Giants wouldn't trade back too far from No. 4 pick in NFL Draft, Charley Casserly says

Charley Casserly speaks during a ceremony honoring the Redskins replacement players from the 1987 Super Bowl XXII championship squad at Redskins Park in Ashburn, Va., on June 12, 2018. Credit: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta
What do the Giants want to do with the fourth overall pick in the NFL Draft?
Not use it, says a former Super Bowl-winning general manager and current analyst for the NFL Network.
“I think they’d like to trade back and pick up picks, that would be my impression,” Charley Casserly told Newsday in a phone conversation this weekend.
“But,” he added, “so would Detroit.”
The Lions have the third overall pick, which adds to the buzz around those two spots just ahead of the seemingly quarterback-intent Dolphins at No. 5.
Of course, the Giants can’t trade if they don’t have a partner.
“I don’t know who is coming up, that’s the question,” Casserly said. “I don’t see Jacksonville. Jacksonville is committed to [Gardner] Minshew. The Chargers, they’re a possibility, but I give 60-40 they’re not moving up. If they’re zeroing in on a quarterback and they think Miami is going to take him and they can jump ahead and give up a second-round pick or something like that, they may do it.”
How about deeper?
“I think the Giants, if they are going to go back, won’t go back far,” Casserly said. “If they get that offer.”
If they don’t, they’ll have to take someone with that fourth pick. Casserly believes the Giants have two ways they could go in that situation.
“Their top priorities have to be to protect the quarterback and get to the quarterback,” he said. “Chase Young is not going to be there. I don’t see a pass rusher I would take. But I do see some offensive tackles who would be pretty good picks there. That’s what I would expect them to do. That would be the best value for them with their needs.”
So the Giants have a chance to land the top tackle in the draft. Now they have to decide who that is. That’s one of the problems with this draft class. Ask four different scouts and you might get four different answers. There is no standout among them as the dominant must-have player.
Casserly, for his part, narrows his list down a bit.
“I think it comes down to two guys,” he said. “Mekhi Becton from Louisville, I think he’s the best guy on tape. But Jedrick Wills [Alabama] is the safer pick of the two as far as the total package goes. Probably Wills would be the one I have there with Becton next, Andrew Thomas [Georgia] third.”
What about Iowa’s Tristan Wirfs?
“Wirfs is a right tackle to a guard,” Casserly said. “He’s a hell of a right tackle and a hell of a guard. That’s what they have to understand if they get him. Wills, the feeling is he can play left tackle even though he’s been primarily a right tackle. Becton, you see him play left tackle so you kind of know what you have there with him. Andrew Thomas, you see him play left tackle and you know what you have there.”
One other option could be Isaiah Simmons, the do-it-all linebacker from Clemson whom Casserly calls a safety.
“If you assume that the Giants' defense will be modeled after New England’s defense with a lot of matchup situations, this is the guy who fits that scheme,” Casserly said. “This guy can do a lot of things for you.”
Casserly said he’d be a safety in a 3-4 defense and could be an outside linebacker in a 4-3. The Giants have indicated they will be a little bit of both.
“In a 3-4, you have to understand that he won’t be the strongest run defender inside the tackles,” Casserly said. “That’s not going to be a strength for him. If you can live with that, that’s fine.”
The Giants, who signed 100-plus-tackle-per-year machine Blake Martinez as their middle linebacker, might be able to live with that.
“He can definitely cover running backs and tight ends,” said Casserly, who is impressed by Simmons' wide-ranging skills. But that also might be exactly what scares teams away.
“I think he is versatile, but you want to be able to do one thing too,” he said. “He’s a good pick for anybody, but I don’t know that he’s the fourth pick in the draft . . . I would be surprised if the Giants took him there. I think there are [offensive] tackles there I would take ahead of him.”
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