I wrote a story in today's paper about how the Giants kept their distance from Kenny Phillips during the evaluation process. And it's true that they had very little direct communication with the player. They considered him a slam dunk and didn't worry about digging. Jerry Reese called him a "clean" pick. In fact, Phillips himself said he was surprised to be taken by the Giants (even though nearly every writer in this room and many of the mocks I read had him coming here). "I haven't talked to them a lot, so I definitely was suprised," he said.
But director of college scouting Marc Ross said the Giants were keeping a close eye on Phillips in recent weeks.
"Kenny, we were looking at him, he just didn’t know," Ross said. "The kids, sometimes they have no idea what is going on. It is just like this, there is a room full of scouts that they don’t know, but we are always evaluating throughout the whole process."
As for the pick of Terrell Thomas in the second round, Ross said he had no hesitation due to his injuries. "We have a top-notch medical staff here and when Ronnie Barnes says the guy is okay, I trust him 100 percent," he said. As for whether the Giants asked WR Steve Smith for an evaluation or any input on Thomas, Ross said he was not. "We didn’t call Steve up and ask him what he thought about Terrell," Ross said. "I asked Terrell about Steve and he said he shut him down every day in practice, so I figured that would be good enough."
Giants picks remaining for today:
A third (95), fourth (130), fifth (165) and three sixths (194 from Green Bay in the Ryan Grant trade, 198, and a compensatory pick at 199).
Comments (1)
The only players in the giants secondary I have any faith in is Ross and Knight. I know some people were upset about Gibril Wilson, but I believe the Raiders paid twice as much for his actual value. Sammy Knight is underrated and we got him cheap, I would take him over Wilson in a blink of an eye.
So this draft, Yeah it makes sense. I mean this defensive line with a great secondary is enough to make a true fan salivate. I am a fan all about defense and I want a linebacker. I mean a real linebacker. I want a linebacker that eats kittens for breakfast and new born babies for lunch! I didn't give the giants front 7 all the super bowl credit. I gave the front 4 most of the credit. They have all average linebackers and only one with breakout potential(kiawanuka). If they had 1 monster in the middle. Forget about it!