DRAFT DEBATE: Should Giants SELECT RB Jeremiah Love at #5?

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The New York Giants wouldn't really draft a running back at number 5 overall, right?

Or would they?

You are Lockdown Giants, your daily New York Giants Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast

Network, your team every day.

Hello New York Giants fans, I'm Patricia Trayna, your host and welcome to today's Lockdown

Giants Podcast episode.

And on today's episode, the last time the Giants drafted a running back in the top five,

they really didn't get much out of it.

So would they really seriously be considering doing it again this year?

That's will be our first topic on today's show and then in segment 2, head coach John

Harbott, told reporters at the leak meeting on Monday what he wants the offense to look

like.

So how close are they to actually fulfilling his wish list?

And then finally, we'll wrap things up with, is it that big of a deal that the Giants

don't have a third round draft pick, right?

So that's our list of topics for today.

Let's get right into today's episode.

All right, so the Giants are in a position now where they did a lot in free agency and

in their minds, they have given themselves a lot of different options as to which direction

they can go in the draft.

Now if you have been watching the shows this week, you know I had Damien Parson of Lockdown

NFL Draft On and he was of the opinion that this year's draft class is not really

the strongest of classes that, you know, this is the type of class where you just throw

a positional value out the window and you kind of go for best player regardless of the

position.

So that being said, that's raised a question about would the New York Giants consider

drafting a guy like running back Jeremiah Love out of Notre Dame with the fifth overall

pick?

Now people are split on this and I think the majority of the people who have weighed in

on this topic have been on the opinion that no, they should not go there because luck.

They drafted Safe 1 Barclay back in 2018 with the second overall pick and they should

have traded down which, you know, they should have.

And oh, by the way, how many Super Bowls did the Giants win with Safe 1 Barclay on the

roster?

The answer is zero.

How many playoffverts did they have with Safe 1 Barclay on the roster?

The answer is one.

And they didn't go very far in the playoffs.

I think they won the wild card and then they were bounced out in the division around.

So people are remembering that and they're saying, no, no, no, don't try out the running

back at fifth overall, you know, fifth overall.

Go and get sunny styles if he's on the board.

Get Caleb Downs if he's on the board.

Get anybody else, Carnell Pate if he is on the board.

Get anybody else except for Jeremiah Love, all right?

Now here's the thing folks and John Harbott and Joe Shane, when they spoke to the media

on Monday at the meetings, made some pretty good points.

This is not the same giant team as it was in that 2018 lead up to the draft.

The Giants now have their quarterback.

They have a left tackle.

They have a linebacker.

They've got tight ends.

They've got a defense tackle, no tackle.

They've got some depth now in the secondary.

They've got a whole new kicking battery.

They filled a lot of holes.

The offensive line is four fifths return from master, okay?

They still have holes, obviously right guard.

They could probably use more depth in the running game, whether it be, you know, Jeremiah

Love or Day 3 pick.

They've got pieces, whereas back in 2018, the Giants didn't really have a whole lot

of pieces.

If you remember, Eli Manning was approaching the end of his career.

They drafted Saekwon Barkley to take some of the onus off of Eli, who was coming off

of, I think, two straight years of attempting more than 600 passes.

And they felt at the time that Saekwon would take some of that pressure off of Eli, that

giving him a running back would help Eli ease into, you know, the final years or however

many years left he had, which I think was one more year after that 2018 season.

So that being said, the Giants are in a different space right now.

And when we talk about how the Giants roster is being built, everybody always says it's

got to be built around the quarterback, Jackson, dark.

So then does it make sense to add pieces on offense?

Now you could sit there and you'd say, well, he absolutely needs another receiver, because

who knows if the league neighbors is going to be ready to roll?

Eventually, he will, but who knows when?

The Giants have added at receiver.

They haven't really added in the run game, all right?

Now the thing with the run game is you give a quarterback a really, really good running

game, and you can check off a lot of different things, all right?

For example, you can keep drives alive with a mixture of the run and path, okay?

Last year, the Giants had 47 three-in-out plays, which was ranked 25th in the league, but

they already averaged 4.3 yards per rush play.

So while the three-in-outs were reduced a little bit, and that was a benefit, I think,

more so of the passing game that they leaned a little heavily into, got to cut down on

the three-in-outs, obviously.

