from insidefootball.com

Giants GM Jerry Reese on the NFL Draft

Although Giants GM Jerry Reese was as tight-lipped as they come about the team’s draft plans, here are a few nuggets of interest from his pre-draft presser.

On whether he thought there might be more trades made this year given the lack of movement in free agency: “That could be a possibility. I think people are going to look at this draft and see what they can get out of the draft. You might see some more movement after the draft. I don’t think that is beyond possibility.” (Reese later added that he hasn’t gotten more phone calls this year than in years past.)

On whether drafting in the top half of round one changes their approach concerning value versus need: “We try to get value and need. That is never going to change. We try to get a combination of both. Sometimes you can get a good combination of both. But we are skeptical of drafting need. We try to get a combination of value and need.”

On the influence the NFL Combine has on their decisions: “The Combine is just to verify some of the stuff we have seen on the field. What they do on the field is what is more important to us. We are looking for football players, not gymnasts. But that is part of the process.”

On whether having depth at a position might preclude it from spending a draft pick:“No, not really. Back when we drafted (Mathias) Kiwanuka we had (Michael) Strahan, we had (Justin) Tuck, and we had Osi (Umenyiora). But he was the best guy on the board right there at that time. There was no way we were going to pass him up. So it doesn’t preclude us from drafting even if we have depth at a position; if he is the best guy up there, it is going to be hard for us to pass him up.”

On how much flexibility the team has considering they’re getting back a slew of injured players plus they were able to retain free agents that otherwise might have departed: “More is better for us. The more depth you have --- last year we went into the season, we thought we had a lot of depth and then all of a sudden we had a bunch of injuries and we were thin all of a sudden. So, yeah, 53 guys – no matter what, if you only have 53 guys on a team, it is enough depth period for a 16-game season. And if you are lucky to make the tournament, that makes it even more difficult. Depth is good for us if we can get it.”

On whether he has the same level of confidence in his current group of linebackers as he did with the receivers last year: “ I think there are some linebackers on our team that need to prove that they can do it. Just like last year, I thought there were some receivers – I do have some confidence in some guys on our roster that haven’t played a lot. I want them to step out of the shadows and show us what they have. I do expect that. But that won’t preclude us from continuing to look to upgrade that position.”

On his expectations for second-year linebacker Clint Sintim (tonight’s special guest on “NY Giants Talk”): “We expect him to play and come in and show us what he can do. When you are picked in the second round up here we expect you to play. Your first three picks, you always expect those guys to contribute right away. And he didn’t play a lot last year. He flashed a little bit in a couple of games. But we expect him to really come on along with some guys that have been here a little bit longer than him.”

On why he’s confident that Sintim can play a larger role this season: “Just the few flashes that we saw when he had a chance to play. He didn’t get on the field a lot. But if we picked him in the second round last year, we really think he could be a really good football player. So hopefully in his sophomore season here he will get in there and get it going.”

On whether he feels more pressure to ‘hit a homerun’ with his draft picks this year following the 8-8 season: “We are looking for good players. If we can hit home runs, that is good. If we can get a double, that is good. If we can get a single - we just want to get on base in the draft. We don’t want to have a bunch of strikeouts. It is tough when you have a bunch of strikeouts.”

On where the team currently is in terms of its draft preparations: “We are getting close to being at the end of our discussion about positions. And we are getting ready to stack our value board where we the players we think should off in our rows – they are not rounds, they are rows. We have talked about that before – they are rows – the first row and the second row, all through seven rows. So there is good discussion still going on right now. But we are getting close to starting to put our guys in the rows on the value board.”

On whether the Giants might still look to add a veteran free agent if they don’t come away with a prospect in the draft: “You hope that if that is the case, that we can go out and make an offer and get some depth - a veteran player can give us more depth if we don’t get who we want in the draft. If we feel like we need some to shore up some positions, that is a possibility for us, yeah.”

Here is some stuff I got out of Reese's comments

The Gisnts do not see LB as quite as urgent need at most people. Whilst we wil add talent at some point (either free agency or draft), players like Goff, Kehl, Sintim and Wilkinson will get shots too (Blackburn was a notable ommission)

Upgrading the Trenches (both sides) is a priority

The Giants are prepared to make moves in the draft both up and down

The Giants will not, they have some free agent options in mind

On whether he feels more pressure to ‘hit a homerun’ with his draft picks this year following the 8-8 season: “We are looking for good players. If we can hit home runs, that is good. If we can get a double, that is good. If we can get a single - we just want to get on base in the draft. We don’t want to have a bunch of strikeouts. It is tough when you have a bunch of strikeouts.”

I think Reese forgot that this is a football draft there for a moment