INDIANAPOLIS — This year’s NFL Draft is considered one of the deepest in years for offensive linemen, especially tackles, and that certainly has a nice ring to it for the Giants.
Big Blue struggled to block pretty much everyone during last season’s 7-9 finish, which explains why general manager Jerry Reese and the team’s brass no doubt are eager for the first up-close look at the top linemen available at the NFL Scouting Combine this week.
The Giants probably will learn more about the future of veteran guard Chris Snee and are expected to meet with agents for some of their top free agents while at the combine, but their main focus is expected to be on the college talent on hand — especially the blockers.
Tom Coughlin’s team has numerous holes to fill (and not much salary-cap space to do it with), but it isn’t difficult to figure out where the Giants need to start after Eli Manning was sacked a career-high 39 times and they ranked at or near the bottom in every major rushing category.
With the future of Snee and center David Baas in question, David Diehl’s retirement and the season-long struggles of left tackle Will Beatty so glaring, Big Blue is in desperate search of heft.
NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock this week pegged the offensive line and wide receiver as the two biggest needs that should be on the Giants’ mind with the No. 12 overall pick in the May draft, although Mayock talked more excitedly about their line prospects.
It’s the Giants’ highest draft position since 2004, when they took Philip Rivers No. 4 overall and traded him for Manning.
“[Michigan offensive tackle] Taylor Lewan is a guy that can get there, and if he got there, I’d jump all over him,” Mayock said, referring to the Giants in the No. 12 spot.
Lewan is Mayock’s third-ranked offensive tackle after Jake Matthews of Texas A&M and Auburn’s Greg Robinson, both of whom are likely to be gone by the time Big Blue picks in the first round (assuming the Giants don’t trade up).
But the depth at offensive tackle and along the line in general this year means the Giants won’t be out of luck if they don’t get one of those blockers in the first round or decide to address that need later on.
Notre Dame offensive tackle Zack Martin also is getting rave reviews and is considered a top-15 pick, and the list of quality prospects doesn’t end there. Mayock said teams can get a quality offensive lineman capable of starting right away as late as the third round this year.
“Whether you get a tackle [in the first round] or in the second or third round, you’re going to get a good one,” Mayock said.
Reese’s recent drafts have been poor, a major factor in the Giants missing the playoffs four times in the past five seasons, but he did hit on a quality offensive tackle in the first round last year in Syracuse’s Justin Pugh. Taken No. 19 overall, Pugh was arguably the team’s most consistent lineman last season.
If Reese decides to go in a different direction in the first round this year (and assuming the Giants don’t decide to bring back Hakeem Nicks), their options are just as tantalizing at receiver at No. 12.
Mayock’s second- and third-ranked wideouts, Marqise Lee of USC and Texas A&M’s Mike Evans, are likely to still be available for the Giants and could become the kind of big-play target Nicks mysteriously wasn’t last year.
“Sitting at 12,” Mayock said, “means that you’re either going to get the third[-best] tackle or the second- or third-best wideout if you were interested in that wideout.”