When a team has a top-10 draft pick and as many projected needs as the New York Giants do, trying to narrow it down to the best option could be overwhelming.
One such need that the Giants do seem to have is at offensive tackle. The right candidate could have a major impact on this team for years to come.
The Case for an Offensive Tackle
Before we get into details on why Stanford’s Andrus Peat is a good draft candidate for the Giants, let’s first talk about the current state of the offensive tackle position in New York.
The only linemen who have any experience playing tackle at the NFL level are Will Beatty, the current starting left tackle; Justin Pugh, the incumbent at right tackle; Geoff Schwartz, who is more of a guard than he is a tackle; and journeymen John Jerry and Marshall Newhouse, both of whom will provide veteran depth at the position.
Let’s put Beatty, the Giants’ second-round pick in the 2009 draft, under the microscope.
According to Over the Cap, Beatty will receive the last of his guaranteed money payout this year. That amount, $650,000 of his $5.5 million base salary, doesn’t sound like a lot.
If you look at what it would have cost to cut Beatty this year, he simply would not have yielded any kind of savings.
Before discussing when it would make sense to cut Beatty (if the Giants choose to do so), let’s look at his performance since he was drafted, using the grades kept by Pro Football Focus for each year of Beatty’s career as a pro.
As the table shows below, he has historically graded out well as a run-blocker but has been up and down—mostly down—as a pass-blocker:
Credit Beatty for bouncing back in 2014 from a horrific 2013 season in which he couldn’t seem to get out of his own way.
However, as the table above shows, even though Beatty finished among the top tackles in the game, he still wasn’t quite the dominating force in the running game as he was in 2012.
To be fair, Beatty did post the offense’s best run-blocking grade last season despite having a rookie (Weston Richburg) next to him for the majority of the year.
When comparing Beatty’s run- and pass-blocking grades from PFF to the rest of the tackles who took at least 75 percent of their teams’ snaps last year, Beatty was clearly a top-10 performer in run blocking, but as a pass-blocker, he finished 22nd overall and 15th among left tackles.
Going back to Over the Cap’s data on contracts, Beatty is tied with Eugene Monroe of the Baltimore Ravens for the 12th richest contract for a left tackle.
While Beatty has been solid—he was the offensive line’s best player last year, per Pro Football Focus—the time to decide whether to let him play out the remaining years on his contract can begin after this season and be a year-by-year decision.
When that time comes, the Giants will need to determine whether Beatty is delivering the value of the deal he received, or if it’s maybe time to go in a different direction, perhaps after the 2016 season, a year before Beatty’s current contract ends.
If they decide on the latter scenario, they are going to need to take advantage of their top-10 draft status this year to make sure they have a man waiting in the wings to succeed Beatty, since veteran free-agent left tackles are expensive.
The Case for Andrus Peat
In 1988, the Giants drafted a player by the name of John “Jumbo” Elliott in the second round with the 36th pick overall.
Elliott, who played his college ball at Michigan, was, as his moniker suggested, a mammoth-sized human being who stood 6’7” and weighed 308 pounds.
According to Pro Football Reference, coach Bill Parcells inserted Elliott into the lineup at left tackle. He played that position for eight years (112 games with 98 starts) before moving to the Jets to finish his career.
During his time with the Giants, Elliott, who once wore Chris Snee’s No. 76, was voted to the 1993 Pro Bowl.
Fast-forward to the present, where another mammoth-sized offensive tackle is among the pickings.
If that prospect becomes a Giants' draft pick, he could probably come in right away and start at right tackle, where he would gain pro-level experience that would help get his feet wet and build up the confidence and skills necessary to make the move to left tackle, assuming he cleans up the inconsistencies in his technique.
That prospect is Peat (6’7”, 313 lbs), who is ranked as the 23rd-best overall player on NFL Draft Scout’s Rob Rang’s big board and as the 24th-best overall player on ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr.’s big board.
Peat isn’t a finished product—very few draft prospects are—and it is debatable as to whether he’s a top-10 draft pick.
If the Giants view Peat, whom Kiper has going to the Giants at No. 9 in his latest mock draft, as their guy, they could see if someone might be willing to swap places with them in the first round—an exchange that would probably bring the Giants an extra third-round pick at minimum.
If that happens and Peat is still there, the Giants could end up with a good future left tackle prospect who would probably be able to start for them at right tackle in the short term. Such a move would solve two issues on the offensive line—the second being moving Pugh inside to left guard, which would give the Giants an instant upgrade of their offensive interior from last year.
Meanwhile, if Beatty continues to play well throughout what is left of his contract, the Giants can leave a starting unit of Beatty, Pugh, Richburg, Schwartz and Peat in place for a few years.
If Beatty doesn’t live up to his annual value, they could cut him, move Peat over to left tackle and see if perhaps they have a young prospect who is ready to move in at right tackle.
If the Giants are hoping to avoid picking in the top 10 in the years to come, they need to get an impact player now.
While past arguments have called for a defensive pass-rusher, upon further review, that perceived need could well fall to Day 2 of the draft given the makeup of this particular group of edge defenders, most of whom seem better suited for a 3-4 base.
By contrast, offensive tackle is a position that should be able to better withstand any transitions to a new system, regardless of the scheme being run.
Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes, stats and other information obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.
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