(Business Insider) - The New York Giants surprised the NFL world during the first round of the draft when they took Ohio State cornerback Eli Apple with the tenth pick.
Though Apple was considered a first-round talent, mock drafts mostly had him going lower, and few of them had the Giants taking him with a pick many felt they needed to nail.
ESPN's NFL insider John Clayton recently discussed the pick on 97.5 The Fanatic, and said that it appears Apple wasn't really the Giants' first choice. Instead, the team had an "intelligence failure" that led them to "reach" for Apple.
Clayton said:
"For the Giants, clearly it was intelligence failure. It wasn't intelligence as far as the selection, but the intelligence in the office, because I was hearing, like everyone else, that John Mara wanted to take Jack Conklin. He was going to try [to] push Jerry Reese to do that.
"However, Jerry and the staff were looking to take Leonard Floyd. ... Guess what, two teams jumped the Giants and now they had to reach a little bit to take Eli Apple. That kind of diminishes it a little bit."
Clearly, this isn't a ringing endorsement for the Giants front office.
Ya think?!?!?
Prior to the draft, teams like to put out smokescreens to hide their intentions of whom they plan to draft. From what Clayton says, it sounds like the Giants did a horrible job of that, as their top two prospects were snagged before the tenth pick, with the Bears actually jumping them in a trade to take Floyd with the ninth pick.
Furthermore, if the Giants weren't entirely sold on Apple as the tenth pick, it shows a lack of quick thinking to not try to trade down, select Apple or another prospect lower, and get an extra pick in the process.
Wouldn't life be great if you got the blind support that sports executives did in your everyday life? People actually defend Jerry Reese because "he knows more football than I do". That may be true (although the evidence is shaky at best), but could you imagine how awesome life would be if whenever you got questioned, you could just have some catchall that says I know more and the accuser just has to shut up? That's like my dream.
"Jeffrey, tripling down on Carolina at halftime when they haven't scored an offensive touchdown is a stupid move."
"Well what do you know. You've never tripled down on Carolina before."
What an absolute shit show the Giants' front office is. No one takes them seriously, not even their peers.
In fairness though, if you haven't ever traded down in the draft ever, no need to start now. If ain't broke, don't fix it, right Jer? Ill-advised panic moves always work out.
I picture after they made the pick, Reese had to be thinking like Constanza was in "The Fire".
"Uh...Tunsil, Tunisl smoked weed. We need a sure thing in this draft, so let's just say that Apple was the highest rated prospect on our board with no issues."
"But that's the dumbest logic ever."
"It may seem like that to the untrained eye, but a true leader always knows what's best."
"We have holes on top of holes, and you want to take a corner that is a man specialist with a defense that plays primarily zone."
"CHARACTER, LEADER, CHARACTER, LEADER. GREAT MOM! Actually write that down. His mom is a hit, so let's get her front and center as much as possible to keep people from recognizing how he looks in coverage."
In case you forgot.
Sterling Shepard vs Eli Apple 2.0 #Giants pic.twitter.com/kTwyHLsqlJ— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) May 6, 2016
Jerry Reese is still employed by my football team while Dave Joeger was fired by my hoops team. That's my life in a nutshell.
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