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Front Office Final Draft Analysis

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Giants Front Office members give their final analysis on the 2012 Draft!

GENERAL MANAGER JERRY REESE

I’ll give you a quick review of our draft choices:

DAVID WILSON, RB, VIRGINIA TECH
A running back – we talked about him earlier. We think he is a terrific player. It was reported that Tampa jumped in front of us. That is not true. This guy was the second-rated running back on our board and the highest player on our board. So that part is not true. We think he is a really good player to add to our running back group; return specialist as well.

RUEBEN RANDLE, WR, LSU
Like we said the other day, he was in the conversation with respect to our first pick. I think we were fortunate that he was still there; terrific, big receiver; pro-ready kind of guy. We think he will really thrive in our offense.

JAYRON HOSLEY, CB, VIRGINIA TECH
Not a big guy, but thinks he is big; plays tough; interceptor, punt returner. I think he will compete right away for the nickel kind of spot and play on all of the special teams for us; tough, hard-nosed football player.

ADRIEN ROBINSON, TE, CINCINNATI
A guy we haven’t talked about – our first fourth-round pick is Adrien Robinson, the tight end from Cincinnati. We really think this guy has a huge up-side. He is a big, big man; long arms. He didn’t catch a lot of balls for them. But he is kind of a late bloomer who has really come on. And we think this guy is kind of a JPP of tight ends. We like these kind of people. We will get Mike Pope involved with this guy. We brought him in for one of the visits. We are excited about him. We think he can really come on and develop and be a terrific football player for us. So it is very exciting for us to get him.

BRANDON MOSLEY, T, AUBURN
Big, tough, smart; just like we like in our offensive line room. He reminds us somewhat of David Diehl. This guy has a good concept. He understands; knows how to play. We think he is going to be a good addition. We think he could go in there and play some guard as well if we needed him to play some guard. But he is an offensive tackle.

MATT McCANTS, T, UAB
He is definitely a tackle. He played left tackle for UAB. Really a pleasant surprise when you watch him. You have to look at him. UAB has not been a powerhouse of football lately, but you do your homework and go in a look at this guy. He is intriguing; long, 36-inch arms. I think at the Combine he was 308. I think he is 315 now. I think he will be 325 pounds in a blink. A very interesting prospect for us. We think that in a year or so he could really make some headway and challenge for a spot in our starting lineup. I think he is going to be that type of player for us.

MARKUS KUHN, DT, NC STATE
This kid is German. He doesn’t have much of a background in football. He has only played a limited about of time. But he is a gym rat; big, strong, tough; great to put in your d-line rotation. Obviously he is still learning. I think he speaks three languages – something like that. But he is fun to watch. He is the Mitch Petrus of defensive tackles. He is a like a buzz saw in there. He is big. I think he ended up with five sacks during the season. I wouldn’t call him a pass rusher. But he stays busy. Somebody better take him because he stays busy in there and he is a slugger.

Q: What do you mean when you said Robinson was the JPP of tight ends?
A: He is just a big, gigantic man with long arms. And he is really a good athlete. This guy is almost 6-5, 270 pounds. He ran 4.57. He has got those freakish athletic numbers. He hasn’t scratched the surface with respect – like JPP. When we got Jason we said, “This guy hasn’t scratched the surface.” And Jason still has a lot of learning to do – continuing to grow. This kid hasn’t scratched the surface yet. He has a chance to be really something, we think.

Q: He didn’t catch very many balls. Is that a concern?
A: Yeah, we went to the workout. We think he can catch the ball. We don’t have any problem with his hands. We think he is going to be a good receiver as well. He is one of those big guys you can attach him on the end of the line of scrimmage as a on-the-line tight end or he can play the move stuff. He did that for them as well. He is going to be one of those big guys that can run down on your special teams and be a solid contributor to your big four special teams with that height, weight and speed.

Q: You added a lot of offensive players. What was your thinking there?
A: We drafted the best guys. That is what our thinking was. It just so happened that some of the best guys were offensive guys this time. We don’t go in there saying, “Well, let’s balance it out – offense, defense.” We just try to go in there and get the best players. And this time there were more offensive players than defensive players - simple as that.

Q: There was some speculation that Osi might be traded. Was that even explored at all on your side?
A: All options are open with respect to that. Our first choice with respect to Osi is that he will play for the Giants and retire as a Giant. That is what we would like to happen. Osi has been offered an extension two years in a row now. So we would still like to make it work. Hopefully it will work out. But all of our options are always open.


COACH TOM COUGHLIN

Good evening. No need to discuss the first three [picks], right? We talked about them earlier. Jerry’s already has been in here.

