from 2009-11 when both were assistants at Alabama.

“Those players work hard and play hard and understand the value of playing old-school, fundamental, physical football,” Judge said. “I have a lot of respect for (Smart) as a person and I have a lot of respect for him as a coach. When you know where someone is coming from, you have a little bit of insight in how you can coach them, what really makes them tick and how they respond in adverse situations.”

11. The NFC East rivalries have been spiced up recently. Having the Cowboys, Giants and Eagles holding picks 10-12 provided a layer of intrigue entering the draft. Then the trade between rivals to jump another division foe in the first round added fuel to the fire.

“Trades happen a lot,” Judge said. “(It) normally doesn’t happen within the division but hey, look, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

The draft drama builds on Judge’s harsh comments about the Eagles tanking the season finale against Washington, which kept the Giants out of the playoffs. There will be no shortage of storylines for the Giants-Eagles matchups this season.

(Top photo: Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)