R GIANTS, IT’S EVAN ALMIGHTY
Big Ole tight end will help Eli immediately
Jerry Reese drafted a player in Thursday night’s first round to help Eli Manning, not to eventually replace him. The Giants GM said a week ago that he wanted to draft players who could “help us get over the top” this weekend. So while the Kansas City Chiefs were trading up from 27th to 10th overall for a player McAdoo liked in Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes with an eye on the future, the Giants waited and got a player they believe improves them as Super Bowl contenders now.
They’re staying all-in on Eli, or so it sure seems, with their two-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback at 36 years old and three years left on his contract. After all, they’ve surrounded him with Odell Beckham Jr., from Manning’s alma mater Isidore Newman School in New Orleans and now with Engram, from Eli’s program at Ole Miss.
All that’s missing is Peyton as his quarterbacks coach, and that’s how it should be, right? Doing what they can to make at least one more championship run with No. 10 under center. And none of the offensive linemen remaining were the best players on the board to accomplish that goal.
“We think that he can be a matchup nightmare for teams trying to cover him with linebackers and safeties,” Reese said of Engram’s addition to the offense.
Reese, coach Ben McAdoo and VP of player evaluation Marc Ross, who runs the Giants’ drafts, clearly consider Engram, 22, a steal due to his 4.42 speed, versatility and consensus second-round grade among most experts.
He addresses two of the Giants offense’s most glaring needs: for both an explosive tight end and a second home-run hitter to complement Beckham’s game-breaking ability, hopefully preventing defenses from shutting down Manning’s offense with a base, two-high safety look.
Engram scored eight touchdowns as a college senior, too, a solid number to pair with Beckham’s talent, Brandon Marshall’s size on the outside and Sterling Shepard’s eight TDs as a rookie.
Still, despite the Giants’ grand intentions in picking a first-round tight end for the first time since Jeremy Shockey (2002), there are plenty of questions, namely about whether Reese drafted the correct tight end, and if he took Engram too high.
The GM surprisingly answered a flat “no” when asked if he had considered trading up for Alabama’s O.J. Howard, the consensus top tight end in the draft who fell to Tampa Bay at 19.
Granted, Ross’ comments indicated just how high the Giants were on Engram due to his blazing speed, marking the second straight year the Giants drafted the tight end with the fastest combine 40 time (Jerell Adams, 4.64, sixth round last year). However, Howard is 6-6, 251 and ran a 4.51 at the combine. He is a freak.
And Miami’s David Njoku, while a younger player who will need more time to grow into his body, is nevertheless a 6-4, 246 pounder with a 4.64 40yard dash time and a sky-high ceiling. He fell to 29th overall, where the Cleveland Browns took him as the third and final tight end in Thursday’s first round.
The Giants’ selection of Engram, in fact, drew one of the more subdued reactions of the night, even from the hostile Philadelphia crowd. He was considered a possible late first-round prospect but more likely a player teams could get in the early second. Engram also admitted he wasn’t expecting a call from East Rutherford.
“I was kind of surprised by it, but I felt it in my dreams,” he said on a conference call, euphoric about joining Big Blue.
Reese’s track record at tight end is spotty, too. Prior to Adams, still developing after last year’s sixth-round selection out of South Carolina, Reese’s most recent tight end picks were total busts: Adrien Robinson, in the 2012 fourth round out of Cincinnati, and Travis Beckum, in the 2009 third round out of Wisconsin.
Manning hasn’t had a formidable tight end in the past decade, really, outside of free agent signing Martellus Bennett (55-626-5 TDs) for one season in 2012.
What’s most important, of course, is how Engram meshes with Manning, which is why the most significant contact wasn’t the Giants’ call to Engram but Manning’s text to the tight end after he was drafted.
“He texted me after they announced it and everything. He told me to enjoy the moment and that he’s looking forward to getting to work with me. I just told him thank you,” Engram said.
Engram also said he’s “caught a couple of balls for him” in the offseason back at Ole Miss.
“I can’t wait to play with him, learn from him and just be a great player for this team,” Engram said.
The Giants still may draft a quarterback this weekend, eyeing the end of Manning’s career. But on Thursday night, they were still thinking about how to make the offense around their franchise quarterback better for the here and now.