The NFL 2022 Scout Factory kicked off on Tuesday as potential customers, NFL staff and media members flocked to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
No, don’t run to your TV to see if the workouts are live, they won’t start until Thursday. But this means that there is still time for a quick simulation before the combine is ready and the design boards are moved.
ESPN’s Mel Cyprus released its preliminary draft of the draft (content in InSider) on Tuesday morning and includes a pair of selections for the New York Giants that are both completely surprising and completely predictable.
These elections are Oregon EDGE Kayvon Thibodeaux in 5th place and Utah LB Devin Lloyd in 7th overall.
Let’s see what Cyprus has to say about itself, then unpack it.
5. New York Giants – Kayvon Thibodeaux, DE, Oregon
If the draft is played this way and both of the best offensive games are off the board before the Giants are selected, it is best to take a defender. And if Thibodeaux is available, he would be perfect for defending New York, which must combine a real champion with rookie Azeez Ojulari, who led the team with eight sacks last season. Thibodeaux needs to improve his versatility, but he has exceptional physical tools as a pass-forward. He had seven layoffs last season and put the second best pressure in the country (17.8%). If he gets close to his ceiling, he will make many All-Pro teams.
The Giants have some good things to build for new general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daball, but they won’t be able to win a title like Thibodeaux anywhere but in the draft. We can look back on this choice in five years and consider it a theft.
7. New York Giants (via CHI) – Devin Lloyd, ILB, Utah
With the Giants’ second top 10, I move all-in to improve the defensive’s top seven. Lloyd is a midfielder, yes, but he does much more. He has a total of 111 rebounds, eight strikes, 20 rebounds, four interceptions and a forced strike last season. He has had a total of 16.5 layoffs in the last three seasons. Lloyd (and No. 5 Caivon Thibodeau) can add a little more pass to a team that desperately needs it. If New York takes Lloyd here, it probably means that Blake Martinez, who broke the ACL in September, will fall victim to a salary cap.
The Giants will have to deal with their offensive line at some point this off-season, and I also thought about center Tyler Linderbaum here.
Raptor’s thoughts
Cyprus has an offensive strike by NC State Ickem Ekwonu, who is first overall against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Alabama has a strike against Evan Neal, who is third overall against the Houston Texans, and an offensive of the Mississippi State is against Charles Cross and is sixth overall against Carolina Panthers.
On the one hand, we see how likely it is that the Giants will simply fail to find the right shot at the top of the draft. And I include Cross in the group, even though he once only played left-handed and there are no guarantees that he will move to right-handed or to an NFL game.
On the other hand, the Giants get two very good players at the top of the draft.
Thibodeau spent most of 2021 and 2022 at the top of the project boards before various “worries” caused him to slide down a bit. He has the tools to be a really dangerous EDGE in the NFL, with great length, flexibility, athleticism and a professional repertoire of movements. He can play from a position with 2 or 3 points and be covered when requested. Wink Martindale may prefer the players on the cover to miss the rushers, but if Thibodeaux is by far the best player available, the Giants get a potential Blue Chip player.
And you can say almost the same about Devin Lloyd. Linebacker doesn’t have the same kind of positional value as OT, EDGE or CB and I could really see the Giants take a player like Cincinnati CB Ahmad Gardner here. But in the vacuum, Lloyd is a great player who was extremely productive and flexible for Utah. The Giants have long needed an inside defender who can really run and cover the middle of the field. Lloyd can give Martindale many options in his blitz packs – as Cyprus notes, he is a pretty good passer in his own right.
On the other hand, the Giants are desperate to rebuild (or simply build) their attack. They have committed the worst offense in the NFL in the last two years and it is clear that you have to win in attack in modern football.
This project is legitimately arranged on the defensive side of the ball, but the defense simply does not offer the same consistency and predictability as the attack.
Cyprus notes that it thought of Tyler Linderbaum in 7th place overall and may have moved in that direction. The center has about the same positional value as the MIKE line defender for me, and finding a center that can be a building block is almost as important as finding the right shot.
The struggle between the draft – which will almost certainly be tough in defending the top – and the realities of the giants will be incredibly interesting to watch.
What the Giants really need is Kenny Pickett, Malik Willis or Matt Coral (or whatever combination of them) to raise drafts over the next two months.