In the red zone, the Giants had 18 rushing touchdowns, which was tied for 4th, but we'll

break that down in just a moment, all right?

Let's look at the stats between 2024 and 2025 regarding the running game.

That those years, by the way, are post-saquant, all right?

So from 2024 to 2025, the Giants had 29 rushing touchdowns, 14 of which were by the quarterbacks,

not in the red zone, by the way, all right?

So 29 rushing touchdowns in the red zone, 14 of those by the quarterbacks, not a very

good stat, right?

They had 121 three-in-outs, which was the 12th most in the league over those two seasons.

They had 152 red zone rushes, which were 17th in the league, probably should be a little

higher, you would think, right?

Their red zone efficiency and their goal-to-go efficiency over that period, 2024 to 2025,

dead last in the league in both categories, 45.6% conversion percentage in the red zone,

and 60% on goal-to-go.

That again, post-saquant.

Now, I looked up last year how many touchdowns did the Giants score on the ground inside

the 10-yard line?

The running backs accounted for four, all of which were Camp Scataboo.

The quarterbacks, Dart and James Winston accounted for six.

So you think maybe there's a little imbalance there with the running game?

I mean, you can look at the overall running game and say, oh, we got better.

And it did, but take away the performance of the quarterbacks.

And is the running game really that good, or wasn't that good last year?

Probably not, right?

The stats would suggest it wasn't.

Now, the other benefit of having a really solid running game, obviously, you cut down

on the need to have Jackson Dart execute a ton of design runs.

All right, Jackson Dart last year, 49 design runs out of 86 rushing attempts.

That's way too many folks.

Way too many.

And when you have a quarterback like Jackson Dart, who's going to try and get you every

last drop of the art age on a run, you really want to put them at risk several times

of game like they were doing at the start of the season before they made the coaching

change.

You probably don't want to do that.

So getting a good running game together, and look, Camp Scataboo might very well be

able to provide that as Mike Tyrone Tracy.

But Jeremiah Love, I think you can make the case that he would elevate it.

This is a guy who doesn't have a lot of mileage on his feet, all right?

A guy who could be at every down back.

And you know, just a guy that he's going to make some team's offense happy.

And this isn't a situation where, you know, again, the Giants have to trade down because

I'll talk about a little later.

I'll talk about how the Giants not having a third round pick, you know, may not be as

big of a deal as we're making it out to be.

But look, the bottom line is this, if you read what Joe Shane said about how he is a fault

in his thinking regarding positional value, if you listen to what John Harbott said, I

don't know that that's necessarily smoke that they're just blowing.

I mean, maybe it is.

I don't know.

This is my first go-around with covering John Harbott.

So I kind of have to get a feel for, you know, what he likes and what he doesn't like and

what the little cues that give off, you know, signs that maybe he's throwing smoke out

there as opposed to being, you know, forthright.

But I don't think that we can discount the very strong possibility that the Giants take

Jeremiah Love with the fifth overall pick.

But I do it myself, no, I wouldn't.

And it's no, you know, this on Jeremiah Love, he's a great player, it's going to make

something very happy.

I personally would go defense.

I still think the Giants need cornerback help.

I still think they could use another linebacker.

They definitely need defensive line help.

But I could see the logic behind going with Jeremiah Love with the first pick, the first

round pick, fifth overall pick in the draft, if he is on the board there for the Giants.

So something to keep an eye on, something to think about for sure.

All right, Giants coming up next.

John Harbott told reporters what he wants out of the Giants offense, what he ambitions.

So how close are they really to fulfilling that need and what else do they still need

to get there?

Talk about that right after this.

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All right, James hands.

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All right, let's talk about John Harbock and his vision for the New York Giants offense.

And you know, nothing earth shattering here, it's probably what every head coach wants

out of their offense.

You know, John Harbock talking to reporters on Monday at the lead meetings said he wants

an offense that's going to score a lot of points and offense that's going to be explosive.

All right.

So that being said, how close are they really, you know, and what do they still need?

Well, they have their quarter back for starters, all right, that's obviously the first step.

They have now added, you know, a big slot receiver in Isaiah, likely a Titan, who's going

to get a very big boost in his production versus what he might have had in the past when

he was kind of stuck behind Mark Andrews in Baltimore.

They will have Malik neighbors eventually coming back.

The big question mark is, is how close will Malik look to being the guy he was before

his injury?

