Perspectives: Why the Giants Coaching Staff is Key Before, During and After the Draft

We've spoken about how important coaching is on game days, but here are a few thoughts about why the Giants coaching staff is going to be even more important before, during and after the draft.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

If I wasn't convinced before--and I was pretty convinced going back to the combine--I'm convinced now.

The Giants are taking an offensive tackle.

It makes too much sense. The conditions for picking an offensive tackle are never going to be better. This is a deep class, with four legitimate prospects who project tackle--not guard as we have seen in other years--at the NFL.

The Giants, who for the sixth time in the last seven years (and the third year in a row) are drafting in the Top 10 are in the perfect spot to select one of those tackles.

With two quarterback-needy teams behind them (Miami and the Chargers), the Giants can even try to trade down in the top 10 of the first round to add additional assets and still be in a position to get a tackle.

The stars have aligned for the Giants to get a premium offensive tackle. I agree with general manager Dave Gettleman that you don't go into the draft planning to draft a specific position because it's a glaring need. 

However, I'd find it hard to believe that at least one if not more of those offensive tackle prospects won't have similar grades as to other potential first-round picks in their cluster--linebacker Isaiah Simmons, edge Chase Young (whom I doubt falls to the Giants), come to mind.

Is Gettleman throwing a smokescreen to mask his true intentions? Sure, there's always that possibility, as noted in the following tweet.

#Bills’ GM Brandon Beane on #Giants GM Dave Gettleman: 👀 pic.twitter.com/MlVBikjmFY

— Scout Kelley (@ScoutKelley) April 18, 2020

To a degree, you have to apply some logic. While I might be way off with my reasoning, I'm thinking that for the reasons mentioned above, if the Giants have a cluster of players at different positions with similar grades, they're going offensive tackle in the first round.

By the Numbers

When I was looking at the Giants draft picks the other day, something struck me that's worth mentioning.

The Giants, as of right now, have ten picks, but only three of them fall within the top 100.

That’s not exactly an ideal set up for a team with so many needs to fill, nor is it an ideal scenario for a general manager who needs to hit this draft class out of the park if he's to oversee future drafts for this franchise.

With the bulk of pro days and draft visits canceled due to COVID-19, the Giants, like every other NFL team, have to rely more than ever on the work done by its scouts during the college football season as well as during the all-star games that were played before COVID-19 shut everything down.

The Giants, remember, dismissed two long-time scouts, Ryan Jones, and Donnie Etheridge, back in February. While the team likely retained their work, again, this, in my opinion, puts extra pressure to get this right.

Even Gettleman admitted that, to a degree, not having face-to-face meetings with players has made it hard.

By not having pro days, you also miss that personal contact. Watching guys among their peers and how they operate, how they’re received--that tells a lot when you watch a kid in those circumstances. Obviously, when we would go to workouts, a lot of times the night before, our coach and scout that would be at the pro day would take one, two, or three of the players out to dinner and have some conversation that way. We’re losing the personal touchpoints. We have the visual touchpoint, but we’re missing out on the personal touchpoint when you can smell or feel a guy.

To take some of that pressure off, director of college scouting Chris Pettit, who joined Gettleman on a conference call Friday to preview the draft, revealed that the scouts have been pursuing other ways of getting the necessary information.

What we did was we gathered the scouts together, and we said, ‘Hey, use this time now, we’re not out on the road, use this time to go back and watch more film, watch the games you didn’t watch, watch them again. Call the schools, call the players. Be thorough. Now you’re not going to have the opportunity to be on campus, so maybe call the academic people one more time. Maybe they’ll give you a different opinion.’ So, we worked the whole fall process over again, and our scouts were great doing that. We were able to dig up some more information.

Overall, Gettleman and Pettit sounded very confident in having enough information on which to make decisions. So let's hope they're right, as the future of the franchise depends on it.

Why I Think the Giants Will Come Out Okay in the Draft

While I admit that I'd rather the Giants have more than three picks in the Top 100, I think a hidden advantage/resource they're likely leaning on heavily in the days leading up to the draft is their coaching staff.

Several of the assistant coaches came from the college ranks, which means those guys likely have loads of information to contribute not just on the players they coached, but those they coached against.

I asked Gettleman about that on Friday, and as I suspected, it's a big deal. Here's what he had to say.

Gettleman already has a reputation at being able to uncover hidden gems. Still, if this forthcoming draft class should prove to be one of the best the team has seen since the 2007 class, remember this added yet underrated advantage they have in trying to find hidden gems outside of the top-100.

Speaking of the Coaching Staff...

In the past, when players would tell me about how important and how helpful mental reps are, I'd smile politely and then roll my eyes.

Yes, the game is mostly mental, but at some point, you have to get out there on the field do it.

But with that said, a big reason why I believe the Giants, whenever they do get back on the field, will be able to hit the ground running despite the lack of being able to work on the field this spring, is because of the coaching staff Joe Judge has put together.

I've said this before and will repeat it. Coaching is EVERYTHING. Judge, who took over a month to put his staff together, added quality teachers whose resumes speak for themselves, unlike past assistant coaches whom one wonder if they weren't the first choice of the prior head coaches.

This is going to be important because the more this staff can embed the concepts and schemes they want to run int he minds of the players, the better chance the Giants will have to hit the field running in executing.

It's a Bad Year for a Position Switch

I found Dave Gettleman's admission that the team was considering Nick Gates at center to be interesting.

Gates is a smart player who, when given opportunities to play last year, didn't embarrass himself. And in speaking with him last year for the LockedOn Giants podcast, he did mention that he was learning how to play center.

So while I think he has what it takes to be successful at center, the biggest concern I have about the Giants putting the majority of their eggs in that basket it the potential for the entire off-season to be wiped out because of COVID-19.

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Gates, I believe, would easily master the mental aspect of the position. Still, I'd have grave concerns about him taking any meaningful snaps there in 2020 because center, like any other position on a football team, needs reps.

Gates, from what I recall, did get some practice reps last year, but I can't say for certain how those were run, meaning were they done at full speed with pads on with him working with the scout team, or were those snaps given to Spencer Pulley, who technically was as part of the walkthrough.

Regardless, if the Giants don't draft a center--and I do think they will--I can't see them moving ahead with trying Gates at a position at which he has so little experience.