Would it be bad karma for the Giants to draft a player named after a former Redskins great?
The Giants can find the answer to that question if they take Stanford tight end Coby Fleener with the 32nd overall pick in the first round of the NFL Draft Thursday night, because Coby is short for Jacoby — as in Joe Jacoby, one of the cornerstones of the Redskins’ famed “Hogs” offensive line of the 1980s and ’90s.
“I was watching a Redskins game, and I liked the sound of the name,” Fleener’s mother, Michelle, explained to Bay Area reporters last fall.
NFL scouts certainly like the sight of her son’s game. Fleener is considered by far the best of an otherwise lackluster crop of tight ends this year, and the Giants may target him because the Super Bowl suddenly turned that into a position of need for them.
General manager Jerry Reese is famous for drafting the best available player, regardless of need, but tight end still looks like a worry spot worth addressing after Jake Ballard and Travis Beckum both were felled by serious knee injuries in the win over the Patriots.
Although the Giants signed Martellus Bennett away from the Cowboys, still have Bear Pascoe and hope to have Beckum back early in the season, the Patriots’ devastating combination of Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez shows you can never have too many weapons at tight end.
Fleener is grateful for the great example, too.
“The guys that played in the NFL this year, the Jimmy Grahams and the Gronkowskis of the world, have really done our class of tight ends a favor this year,” Fleener said at the scouting combine. “I can’t say enough about the guys that have already played, and I hope to one day go play just like that.”
The 6-foot-6, 245-pound Fleener certainly qualifies as a weapon after serving as one of Andrew Luck’s favorite targets during a standout four-year career with the Cardinal.
How dangerous was Fleener? A whopping 17 of his 60 combined catches the past two seasons went for touchdowns. Fleener also is extremely versatile, having also lined up at H-back, slot receiver and even wide receiver in his four years at Stanford.
Nor would it surprise anyone that Fleener is smart, too. He fits the Stanford stereotype perfectly, already earning a bachelor’s degree in science, technology and society. And the Chicago-area native’s idea of a good time this spring has been finishing up on a master’s degree in media studies.
And if all of that weren’t enough of an attractive package, Fleener is deceptively fast for his size. He had touchdowns of 41, 58 and 60 yards last season — not the kind of distances you see for a tight end weighing almost 250 pounds. Fleener is so quick, college teammate Michael Thomas described him as the second-fastest offensive player the Cardinal had last season behind wideout Chris Owusu.
“He has unbelievable speed for a guy his size,” Stanford linebacker Chase Thomas said last fall.
Pretty impressive for someone named after a Hog.