D
New York Giants
McCarthy is the Giants' new face under center. Grade: D.
by jkase ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 24 picks
· 13 steals
· 3 reaches
The Giants did not reach, did not trade up, did not blink. They just waited, and Ty'Ron Hopper fell into Round 7, Pick 34.
The cost of the McLachlan reach is exactly the players who went right after him. They lost the exchange badly enough to drag the whole class down. Whatever J.J. McCarthy becomes, the front office has tied its fortunes to the answer.
The veteran additions, Taylor Decker chief among them, give the class a floor the rookies alone would not.
It is a steep hill from here, and the grade knows it.
Pick-by-Pick
In the Round 1 slot they get a true top target. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
In pick No. 29 they get a ballhawk on the back end at fair value. The biggest hole, addressed.
Quinyon Mitchell in the Round 1 slot is fair value, right on his grade. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
In Round 1, Pick 31 they get a franchise quarterback, though they paid up to get him. A clean fit for the roster.
Chop Robinson at pick 39 is a sensible buy, a touch better than market for the edge rusher. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
A tidy bit of business in slot 53, where Xavier Legette graded well above the range. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Ja'Tavion Sanders at No. 60 is a sound buy, the sort that quietly helps a class. A need, and now a little less of one.
T.J. Tampa in the 70th pick is a gift, value that borders on unfair. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
A slide stopped in the 71st overall pick, with Edgerrin Cooper worth more than the price. Depth more than a fix, but depth they can use.
Kingsley Suamataia at pick No. 72 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Chris Braswell at pick No. 73 is the sort of value that quietly wins a weekend. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
You do not let an interior defensive lineman like T'Vondre Sweat reach the 76th pick and blink. They did not. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
They robbed the room for Blake Corum here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. The roster fit checks out.
They let Jarvis Brownlee Jr. come to them and pounced at pick 121. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
They paid sticker price for Cedric Gray in the Round 4 slot, and that is fine. Pure best-available; the position was not exactly begging.
Ben Sinnott in slot 140 is exactly on the number, no argument either way. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
A quiet steal in the 142nd overall pick: MarShawn Lloyd for less than the market said. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Steal is underselling it; Tommy Eichenberg at No. 185 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. Stacking talent where they were already deep.
The board fumbled Austin Booker all the way to the 197th overall pick, and they scooped it up. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
A market-rate safety, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Jontrey Hunter. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They will replay Tanor Bortolini at slot 247 for years; that is how good the value is. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
A swing that ignored the value entirely, Tanner McLachlan well ahead of where he belonged. It fills a real need, too.
Ty'Ron Hopper in the 254th pick is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. Insurance at a position that did not really ask for it.
Zion Logue in pick No. 257 is the kind of reach that only looks good if he outplays it. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.