Giants Draft: Final Predictions

We’re finally here. It is the day of the 2023 NFL Draft, a figurative reverse Christmas morning for NFL teams. As in, the worse you were all year, the better your gift will be. The New York Giants, at least prior to this last season, have been pretty bad, and therefore were used to receiving some pretty shiny toys. But Big Blue was actually, well, rather good in 2022, winning nine games in the regular season and more importantly advancing to the divisional round of the NFC playoffs. So now general manager Joe Schoen and the Giants will have to settle for one of the prospects left over after all the best ones were handed out to the rotten teams at the top of the first round.

The Giants pick 25th overall in tonight’s first round. With 24 teams picking ahead of them, the variance in which prospects will be available to Big Blue is enormous. That makes trying to predict what New York will do tonight extremely difficult. Buy hey, when you’re in the content business, just because something is nearly impossible to forecast doesn’t mean you won’t do so anyways with an unreasonable confidence. So without further ado, let’s make some last-second predictions for what the New York Giants will do in the 2023 NFL Draft.

The Giants Will Take a Cornerback in the First Round

Once the dust settled from this year’s free-agency period, two major needs stood out among the rest for the Giants. Firstly, Big Blue still needs a true number-one receiver that can consistently win outside the numbers. Secondly, they need an outside cornerback that can start opposite Adoree’ Jackson and eventually take over as the team’s top corner once Jackson’s contract expires.

While this year’s wide receiver class is notably weak, with the only consensus first-round caliber receiver in Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba likely off the board by the time the Giants pick, this cornerback class is quite strong. There are at least four consensus first-round caliber corners available this year. There’s a decent chance at least one of those players is there at 25. Even a player such as Mississippi State’s Emmanuel Forbes, who many feel is too light to take in the first, should be in play for New York given the propensity for drafting outliers Schoen showed during last year’s draft. If the Giants want to marry value and need in round one, cornerback offers them the best chance.

The Giants Won’t Make Ten Draft Picks

Big Blue currently owns ten draft picks, with an extra fifth and two extra sevenths padding their total. That’s a lot of late-round capital for a team in need of quality over quantity to improve this roster. The Giants made all eleven of their picks last year. But five of those were in the first three rounds and they were in desperate need of depth. This year, New York has much of its depth in place, and should prioritize finding impact players. Look for Schoen to trade one or two of those late-round picks to move up for someone the Giants covet.

The Giants Will Frustrate Their Fans by Largely Ignoring Center

If there is one position, outside of receiver and corner, that Giants fans want addressed in this draft, it’s center. New York lost both Jon Feliciano and Nick Gates in free agency. They don’t have a clear option to take over as the starting center. It’s not hard to find mock drafts connecting the Giants to center prospects like MInnesota’s John Michael Schmitz or Wisconsin’s Joe Tippmann as early as the first round.

But Schoen has spoken publicly about taking positional value into account when drafting. With needs at higher value positions like receiver, cornerback, and even defensive line, it would be surprising to see Schoen grab an interior offensive lineman in rounds one or two. Schoen also mentioned at the NFL league meetings that he’d be comfortable with guard Ben Bredeson coverting to starting center. The Buffalo Bills didn’t have a history of drafting interior offensive lineman early when Schoen was their assistant GM. Don’t expect a serious investment at center for Big Blue over these next couple days.

– Ryan Cuneo is the Managing Editor of Full Press Giants. He covers the New York Giants. Like and follow on Follow @ryan_cuneo Follow @FullPressGiants and Facebook.