Dottino: Building The Giants Way — A Look At Jerry Reese's Draft History
By Paul Dottino
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The stats speak for themselves.
Jerry Reese is the only general manager in Giants history to not have experienced a losing season. Count up the numbers: 50-38 over six years, including five winning seasons, three playoff appearances and two Super Bowl titles.
Although Reese, coach Tom Coughlin and the rest of his staff deserve a lot of credit, they'll always point to the "Giants system" as the reason for their success.
George Young poured the foundation for the future when he was named general manager in 1979. After Young retired, Ernie Accorsi (1998-2006) and Reese (2007-present) remained true to his blueprint: build your core through the draft with an emphasis on taking the best player available, trust your scouts, take the emotion out of personnel decisions, entice your key players to re-sign with the team and be very selective when dipping into free agency.
Since the Giants make the draft their top priority, it makes sense to glance at Reese's history as he counts down to the three-day selection process.
JERRY REESE DRAFT FACT SHEET (2007-2012)
Number of draft picks: 46
Picks on defense (24): Six cornerbacks, four outside linebackers, four defensive tackles, four safeties, three defensive ends, three middle linebackers.
Picks on offense (21): Six wide receivers, five tackles, four running backs, three tight ends, two quarterbacks, one guard.
Picks on special teams (1): One punter.
Number of starters or regular rotation players who made a tangible contribution for at least one season: 20
Players who made the Pro Bowl (3): DE Jason Pierre-Paul (1st round, 2010), WR Steve Smith (2nd, 2007), OLB-LS Zak DeOssie (4th, 2007).
Players who DID NOT stick on the roster/practice squad/season-ending injured reserve for at least the bulk of one season (2): CB DeAndre Wright (6th round, 2009), Stoney Woodson (7th, 2009).
Best value: RB Ahmad Bradshaw (7th-B, 2007). Who else? The guy put up two 1,000-yard seasons and averaged 4.6 yards per carry in six seasons - not to mention his role as a big-play threat and spark plug for the offense. And he was No. 250 overall, making him the deepest draft pick to start for the Giants since S Herb Welch (12th, 1985), who was No. 326, made spot starts in 1986-87.
Worst value: LB Clint Sintim (2nd-A, 2009) was No. 45 in his draft and - injuries aside - was hardly noticed over his four-year stay: 33 total tackles, one sack, one start.
Best class: 2007. All eight players from this draft stuck - and each one (except OL Adam Koets, who did not play that season) made a contribution to a Super Bowl title during their rookie season. The Giants wound up with five starters (CB Aaron Ross, Pro Bowl WR Steve Smith, TE Kevin Boss, S Michael Johnson, RB Ahmad Bradshaw), a rotation DT Jay Alford and Pro Bowl long snapper Zak DeOssie.
Worst class: To be determined.
2013 NFL DRAFT SCHEDULE
At Radio City Music Hall: Thursday, first round, 8 p.m.; Friday, second and third rounds, 6:30 p.m.; Saturday, fourth through seventh rounds, noon.
Giants picks (8): Round 1-Pick 19 (19 overall); 2-17 (49); 3-19 (81); 4-19 (116); 5-19 (152); 6-19 (187); 7-19 (225) and 7-47 (253)*.
*Compensatory selection.
Estimating the timing of the Giants' first three picks (based on previous two years): First round (maximum 10 mins. between picks) expected to come approx. 9:45 p.m. on Thursday; Second round (max. 7 mins.) – approx. 8 p.m. on Friday; Third round (max. 5 mins.) – approx. 10 p.m. on Friday.
Coming Wednesday: Giants positional analysis. Thursday: Predicting the Giants' first-round pick.
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