<
>

Giants Twitter mailbag Part II: What else? More draft talk

Round 2 of your #nygmail-hashtagged New York Giants questions for this week, with the draft now just four days away.

@DanGrazianoESPN: First, Jerrel Jernigan is no longer a member of the Giants' wide receiver corps, so he's not to be included in this analysis. Their wide receivers after Odell Beckham, Victor Cruz and Rueben Randle would be guys like Kevin Ogletree, Preston Parker, Dwayne Harris, Corey Washington and Marcus Harris. They like their depth there, and they like their front-line starters assuming Cruz comes back from his injury. But that's a big assumption at this point. When you add in the fact that Randle's deal is up after this season, they are not far away from receiver looking like a "need" position once again. As I have written many times, I think committing the No. 9 overall pick of the draft to a position to which they have recently committed (a) the No. 12 pick in the 2014 draft, (b) the No. 63 pick in the 2012 draft and (c) $20.554 million in free-agent money, through 2015, to Cruz alone would represent a misallocation of high-end resources. You just can't keep pouring your significant resources into one position over and over again and hope to have a balanced roster. This pick is owed to a part of the roster that hasn't had enough spent on it, such as the offensive line or any of several positions on defense. But all of that said, if Amari Cooper is sitting there at No. 9, I believe that's the guy Jerry Reese will pick. The Giants would tell you they had Cooper rated as one of the top two or three players in the whole draft, and getting him at 9 was too much value to pass up. They wouldn't necessarily be wrong in that justification. It just might make it harder for them to fill their other needs in the coming year or two.

@DanGrazianoESPN: I would expect the Giants to come out of Friday night with a safety, which means either Round 2 or Round 3. They should have a few good options. They have checked in on guys like Damarious Randall and Cedric Thompson, and they are aware it's a need. Remember, the Giants' second-round and third-round picks (No. 40 and 74 overall) are pretty good picks. Dallas got Terrance Williams at No. 74 two years ago and Bruce Carter at No. 40 in 2011, just to cite a couple of recent examples. They should be able to find players who can start for them, if not right away then soon, at positions of need on the second night of the draft.

@DanGrazianoESPN: My strong belief is that Eli Manning will play at least five more seasons and finish his career as a New York Giant, and the only thing that could change that would be -- as was the case with his brother in Indianapolis -- a health issue that takes him off the field for a significant period of time. I don't think the Giants' 2015 record or whether they reach this year's playoffs will have any impact on the Giants' decision to keep him for 2016 and beyond, either with the franchise tag or a new contract. They know they can't replace him with anyone who is as good as he is, they don't think he's tailing off and they appreciate what he's meant to the franchise's history. Unless he starts missing games for health reasons for the first time in his life, Manning is sticking around.