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Special Report

Sent: 04-24-13

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 four sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls. Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

WHO WILL THE GIANTS DRAFT FIRST
IT SAYS HERE (SURPRISE!) MANTI T'EO

By Dave Klein
The annual NFL College Player Draft is exhausting.

People spend months and months trying to figure out who their team will name as its first-round draft pick. They juggled fact and figures, try to ascertain the team's most crucial needs, pretend to be scouts and talk about things like speed in the 40-yard dash, vertical leap, 10-yard dash, cone relays, I.Q. tests, personality traits and on and on and on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

What it comes down to is this: Nobody outside the team's inner sanctum knows anything about what the key personnel are thinking, nothing about what's on that Holy Grail called the Value Board and, perhaps most important, when you are drafting 19th, as the Giants are Thursday night, they don't know who the teams above them are going to select and what trades are going to be made above them.

It's a quandary of insoluble problems, and the late George Young once addressed it with elementary but brilliant logic: "If you have the 10th pick," he said, "you compile a list of the 10 players you most want, and when your turn comes up the highest guy on your list becomes your selection."

It's even tougher when you draft 19th, or as general manager Jerry Reese said earlier this week: "We are drafting entirely too high this year."

So let's throw out the mumbo-jumbo and the math and the algorithms and the position of the sun as opposed to the moon and the stars. Let's discount the missed tackles in college because they happen, and if you watched the Giants' defense last season, you'll know that they happen in the professional game, too.

So who will the Giants pick as their first round choice?

(Drum roll here.......clanging of cymbals.......beating of snare drums.....)

MANTI TE'O, the middle linebacker from Notre Dame.

There, I said it. Te'o was the victim of a cruel hoax perpetrated by those he thought were his friends, guys who invented a girlfriend for him, led him on, prompted several e-mail conversations and then hit him with the news that she had died from cancer.

SHE NEVER EXISTED.

He was also embarrassed on national television when the Fighting Irish faced Alabama for the National Championship, which in a real and valid sense was his first experience against professional football players.

He is 6-1 and 240. He ran the 40-yard dash in, variously reported, 4.75 or 4.82 or even 5.0. You know? So what?

He is a ferocious tackler. He is intelligent. He played at a major university which has often been arm-in-arm with the Giants. He has earned praise from one of the team's leaders, defensive end Justin Tuck, a Notre Dame product as well, and you have to know that in addition to the coaching staff, Tuck is going to mentor this young man.

Do the Giants need a middle linebacker? Do your tomato plants need sun and water? Te'o doesn't drink. He has never had a DUI violation. His name doesn't appear on any police blotter anywhere.

Scouts don't want their names used but they are more than willing to tell you about players. But the proviso is anonymity. So here are a few observations:

Scout A - "Te'o has a nose for the ball. He can get to where the ball carrier is faster than most. He's tough. He's smart. He isn't too small, which is what some guys have said. The biggest thing is that he is 100 percent coachable. He'll pick up the new defenses and he'll pay attention and coaches will see results on a day to day basis. I figure he'll go in the second half of the round."

Scout B - "We don't pay attention to that hoax stuff and the times he ran in the 40 were only minimally poor. He's an athlete, he's a football player and he is going to make sure everyone else knows that."

Scout C - "Te'o will fill the holes on run defense and he will surprise people with his ability to drop back in pass coverage. Is he 100 percent NFL ready? No, he isn't. But neither was Jason Pierre-Paul. Most of the defensive guys aren't really ready, but it's what they have between their ears that make them ready faster than others. I like him and I like him in the first round."

Well, there you are. Manti Te'o. And I'm probably wrong, but wouldn't it be nice if I wasn't?

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

NOW - Send a request to davesklein@aol.com for a free week's worth of news!

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