CBS Sports Makes a Surprising First-round Mock Draft Pick for the Giants

Mock draft season is in only just getting started, and CBS Sports has gone outside the box with its initial pick for the Giants.

Giants general manager Dave Gettleman has never made any secret about how he loves his hog mollies. And since the Giants offensive line isn’t quite the finished product yet, CBS Sports; Ryan Wilson is thinking Gettleman and the Giants might go back to that hog molly well with the 11th overall pick.

Wilson has mocked 6-foot-4, 315-pound offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker out of USC to the Giants, his reasoning as follows:

The Giants need pass rush help, but bolstering the offensive line may take priority. Andrew Thomas got better as the year progressed, but Vera-Tucker proved in 2020 that he can play either guard or tackle and excelled while doing it.

Credit goes to Wilson for thinking outside the box, but in terms of value, another offensive lineman probably isn't be the right way to go here.

The Giants poured a lot of resources into the offensive line last year. While that's not to say that the unit is a completed project yet, general manager Dave Gettleman seemed to feel pretty good about it when he spoke to the media last week.

"We've got some really nice, young pieces," Gettleman said. "Nick Gates stepped in there; he'd never played offensive center before. We drafted Will (Hernandez) and Shane Lemieux. You have (Kevin) Zeitler and Andrew Thomas, who acquitted himself very well when he had that rough patch, and then he got himself rolling again.

"I think this offensive line can compete. …The offensive line showed very good progress. They're big, they're young, they're strong and they're tough and smart. This O-Line has a chance to be pretty damn good." 

Interestingly, Gettleman didn't mention Matt Peart, presumably just an oversight (or is that perhaps a Freudian slip?) 

Peart, drafted in the third round last year out of UConn, is projected to be the lead competitor for the Giants' starting right tackle in 2021. 

But there is also a chance that the Giants might be looking at him as a potential swing tackle given that they played Peart at left and right tackle this year in live game snaps, presumably to get him experience on both sides of the ball.

If that's their thinking, then yes, right tackle would be a need unless Peart can prove without a shadow of a doubt that he's the best option at right tackle.  

But let's get back to Vera-Tucker. Although he played all his snaps this year at left tackle, he spent his previous seasons mostly at guard and projects to guard at the NFL. A decent athlete, it's hard to imagine Vera-Tucker being drafted that soon, and certainly not by a team whose more pressing needs include wide receiver, edge rusher, and cornerback.

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