Eventually he'll get there, but it might still take a little bit of time.

They've added Calvin Austin, who I think is one of the underrated signings of free agency.

This is a guy that I think the Giants will be able to do a lot with, right?

They have Dornell Mooney that they added to that receiving course.

So basically, they swapped out one Dale Robinson and for what they would have had to pay

one Dale Robinson, what Robinson got from Tennessee, the Giants were able to add likely Austin

and Mooney, basically for roughly the same price, all right?

Each guy allowing for different things.

The offense of line, four-fifths of it is back.

The key though is keeping those guys healthy, particularly Andrew Thomas, who has missed

time each of the last few years with injuries, all right?

So once they saw the guard problem, the right guard problem, and again, I do think that's

going to come via the draft, they should be fine, all right, with that offensive line.

Because that offensive line last year was not bad, and if you believe that continuity

is an offensive line's best friend, well, this would be year three of that same line playing

together.

So that could only be good things for the offense.

Now, the running game, we talked about a little bit in the previous segment.

The running game is not that bad, all right?

Would it be better?

Yes.

Tyrone Tracy really stepped up, but there are things that he doesn't do as well.

And if you're talking about a power running game, I don't know that he's a great fit for

a power running game.

Obviously, Cam's scatable a little bit more of a better fit for the power running game,

but the thing with scatabo's running style is he runs hard every single play, and you've

got to wonder if that's going to be sustainable.

So that's why I think the Giants brought in Pat Ricard, a 300 pound full bat who's going

to do all the dirty work, if you will, and take some of that away from the running backs

to have the scratch and claw pound for their yardage.

But in terms of the overall offense, the big question mark, and we won't find out more

about this probably until we talk to offensive coordinator, Matt Nagy, which we are scheduled

to do on April 7th when the team starts its off season conditioning program.

What exactly will that offensive light?

Is it going to be primarily a power rushing offense first and a downfill passing offense

second?

Are they going to go past first and run second like, you know, as was the case, is it going

to have elements of the West Coast offense in it, you know, with Matt Nagy in there?

How much of that is going to look like Kansas City?

Well, you know, here's the thing to remember folks.

We talk about everything revolving around Jackson Dart.

Mike Kafka, when he was here as the offensive coordinator, where did he get his coaching

star from?

Andy Reed, right?

Andy Reed in Kansas City, Matt Nagy coming from that same system in Kansas City.

So I think it wouldn't be a stretch to say that you're going to see a lot of those Kansas

City concepts continue onward with Jackson Dart stuff that he does well.

I think you'll see a lot more play action.

I think they will work to, you know, get Dart more comfortable working out, you know,

under center as opposed to always working in the shotgun.

So there will be new elements added and there will be elements from the old Buffalo system

that by a table drove when he was the head coach, I think we'll start to lose some of

that.

Specifically, you know, maybe some of the yard after the catch things, those shorter passes

that we saw.

But we don't know.

I'm just kind of spitballing here based on what each coach has kind of run and what kind

of system they've come from.

But the key here again is going to be Jackson Dart.

What does he do?

Well, play action is certainly something he does well, you know, obviously making plays

with his legs.

But I think they're going to maybe tweak it to where now maybe instead of always sending

him out and design runs, maybe just use the legs to buy time in the pocket, should the

pocket collapse?

All right.

Now, other things that I think we will see from the new offense, we will see better

efficiency and mix in the red zone, right?

One of my biggest complaints about the red zone play calling the last, you know, several

years, too many times did the giants run wide plays or slow developing plays where they

would send somebody out why in a short area zone, okay?

So if you're sending somebody out wide and you only have, say, less than 20 yards to go,

you're going to give these smaller, quicker, faster defensive players an opportunity to

string you out and stop you.

And that's a big reason why I suspect the giant's red zone offense just hasn't been

very potent of late.

So I would think we will see less wide or and slow developing, you know, plays down in

the red zone and more of the bang, bang type plays, all right?

Because don't give the defense an opportunity to set itself up or to adjust or to get into

a position.

You want to hit them with the element of surprise and the giants just haven't done a very

good, you know, job of that.

If you look back, the giants were great from the 20 yard line to the 20 yard line.

But once they got into the red zone, what did I always call it guys?

I always call it the dance zone.

So that's something the giants obviously need to figure out.