Adrien Robinson is a guy who we really like athletically. He did an outstanding job in his workout. Doesn’t have much to show for his collegiate career – not many catches. Was a move guy – did some good things with the move action. Blocked in space pretty well. Wasn’t used that much as a receiver. We do think he has those qualities, but he’s a big kid. He’s much more than that. We think he can develop. We think with Mike Pope, just like a lot of people think, he can become the player that we hope that he will be.

Brandon Mosley was an outstanding player in college; came from a junior college. He has actually played on both sides. Has very good gym numbers. Ran well in the 40-yard dash. We think he has good flexibility. He may be a guy that can handle learning both guard and tackle right away, so we look forward to that.

McCants, a big, tall kid. I just asked him a minute ago what he weighed. He said he was 315. That’s a good thing. He has great big, long arms, almost 36-inch arms. He has played on the left side. I kidded around with him about being Secretariat. That he is not. He has such height, he’s going to get bigger and bigger, and he may give us some flexibility. We’re going to start him out on the left side, and if we have to move him to the right side, that’s fine. But he’s excited.

Both of these guys are physical players: this Mosley guy, if he has a chance to put you on your back, he’ll do that. McCants did the same thing. He hustles, he works. You see him downfield trying to get after people, and I watched him earlier in games against outstanding competition, so I was glad to see the way he played. There’s no question in my mind that in the fourth round we did a very good job, where we picked, in getting what we call “true value” for those two spots. Same thing with McCants at the spot where we took him.

Kuhn we had evaluated at a little bit higher level. You talk about gym numbers, now he’s got them. All the way across the board he had done very, very well in the gym numbers, as we say, in terms of the way he worked out. He is a physical player. He’s a penetrator. I think he’s learning the game, and I think a lot of it is in front of him. From a standpoint of drafting where we were at the bottom of each round and remaining there, I think we have addressed some of the circumstances that we had to address with quality, quality people.

And I spoke of our first three rounds earlier and I do feel very good about playmakers on both sides of the ball in regards to that. You can never have enough corners, for example, in the Hosley decision. There’s a competitive guy. A good cover guy. Very, very fast. I asked him where he was. He’s not 170, he’s 182 when I spoke to him last night.

Q: Adrien Robinson didn’t catch many passes in college. How far away is he?
A: He’s got a lot of work to do to understand the pro game, but he seemed to handle the things that he was asked to do very well. He was used as the motion guy and then brought back in the rim. You see so much of the running game today, the zone run off of what we call the rim action with the tight end or the receiver or the fullback coming back across the formation, giving you a little misdirection, helping set up the naked. He did that. He did that well.

Q: Jerry Reese called him the JPP of tight ends.
A: He’s athletic, a very, very athletic guy.

Q: Is that based on his potential?
A: Yeah, sure it is. Obviously on paper he hasn’t quite achieved that, but we think that he can and it’s all in front of him and we’re anxious to get to work with him.

Q: He’s got the same sort of “sky’s the limit” potential?
A: Well I don’t know. Let’s watch him play a little bit before we get into that. He is very athletic. His numbers are outstanding. He’s very anxious to get going. We think he’s untapped and that’s why, I think, Jerry basically said what he said.

Q: How much is it a factor that you have a tight ends coach in Mike Pope that can develop those guys?
A: It’s a big factor. But to be honest with you, it’s also a factor out there because the college players all know about Mike Pope and the coaches in college know about Mike Pope. As a matter of fact, the people in professional football do as well. So when one comes our way, chances are you’re going to hear comments about ‘Well, Mike Pope will coach that guy and he’ll be a football player.’ We’re hoping that can continue.

Q: Was his blocking okay in college?
A: Yeah, it was. He blocked in space very well, which tells you a little bit about his athleticism. I don’t think he had as many opportunities, nor did he do as well when he stood at the line of scrimmage. How’s he going to do when a six-eye steps over him at 290, the defensive ends we play against? That remains to be seen. But he does have big, long arms. He’s all of that. It’s going to not be easy for him because when you’re building strength with that kind of arm length the numbers don’t always show up, but he’s very interested in being as good as he can be. He sees it as an opportunity here and he’s real excited about it.

Q: Have you met any of these guys since you picked them?
A: No. No we didn’t. No. But our rookie minicamp won’t be this weekend, but it will be the following weekend and then they can stay.

Q: Brandon Mosley can play guard?
A: Well I think he can. We may even slide him in there to start.

Q: He hasn’t played guard before?
A: He’s played both tackles, I can tell you that. Now whether he’s played guard or not, I don’t really recall that.

Q: What is it that you see that makes you say ‘This guy can play guard’?
A: He can run. He’s athletic. He has all the numbers. If you go ahead and look at them, his numbers at the combine were outstanding in terms of all of his run, jump, change of direction kind of stuff and strength-wise too. I think he had 30 reps.