The Giants allowed cameras from the NFL Network to peer into their draft room for the first time in the organization’s history Thursday night. The idea was to let the viewing public have a glimpse at the frenzy said to take place just before the decision on a first-round draft pick is made.
But there was little drama when the Giants submitted the 12th selection of the NFL Draft. No high fives, no explosion of emotions.
“It was an easy pick,” general manager Jerry Reese said. A no-brainer.
The Giants insist Odell Beckham Jr., the gifted wide receiver from LSU, had the highest grade on their board and comes with all the physical talents and internal intangibles that make him a can’t-miss prospect. He’s got 4.4 speed and a hunger to compete. He can also return punts and kickoffs, a bonus for a team looking for multiple ways to score points. “You’ve got to have weapons in this league and we think this guy is a weapon,” Reese said.
Reese, head coach Tom Coughlin and Marc Ross, the vice president for player evaluation, all used the word “dynamic” to describe Beckham, and the intention is for him to make an immediate impact along with two or three other players to be taken in this draft. “Any time you pick a guy 12th, you expect him to be a contributor for you,” Reese said.
The best thing you hear about Beckham is he doesn’t mind working hard and wants to be the best. The Giants didn’t always get that from Hakeem Nicks and a few other players who must have decided four Super Bowls in four different decades is enough.
Coughlin couldn’t rave enough about the new acquisition.
“He’s got good stamina and I think he’ll do a good job in the receiver room,” the coach said. “I think he’ll be on the same page with the quarterback right away. He’s intelligent and he’s excited to be here.”
The Giants need to get players who are hungry again and maybe Beckham is the perfect injection of youth, talent and drive. A product of the same high school in New Orleans attended by Peyton and Eli Manning, Beckham said he gained motivation by seeing the Mannings’ jerseys on display in the school’s trophy case.
Now, Beckham will be counted on to help Eli bounce back from a disappointing 2013 season and energize a new offense.
“I definitely think I can come in and bring a deep threat or whatever the team needs me to do,” Beckham said. “Hopefully I can return some punts and some kicks.”
If Beckham is a bust, then it could spell the end of Reese and Coughlin and this era of Giants football. But if he’s all the franchise thinks he can be, Beckham could be the link to the next great run.
The Lombardi Trophies won at the Patriots’ expense in 2007 and ’11 will shine as bright as the ones captured in ’86 and ’90. But “What have you done for me lately” has arrived. The 2014 Giants are on the clock.
An 0-6 start that led to a 7-9 record in 2013 has made 2014 a referendum on whether this regime still can produce a champion. At the very least, the Giants need to restore a winning culture that has made them one of the elite franchises over the last four decades.
“It’s like a new era,” said Ottis Anderson, the former Giants running back and MVP of Super Bowl XXV. “They have to find an identity. It’s going to be interesting to see who they are.”
Beckham figures to be part of that new era of old-school values. That’s why the Giants were excited when they made the 12th selection of the NFL Draft, though it didn’t look like it on TV.