After a lost season, the Giants fired their coaching staff and general manager in hopes to shake up the culture of the organization. Ben McAdoo, the former coach of the Giants and previously the quarterback coach for the Packers, seemed to be a failed experiment. The supposed offensive guru had an overwhelmingly underperforming offense and it would eventually lead to his dismissal. Ultimately these types of shakeups lead to a complete regime change and it did here too. As a result of a poor season, the Giants had the highly valuable and highly coveted second pick of the draft which put them in the driver seat to make necessary additions.

Recapping the Giants draft

Yes, having the second overall selection is indicative of not having a very good season and being a less than stellar team. Usually, a team in this draft position is looking to rebuild toward a future. The team in this scenario often makes picks that may not make huge differences in the immediate future but should benefit the team greatly in the long run. The Giants, however, didn't take this approach. With a two time Super Bowl champion in Eli Manning, a talented defense, and the return of injured superstar receiver, Odell Beckham, Gettleman and his staff believed that they were in a position to add assets that will play a major role right away in an effort to win now.

This became extremely evident with the number two overall pick. Many were clamoring for them to take one of the highly touted quarterbacks to be Eli's heir apparent. Others, including myself, were intrigued by the notion of trading back in an effort to accumulate more assets in order to account for more needs on the roster.

Instead of doing either of these two things, the Giants opted for the highly vaunted Saquon Barkley, star running back from Penn State. Barkley was widely regarded as the highest graded prospect in this year's draft, with his rare combination of size, speed, and skill. The Giants believed that his ability to run, catch the ball out of the backfield, and block in the passing game, would help fill a major void in the offense and help Eli get back to being a pro bowl level quarterback.

After adding a dynamic offensive weapon to an offense that already has Odell Beckham, Sterling Sheppard, and Evan Engram, the Giants moved on to other team needs. With the second pick in the second round, they selected interior offensive lineman, Will Hernandez, from the University of Texas-El Paso. Hernandez had a very solid combine and had a very strong career that had him at a first-round grade by almost all draft experts. He specializes in the run game and should pair very nicely with the first-round pick, Saquon Barkley.

As a product of trading Jason Pierre-Paul, the Giants had an extra third-round pick and they managed to tackle two more needs in the third round. Because the Giants hired James Bettcher from the Cardinals to be defensive coordinator, they'll likely switch to a three-four defensive scheme, it made sense to move Pierre-Paul.

Since Pierre-Paul doesn't really have the skill set to play the outside linebacker role, and he's a bit undersized to be a down lineman they didn't keep him around in the three-four. As a result, they needed to add a bigger lineman that is more of a defensive tackle, and they also needed another athletic pass rusher to take reps at outside linebacker.

With their two third-round picks, the Giants selected Lorenzo Carter out of Georgia, and B.J. Hill from NC State. Carter fits the bill as an athletic pass rusher and will fill at least some third-down responsibilities and other obvious passing situations. Hill will certainly compete to be a starter alongside Dalvin Tomlinson and Damon Harrison on the defensive line.

If nothing else, he will be put in run stopping situations to muck things up on the defensive line.

The Giants followed this up by taking a quarterback prospect in the fourth round. Out of the University of Richmond, Gettleman went with Kyle Lauletta to go alongside Davis Webb in the Giants organization as the possible heir apparent to Eli. I personally wanted them to select Luke Falk out of Washington State. Falk compiled incredibly impressive stats over the course of four years in the very competitive PAC-12. On the other hand, Lauletta and his Richmond Spiders play in the Colonial Athletic Association. As one may imagine, they're less known for producing NFL talent, which means Lauletta has less exposure to the level of talent he'll see in the NFL.

Ultimately, I trust that Gettleman saw something, and he wasn't alone as Falk didn't go until the sixth round.

Grading the first four rounds of the Giants draft

Obviously, grading a team's draft is almost entirely subjective. If one person wants them to draft with the future as the priority, and the other wants to draft for the immediate future, you can end up with very different grades. Also if people have different offensive and defensive philosophies, opinions can also vary greatly. Gettleman made it no secret that he intends to win now. His statements in news conferences were indicative of that and he confirmed it with his draft approach. I happen to agree with the approach and that may influence my analysis of his draft in a favorable way.

The Giants came into this draft with their most notable needs being on the offensive line and in the front seven of their defense. They didn't directly attack this need with their first pick, but Saquon can definitely have a positive influence on both positions with his ability to dictate the pace of the game. By having a dynamic running back the defensive line can't be as aggressive, in order to maintain containment of Barkley's running lanes. Also, having a steady running attack helps lead to longer offensive possessions, which gets the defense more rest.

After doing something to revamp and remodel the entire team, the Giants directly attacked team needs and did it fairly well. They got incredible value with Will Hernandez who is a first-round talent.

After that, they filled necessary spots on defense with high upside college stars that can step in day one and also develop into superstars.

Some people were clamoring for the Giants to go quarterback with their early draft pick, but instead, Gettleman waited until the fourth round. Obviously, Lauletta doesn't grade as well, and he doesn't project to be as much of a star moving forward. But the Giants were still able to get a guy they liked without spending a ton of draft capital.

In my somewhat arbitrary grading system that isn't really based on anything concrete, I would give Gettleman and his staff an A-. As I was saying, this is just how I felt about it, emotionally. I feel as though he did a tremendous job, because I didn't see any of the top quarterbacks as worthy of that top two pick, and I felt that Saquon was the best player in the draft and also fit extremely well.

Also, Gettleman did an incredible job filling the rest of the roster's needs. The only reasons for the A-, are that I liked Falk over Lauletta, and while they did very well, they didn't have much of a noticeable wow factor. As a fan, I'm very happy with the draft, and can't wait to see what these guys can do when the season starts.