And of course, there's also keeping the pass rush off of Jackson Dart, you know, Jackson

Dart last year as a rookie, not, it wasn't unexpected.

There were times when maybe he left the pocket a little too prematurely, all right, on a

scramble.

That's to be expected.

So working with him to continuing to develop that timer in his head to know when to take

off and when to, you know, hold his ground or move around to buy time, that's going to

be very important.

So overall, you know, again, the pieces are in place for the offense.

They still need a right guard.

They still need some depth on the offensive line.

They could, you know, the power run game, you know, can we say that that's finished?

Probably not, but I think the giants are pretty close on offense, they're having what

harboring visions as an explosive point scoring offense.

And you know, lately in the NFL, if you average 25.1 points per game, typically that means

you're going to be in the playoffs, assuming, of course, you know, the other two aspects

of your game don't let you down.

So I think they're close, but we shall see.

There's still a lot to be unfolded, a lot to be discussed, and we'll get all that in

the coming months.

But, you know, just based on paper, they're, they're getting it.

All right, giant fans, coming up next, the giants do not have a third ground pick.

So is that really a big deal?

We'll talk about it right after this.

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All right, giant fans, in this segment of Lockdown Giant's, the giants don't have a third

ground pick.

And, you know, I've been talking about it a lot in this show and I've been talking about

how when I run mock draft simulations, how I see all these great players going by that

I would love to add to the giants and I have to wait until basically from 37 to 105.

And I got to thinking, you know, is that really that big of a deal, not having a third

ground pick?

And I've come to the conclusion that, you know what, maybe it's not that big of a deal.

Maybe it's just not.

And the reason why I say that is because look at the core foundation this team has.

All right, they've got their wide receiver one.

They have their quarterback.

The quarterback being the key piece, right?

If the giants didn't have a quarterback, I'd say, okay, that's a different story, but

they've got their quarterback.

They've got their left tackle.

They've got a quarterback.

They've got the linebacker now, which remain Edmonds in there, who's going to be an

every down backer for them.

They've got Dexter Lawrence.

They've got Isaiah likely to go with the O Johnson.

They have a lot of pieces.

Are they a complete team?

No.

They still need a few more.

But this isn't a team that, you know, John Harbaugh saw the need to come in here and

just totally blow the whole thing up and start from scratch.

There's a solid enough foundation in there to build on.

And that has been the approach the giants had taken this off season.

So at the end of the day, if you think about it, the giants have seven draft picks.

They just don't have that third round.

They don't have a seventh round.

They have three in the sixth round.

So it's the same number of draft picks.

It's just where the draft picks fall.

So assuming that the scouts do their jobs, which they will, assuming that the giants don't

take any gambles on players that have red flags, whether it be for injury, character or

anything like that, assuming that they have done their homework, why couldn't they come

up with some solid picks on day three?

I mean, they've done so already.

Marcus Bow, promising day three pick.

Cam Skatibou was a, you know, a day three pick.

So it's not out of the question to come up with solid day three picks, all right?

Michael McFan's another one who is a solid day three pick, all right?

You have to do your homework.

And Wallet would be fantastic to have a third round pick because, you know, rounds one

through three are typically your premium picks.

I'm not so sure it's as big of a deal right now as maybe first thought.

And again, if they didn't have the quarterback, I'd feel differently.

But when you consider how they traded to get the quarterback, to get back into the bottom

of the first round last year, they really didn't have to pay a whole lot at the end of

the day, given where the roster is headed.

Now keep in mind, folks, this is all on paper.

I get that no games have been played.

We can sit here and we can install the virtues of this roster and how good it looks on paper

and how they have this and they'd have that and oh, they just had that.

Maybe they'll be a little bit more competitive than they were last year.

I get all that.

But right now, that's what we have to go on.

That's what the giants have to go on.

They don't know what it's going to really look like until they get on the field.

But there is a high level of optimism that this will all come together.

That this team will be more competitive, that it will fulfill what John Harbaugh expects.

That John Harbaugh, who sat there again at the NFL owners meeting and said he expects

his team to be competitive and to win.

That all of that will come to fruition.

All right, Jayfayette, so that's going to do it for this edition of the Latham Giants podcast.

Again, I want to thank you for spending part of your day with us here on the Latham Giants podcast.

Be sure to keep it here all week long.

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So do check all that out.

All right, Jayfayette's until next time.

Have a good one.