Hi, friends.

This episode of Big Blue Banter is brought to you by prize picks. Head on over to prize picks and use promo code banter and they'll match up to $100 on a new deposit. Thank you and enjoy. Welcome back. It's the Big Blue Banter. New York Giants football podcast. I'm Dan Schneier. Joined as always my host, Nick Falado. We are through the first couple waves of free agency.

Obviously, still a little bit more to come. The Giants recently resigned. That's today. Darnay Holmes, recording two podcasts today. And they are bringing in Tredavius White for a visit later this week. He may come in. Obviously, Joe Shane has connections to Tradius White from his time in Buffalo. So there's going to be some signings, but for the most part, they've done what they wanted to do in free and see.

So with that said, we're going to turn it over. We look today at the five biggest needs for the New York Giants heading into the draft. Now, let me make it clear and set some ground rules for this. One, these are long-term needs and short-term needs, but we will focus on the long-term as well. We're not just going to look at it like just what they need for 2024. Two, just because something's ranked number one on our needs list or number three on our needs list or number five on our needs list doesn't mean you just look at a draft and say, I want position that's ranked number one on the needs list in the first round. I want position that's ranked number two on the needs list in the second round. I want position that's ranked number three on the needs list in the third round. That's not how drafts work. That's not how roster building works. That's how only a bad, horrific team that will be destined to be in the bottom barrel of their division every single year would operate. You cannot draft because of need. That is how every bad team loses. It's how all the stupid teams end up bad. That's how we ended up using dumping an early third round supplemental draft pick on Sam Beal. That's how you make these mistakes that you don't want to repeat. And for the Giants case, it would be repeating in some ways. So let's make it clear now the ground rules of this

thing. If a position is ranked number one as a need, it doesn't mean the Giants should take them. What you have to do in the draft is, for the most part, this is what Joe Shane does, by the way. You draft best player available, but you make sure that's at a position of value. So you're not saying it's just a running back or a fullback or a linebacker. It's a position that

gets paid in the NFL, wide receiver, corner, edge rusher, quarterback. Those are the positions of value, those four mostly. And offensive tackle you can throw in there five, those five. And now these days, guard too, is getting paid a lot. So let's put six in there. Guard is now a position of value. I don't know if Shane views it that way, Nick. That's another discussion for another day, but let's put it in there for now, those six positions. So you look at position of value and you try

to match need with value. That's the perfect pick. When GMs get to do that, Nick, that's great.

Like the Giants are sitting at six. They really need a wide receiver one. If Neek neighbors on the

board, that could be a perfect pick in their mind. They're matching need with value. They really need another position that could be a perfect pick as well.

So just keep these ground rules in mind.

Anything else I miss from a ground rule standpoint before we get gone?

There's a lot of misinterpretation, these types of pods. No, I think we're good to go and roll into it. This is a fun exercise. the giants look if a really good linebacker is around and it's just like a you know adequate guard

i'm not we're not going to advocate that you go for the guard or what, what have you. It's a fun exercise. Yeah, just have fun with it. So we're going to go five to one. The fifth biggest need position for the Giants heading into the NFL draft is the offensive guard position still. And I understand that the New York Giants, they've invested in the offensive line, right? You add Aaron Stini, Austin Schlotman, who's more of a center, John Runyon, to your offensive line. You have Jalen Mayfield, Marcus McKeithin, Joshua, Zudu, still there, who, you know, Zudu and McKeith. And they haven't really been healthy, right? So we don't really know what you have with them. You have Jermaine Illuminaur who can play guard as well. I'm still an advocate, and we will always be advocates on this podcast to invest in the interior offensive line. You need to find your best combination of five guys that you can field out there. And if there is a player who can come in here and who can compete to be a backup swing guard, we know how many injuries the Giants have had over the years on the offensive line, I'm going to want the Giants to invest in that. Now, Dan and I went back and forth before this podcast as we were coming up with this list. I think Edge can seriously be considered still, even though the Giants have invested in Brian Burns and Kvon, Thibbido, but you have

Azizotr-R-Larie as your third. I'm comfortable with that, but if Burns or Tibido get hurt, I don't know if I'm as comfortable with Azizur-Lauri in that full-time starting role. He has not proven to be healthy. And you have boogie bash him, Betton Whitley, and who Timon Fox is your other edge rushers. I think some of those guys are expendable on the back end of your roster and you can

invest and add an roster and you can

invest and add an edge and that can help complement your overall pass rush.

I think that could have been five.

I'm honestly okay with linebacker being five, but ultimately investing in that offensive

line to assist the run game and the quarterback in pass protection is more important right

now given the overall

roster. Yeah, it was a tough debate for what would be number five. I think the first four are very

clear to us, the first four needs that we're about to go over. But fifth was tough. And I think what it

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