GIANTS - Comments on NFC East Day 1 picks

This was a very enjoyable draft. I loved watching the faces of my Eagles and Cowboys fan roommates, which were filled with disbelief and confusion over their teams draft pick.

Washington Redskins (the one NFC East team for which I didn't get to gauge a fan's reaction)

They may have had the best draft day of all the NFC East teams, as they traded down and got additional picks and still got to address one of their biggest needs, WR, with Devin Thomas out of Michigan State, who is considered to be one of the best WR in the draft. ((Mel Kiper's Top 5 by position) and (Scout's Inc. Position Rankings)) In fact, he was the second WR drafted, after the Rams' odd pick of WR Donnie Avery, who many thought was a huge reach. Scout's Inc. Round 2 Analysis saying biggest reach and Fox Sports stating no one saw Avery as the first receiver picked.

The Redskins used the rest of their Day 1 picks to pick a TE, Fred Davis out of USC, and a WR, Malcolm Kelly, out of Oklahoma. So the Redskins picked up two of the top WRs in the draft and picked up a solid TE, I guess to back up Chris Cooley. This should help the Redskins' biggest weakness, their offense, though I think they do need to address their defense at some point, which they did not do till the 4th Round. Mel Kiper also felt it was a good move for the Skins to address their offense and give their young quarterback some weapons, a move that the Titans did not make for Vince Young. Mel Kiper's Good Calls and Bad Calls.

Although I respect Kiper and like to look at his analysis, I think his draft grades for NFL teams are suspect. I think he gives bad rankings if a team goes against the grain or doesn't do what he thought they should do. For example, Mel Kiper gave the Giants a C- last year, 2007 Mel Kiper's Draft Grades, which is now seen as a great draft. However, most of the "experts" did not believe the Giants made good picks last year, again because these experts wanted the Giants to do something else (2007 Consensus Draft Grades). I feel like many times they don't look at the players they pick, but instead emphasize that it was something different then the expert liked or they felt they should have picked value over need. Not to mention this year, in which Mel Kiper did not give a team drafting a cornerback in the first round any higher than a B. This does not make sense to me, I understand questioning some of the first round CB picks and saying some were a reach or that there were better players available, but not giving one CB pick over a B? Especially considering that teams like the Cowboys and Bills were in desperate need of CBs, and the ones they got were among the best in the draft.

Dallas Cowboys:

My Cowboys fan roommate, Taz, whined about several moves. First, he thought they should've drafted Rashard Mendenhall over Felix Jones, although many scouts thought this was a good pick, as Jones is a speed back who will be a good complement to Marion Barber. John Clayton's Day One Winners and Losers and ESPN's Draft Tracker, Kiper giving the Jones pick an A and the Mendenhall pick a B. I think that when you have a chance to pick a quality RB who can be an every down back, he is the better pick. I think it is better to pick the quality every down back over a guy who will only be a speed back/3rd down back. This is because if Marion Barber ever gets hurt - and given his style of running, this is a strong possibility - Jones will not be able to step in and take over. Taz fears that Felix Jones will be another Julius Jones, namely, a RB that runs a few yards and falls over the second there is any kind of contact. I for one see a distinct probability that this could happen, and he just happens to have the same last name as Julius(though this probably means nothing). Even though RB was a need for them as they got rid of Julius Jones and another running back, I think they should have looked to their defense first. But with two 1st round draft picks, the Cowboys had the luxury of picking both an offensive and defensive player in the 1st.

The Cowboys' second pick was to trade up and make sure they could get CB Mike Jenkins. This was one of the Cowboys biggest needs and Mike Jenkins was seen as one of the best cornerbacks in the draft. (Scout's Inc. has him as #2 CB in the draft) This was a good pick for them. Unfortunately this pick did not fulfill my Wish that the Cowboys ignore their defense. Amusingly, he apparently also has character issues, adding to a locker room of other nutjobs, such as Tank Johnson, T.O., and Pacman Jones. Although John Clayton seems to like the Pacman trade, I think it was a bad move. There is no question he is a very good cornerback, but this is a guy who cannot stay out of trouble. Here is a guy waiting to be reinstated and I don't think he is capable of staying out of trouble, so he will not be worth it for the Cowboys. They fulfilled my Wish.

Their last Day 1 pick was for Marellus Bennett, TE out of Texas A&M. This had to be one of the funniest moments of the draft. Just yesterday, Taz went on a rant about the Cowboys move before the draft of trading Akin Ayodele and TE Anthony Fasano for a 4th round pick from the Dolphins. He thought this trade was terrible as 2 years ago the Cowboys traded up to get Fasano in the second round and then went on to trade him for only a fourth round pick; once again they picked up another TE in the 2nd Round, and he will only be a backup to Jason Witten anyway, not to mention the presence of TO, who demands a certain number of passes a game, and the other Cowboys WR in the mix.

Again, they addressed their offense with 2 out of their 3 day one picks- I like it.

Philadelphia Eagles:

The Eagles picks were another source of draft day fun for me, especially seeing the increasingly depressed look on Alli's face. After trading their 1st round pick in 2007, Alli pleaded that they do anything but trade down again. And what happened? The Eagles once again traded down. Although this was a great trade in terms of value for the Eagles, Eagles Draft Day, getting the Panthers' 2nd and 4th round picks this year and a 1st round pick next year, I dont think it was a good move- neither did Alli apparently. First, they were in need of an OT, especially with Winston Justice as their current tackle of the future who recently got schooled by Osi Umeniyora, soJeff Otah would have been a big help. Also, with McNabb not getting any younger and Kevin Kolb unlikely to do much in the future (though I may be wrong on this), I think you need to worry about your team now, and not keep pushing away your 1st round picks.

Then came the 2nd round, where the Eagles once again traded down several spots. This happened right after a "they better not trade down again" from Alli. They did this to upgrade from a 5th to a 4th round pick this year. They just gave up all picks until the 47th pick, and I think lost the chance to really strengthen their team. I do think their actual picks were good in DT Trevor Laws and DeSean Jackson. Of course, Alli did not like Trevor Laws because "Defensive Tackle is not a 'sexy' pick", but he was a guy I was hoping the Giants might look at. DeSean Jackson is a speedy receiver from Cal, but is very small and weak, and I could easily see this being a bust, but for now it looks like a solid pick.

I will analyze the Giants draft in its entirety after the draft is complete.