Giants GM Joe Schoen Shares Some Insight into Draft Philosophy

Joe Schoen didn’t say who he was looking to draft, but he did offer tiny glimpses into his thought process ahead of his first draft as an NFL GM.

Newsflash! Giants general manager Joe Schoen isn’t saying who the team has its eye on in next week’s draft.

But over the course of his first pre-draft press conference with reporters, the 42-year-old Schoen did offer a little insight into the team’s thought process, which may or may not come to fruition in a week when the Giants go on the clock.

Let’s go ahead and rewind what Schoen had to say and what it might mean for the draft.

Yup, It’s "Best Available"

No surprise here, as since the beginning of time (okay, well, since the beginning of the existence of pro football’s draft), general managers have preached the concept of drafting the “best available” every year over need.

But might things be different this year for the Giants, who not only need the best available but who also have an alarming number of needs across the board?

“I think where we are in our roster, there are several needs,” Schoen said. “To put a finger on what exactly the biggest need is would be difficult. If you can find two really good football players at five and seven, that's how we stacked the board. Let's just throw need, whatever perceived need is, out. Who are the best football players in this draft?”

General managers want fans to believe that they go with the best available, but that’s not the case. Say, for example, the best available is a quarterback, and the team has a Patrick Mahomes on the roster—are they going to go “best available” in that scenario?

The answer is no, which is where need factors in. And the way it will work is that if a cluster of players have a similar grade—grades separated by a fraction of a point, e.g., 98.1, 98, etc.—that’s where the need is going to factor in.

But There Are Also Other Factors

If the Giants were to truly go “Best Available,” they would forsake all other factors and purely make their decisions based on one thing and one thing alone: the grade earned by the player for the work the athlete out on tape.

But again, that’s not always the case. What happens if, for example, the “best available” player has character issues despite having the potential to be a generational talent or, at the very least, a significant difference-maker?

“It weighs heavy. It weighs heavy,” Schoen said of players who get the dreaded red flag next to their name due to character concerns.

Schoen didn’t clarify where he’d draw the line regarding character, though earlier this year, team co-owner John Mara said that if the front office and coaching staff wanted a player that had a questionable character, he, as co-owner, would have the right to veto such a move.

The players scheduled to go in the first round of the draft are primarily sold characters, though there are some questions regarding Oregon pass rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux’s “fire” that were brought to light by ESPN’s Todd McShay during the Senior Bowl week:

I heard a lot about Oregon defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux, including concerns that he just doesn't play with the same fire as some other top prospects. His ceiling is high, but the floor is lower than what you want for a top-five pick. And based on a handful of conversations, it wouldn't shock me if Thibodeaux fell out of the top five.

The question the Giants need to answer, though, is where would they draw the line? Presumably, if it’s a player who has a checkered past, that player won’t make it to their board, but if the player in question has an immaturity issue, would the Giants take him off the board for that?

“If it's a guy that we don't think fits from a character standpoint, we'll just take him off the board,” Schoen said, not clarifying the character issue. “If he goes on and has a really good career somewhere else, that's fine. We just got to get it right for what we want in our building.”

How About Injuries?

The last thing the NFL’s injury-leader of the last several years needs is to add more players who have injury histories. Yet, at some point in every player’s career, he’s had some sort of ailment to deal with.

The Giants, however, would likely draw the line if a player’s past injury affected his skill set in any way. For example, if a player tore his ACL and no longer had a burst, that might cause his stock to tumble in the team’s eyes.

But if a player had surgery for an ankle cleanup, for example, that might not be enough to discount him as a possible draft pick.

That’s where the feedback from the medical staff comes into play, according to Schoen.

“They're the doctors and the medical folks. We lean on them on what the recommendations are in terms of taking or not taking a player,” Schoen said.

What About Cost?

Schoen can downplay the Over the Caps and Spotracs of the world all he wants, but the fact remains, at least according to the NFLPA public cap report, that the Giants, if they keep each of their nine picks, are going to need an estimated $12 million to sign the rookie class.

Given that he’s strapped for cap space, might that make him try to unload some of the picks?

“That is not going to drive our decision. We are not going to pass up on a good player, especially in the draft, for a cost savings,” he said. “That's not going to be the genesis of that decision.”

So how would he find the money to pay for the picks?

“Again, contingency plan,” Schoen said. “If we stay at every pick, this is what it's going to cost us. If we do move back, there is a cost savings of doing that.

So What’s It Going to Be?

Schoen sounded much like a man intending to keep both eh fifth and seventh overall picks unless he received an offer that blew the doors off the building.

As for the rest of the factors, he sounded confident that in the end, it would all work out.

“We're going to get two guys that we think fit from a character standpoint, an athletic standpoint, as a football player, and it's going to mirror up to what we're looking for,” Schoen said. “I'm confident we'll find somebody that checks all those boxes.” 

---

Join the Giants Country Community

• Sign up for our FREE digest newsletter
• Follow and like us on Facebook
• Submit your questions for our mailbag
• Listen and subscribe to the daily LockedOn Giants podcast.
• Subscribe and like the new LockedOn Giants YouTube Channel
• Sign up for our FREE message board forums