E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer
for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he is one of
only five sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls.
Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

By DAVE KLEIN
When you set about to draft a player, and not just in the first round, so much goes into it that the chances of failure seem to multiply instead of being narrowed.

Does he do this and that? Is he big enough? Smart enough? Fast enough? The problem goes on and on and yet there are some areas of, let's say, less concern depending on the position.

If you are looking at an offensive tackle, for instance, he is going to be big and, these days, he is almost certainly going to weigh more than 300 pounds. And unless you missed a scouting report somewhere that said he was in a train wreck or that he couldn't play the game in college, you are reasonably sure he is going to be better than what you have -- or else you wouldn't be looking at him in the first place.

So looking for an offensive lineman should be easier than looking for a quarterback. Looking for a defensive lineman -- can he move, is he strong, does he have a good first step at the snap? -- should also be relatively simple. The Giants, as you probably know, can use an offensive lineman.

They can also use a defensive lineman. But is there another position that should be reasonably easy to chart, reasonably easy to predict and not too easy to screw up (as the Giants' drafting department is wont to do)?

Yes, in the opinion of an outsider without years of scouting expertise and access to the magic Value Board locked up in general manager Ernie Accorsi's office, how badly can you misjudge a wide receiver coming out of college?

Let's look at this (oh, and by the way, there is probably no position where the Giants need more help than at wide receiver). You aren't sure if the two starters -- who between them didn't catch a single touchdown pass all season -- are going to be back. That would be Amani Toomer and Ike Hilliard, who have served long and often courageously but may have reached that time when real life beckons.

The reserves are either too young or cannot stay healthy, and that includes Tim Carter, who has been injured in each of his three years (sometimes as fast as his alleged speed); Jamaar Taylor, a rookie project last season who showed some flashes between a pulled quad and a pulled hamstring; David Tyree, the special teams wunderkind who seems to make the catches when given a chance but isn't given the chance often enough; and Willie Ponder, who led the NFL in kickoff return average but can't seem to make a dent as a consistent receiver.

The offense, installed by coordinator John Hufnagel with the blessing of head coach Tom Coughlin (clearly, nothing gets done without that blessing from above), needs a go-to speed wide receiver and a pass-catching tight end. The receiver just wasn't there last season. The tight end, Jeremy Shockey, wasn't really there, either, and when he was he was spending half his time learning to block.

Well, dear readers, the situation is perilous. Toomer and Hilliard may not be the answer. Carter, Taylor, Tyree and Ponder may not even produce questions, much less answers.

What's a head coach to do?

Draft one, silly. Or sign one of those juicy veteran free agents who, in the finest tradition of Jezebels everywhere, are offering their service for piles of silver and pouches of gold.

The simple problem of not having a first round draft choice doesn't faze Accorsi and Coughlin. Sometimes when the pressure is off the decision making can proceed in a smoother, more relaxed and often more productive fashion. So what if that first round pick was peddled off to San Diego? Somebody had to rescue Eli Manning from the evils of southern California, and while it was a dirty, thankless job, the Giants stepped up and did the right thing.

But they do have a second round pick. And there are going to be wide receivers available in that second round when the draft begins April 23. The top four or five might already have found homes, but that's fine. There will be lots of others.

See, the deal about wide receivers is basically simple. Can they catch the ball? Can they run fast enough to get to the ball? Are they tall enough (not necessarily a major factor) to leap over tall buildings and fearsome cornerbacks? Try to remember that this is the same game we all played in junior high school; it's just that the players are bigger and faster.

Oh, there are other things to consider. For instance, when the ball is slightly thrown askew, can the kid alter his route without losing speed? And can he run well with the ball in his hands (this is an idiot question that scouts spend months researching; if he can't run well with the ball in his hands he wouldn't be a wide receiver in the first place).

So they make mountains out of molehills. Why not? It's an income and if people ever discovered how easy it really is, it wouldn't be much of an income any more.

Anyway, you want a receiver in the second round? You can have Chris Henry of West Virginia, maybe. He's a little over 6-4 and he weight 200 pounds and he can run fast enough. There's Fred Gibson of Georgia (6-4, 195), Roddy White of Alabama-Birmingham (6-1, 200), Craphonso Thorpe (honest) of Florida State (6-0, 190) and even a definite work-in-progress, a kid named Larry Brackins, who is a proud product of Pearl River Community College in Mississippi. He is almost 6-5 and he weighs 220 and you better be sure you don't decide to pass on a good thing here.

But if you don't decide to risk it all with a kid who might decide he misses his girlfriend or his car or his pet antelope, put it down on a veteran.

There are several veteran wide receivers out there, dressed in the uniform of Unrestricted Free Agent. You can pick Plaxico Burress of Pittsburgh; Jerry Porter of Oakland; Travis Taylor of Baltimore; Tai Streets of Detroit; Joey Galloway of Tampa Bay and Corey Bradford of Houston, among half a dozen others.

A fresh, fast, sure-handed wide receiver isn't that difficult to find. It's just been a while since the Giants got themselves a new one -- and the time to fix that is now.

Check out Dave's website at E-GIANTS where you can subscribe to his newsletters which run much more frequently than what is available here.
- Team Giants

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