Blue Liar. Welcome back. It's the Big Blue Banter. New York Giants football podcast. I'm Dan Schneier.

I joined as always my ghost, Nick Bellato. And today we get to welcome in a special guest. Joining us for the second time, I'm Big Blue Banter. Last year, we did it pre-draft. This year, I thought it might be a little bit more fun to do it post-draft and get his feelings on the Giants draft overall and other drafts as well. For those of you can see watching on YouTube, I am not recording for my normal studio at home. I am at a hotel room, so bear with me there. But other than that, everything should go smoothly and as normal according to plan. So first thing I want to ask you, John, and get you started here. What were your overall thought?

We're not going to make you do a grade because nobody likes to do grades. But what were your overall thoughts on the Giants draft class? And more importantly, like the strategy they use to kind of get aggressive and trade up for their guys. Hey, look, I think you have to be happy with how everything played out. And I think some of us walk, right?

Where they just, the guys that they needed the positions of need happened to drop to where they were. Like you can easily say Joe Shane did great, you know, but what happens if Washington tastes Christian Gonzalez and the Patriots take Deonti Banks? Then all of a sudden Joe Shane didn't do great because the guy just didn't happen to get to it, which he had no control over, right?

So I think some of this is luck. I think that fell in the Giants favor. Second round, I never liked the idea of the center in round one. I didn't think that was something the Giants would do is not a premium position, and I thought you could find get one of those two guys, and I like Whippler. I don't know how he lasted as far as he did.

Lasted in a round two.

And then, look, they trade up for Jalen. one of those two guys and I like Whippler I don't know how he lasted as far as he did um lasted in a round two

and then look they trade up for Jalen High in a round three I did not have a first round great on him and

other people did I had a more of a second round type player just because I thought in it you know

besides the speed he had a lot of a lot of work to do on his. So I think the draft gods looked favorably upon the Giants.

And then I think Jo Shane did what he had to do.

Look, I don't care about trading picks in rounds five through seven because odds are the guys

you're getting those rounds are going to be either not make the team in round seven,

maybe be a practice squad guy or be a special teams player.

Yeah, you know, a rare year do you get a great player in round five, maybe be practice squad guy or be a special teams player. Yeah, you know, rare year do you get a great player in round five?

Sure, but it's so rare that, you know, that's what you have to do to move up one spot to

get a guy that you think is a premium player at a premium position, go and do it.

Trading that fourth round pick is a little bit more painful because I do think you can find good players in the fourth round. But I do think generally speaking, there's a drop off in the middle of the round, and the Giants obviously are towards the bottom of that fourth round. So that wasn't quite as painful for me. But I think for a guy like Hyatt in a draft where there were that many guys that fit the type of role that I wanted the Giants to

add in the wide receiver room. I thought it was definitely worth the price of admission.

There were so many small slot guys. I didn't want to add another one of these five,

nine receivers. And they just weren't that many bigger guys. Not that high. It's a big guy,

right? He's only 175 pounds, but he is over six foot. But he can play outside. He's an outside receiver. So I thought for that reason, it was worth it. The only other guy that was really around at that point to draft was A.T. Perry, and he ended up dropping until like round six. Another guy I was confused of why he dropped so far. But I thought overall need met value. And again, some of that is Joe Shane being aggressive, which is great. The other part of that is lock. So check all the boxes and that's how you get a good draft. John, thanks for joining us. And I actually have that in my notes, the perfect collision of need and value with the New York Giants. But you are correct. There was a little bit of luck there because if Deonté Banks does go to New England and then Gonzalez goes to Washington, maybe Emmanuel Forbes ends up falling to the New York Giants. And I wanted to ask you if that scenario played out. And then those receivers started coming off the board like they did.

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