As the NFL Draft inches toward us like an oasis, you've been flooded with mock drafts and debated the best drafts from your favorite teams. Last week, we looked at the more competent drafts between our two local teams. Now let's look at some of the most incompetent picks Big Blue has made over decades.
Since the Giants were founded in 1925, we have to draw a line between then and now, so that we've actually heard of these guys. Let's mock the Giants' worst draft picks since 1980. It was nearly 40 years ago when Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor, and Bill Parcells freed the Giants from their nearly 20-year sentence in gridiron purgatory.
We're also talking first-round draft picks as draft busts, because a fourth-round pick playing four pedestrian years isn't quite so cringe-worthy. But these folks were big bombs for Big Blue.
Getty Images Most players from Miami - more respectfully called The U - are studs in the NFL. Unless the Giants draft them. Flowers was the ninth overall pick in 2015, and expected to play tackle for 10 years. Not so much. Flowers played three-plus lackluster years for Big Blue, then fled to Jacksonville, and then Washington — where he switched from tackle to guard — and was good enough to seduce the Miami Dolphins into giving him a three-year, $30 million contract. But Flowers was abysmal for Big Blue, who watched the Rams take Todd Gurley with the next pick.
9. William Joseph, 2003
Again, name a team and you'll likely find some stud from The U, except Big Blue. Plucked with the 25th overall pick in the 2003 draft, Joseph started just 17 of 55 possible games, never produced more than 33 combined tackles or notched more than two sacks in a season. He played two invisible seasons in Oakland, then vanished from the league.
Just how badly did Big Blue blow it with Joseph? Larry Johnson, Charles "Peanut" Tillman and Anquan Bolden were some of the players selected after him.
8. George Adams, 1985
Picked by Big Blue at No. 19 overall in the 1985 NFL Draft, Adams played four seasons at the old Giants Stadium, and the halfback never ran for more than 500 yards in a season. He then fizzled out with the New England Patriots, ending a silent, six-year pro career. Over four years with Big Blue, Adams averaged 13.3 rushing yards per game, 3.4 yards per carry, and scored three rushing touchdowns. At least they grabbed Mark Bavaro in the fourth round.
7. Jarrod Bunch, 1991
Bunch was bagged with the 27th overall pick in the 1991 NFL Draft. No doubt bad injuries are a random, mitigating malady in pro football. But you're still a bust if you're picked that high and run for 629 yards over three years, knee injury be damned. Six picks later, the Falcons drafted a southern kid with a funny last name (Favre).
Getty Images The fifth overall pick in the 1996 NFL Draft, Jones was projected to be a pass-rushing machine. He posted a paltry 15 sacks in five seasons. While some players are plagued by knee, ankle, or head injuries, Jones had problems seeing. All of which makes you wonder if the Giants gave him a physical. And if they did, how hard is it to check the eyesight of a top-five pick?
Making the Jones pick particularly gruesome was the trio of players picked after him. The Giants took Cedric Jones over Eddie George, Marvin Harrison, and some linebacker - from The U, of course - named Ray Lewis.
5. Tyrone Wheatley, 1995
Wheatley was selected out of Michigan with the 17th overall pick in the 1995 NFL Draft. It was a curious pick considering the Giants still had Rodney Hampton in his prime. Wheatley averaged 3.6 yards per rush, 27.8 rushing yards per game, and never rushed for 600 yards in any of his four seasons with Big Blue. He left the Big Apple with eight rushing touchdowns, while reminding the Giants that they passed up on linebacker Derrick Brooks, who moonwalked into the Hall of Fame.
4. Dave Brown, 1992 (Supplemental Draft)
Who says Daniel Jones is the only Duke QB ever taken in the first round?
Granted, the G-Men called Brown for duty through the 1992 Supplemental Draft, an opaque method of picking players. Consider it a silent auction. Whichever team offers the highest-round draft pick for Brown got him. And only the Giants offered a first-round pick, which resulted in losing a corresponding first-rounder in the regular NFL Draft.
The New Jersey native spent six seasons with the Giants, completed 55.1% of his passes, tossed 40 touchdowns and 49 interceptions. His career record with Big Blue was 23-30. He spent his final four years in Arizona, started seven games, and won three of them. Bust.
Getty Images Selected with the 11th overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft, Dayne was supposed to be the thunder to Tiki Barber's lightning. But the rotund running back just drizzled and fizzled out, making his greatest moment in football the Heisman Trophy he won at Wisconsin. Dayne averaged 3.5 yards per carry, 33.3 rushing yards per game, and scored 16 touchdowns in four forgettable seasons with the G-Men.
Seven of the next eight picks after the Giants took Dayne - from Shaun Ellis to Shaun Alexander - were selected to a Pro Bowl. The only player who wasn't - Chad Pennington - wound up being a pretty good QB for some other club...
2. Eli Apple, 2016
It's hard to give up on a prized draft pick as fast as Big Blue bolted on Eli Apple. Drafted in 2016, Apple barely played two seasons for the G-Men, left for New Orleans in his third, and is currently a free agent after he and the Raiders failed to finalize a deal this offseason. This is particularly terrible when you consider Apple was picked 10th overall out of Ohio State, and was supposed to be a shut-down corner, and picked off just one pass in the 26 games he started for the Giants. Turned out Apple's mom got more good press than he did.
Some of the players picked after Apple include Chris Jones, the best defensive player for the Super Bowl LIV champion Kansas City Chiefs; the best running back in the NFL last year, Derrick Henry; and the best wideout on the planet, Michael Thomas.
1. Derek Brown, 1992
The Giants hit it big when they boosted Mark Bavaro from Notre Dame — a python-armed tight end who was even tougher than he was talented. We recall the epic run Bavaro made in 1986 in San Francisco, when he carried a pack of defenders on his before the lilliputians pulled him down. So why not double-down on a Golden Dome tight end?
Because Derek Brown was no Mark Bavaro.
The Giants and Jets picked back-to-back in the first round of the 1992 NFL Draft. The Giants went first (No. 14) yet still picked the way less productive player. (The Jets got Johnny Mitchell, who was hardly John Mackey.) Brown started in in seven of 45 possible games, caught 11 total passes, and scored zero touchdowns in three woeful seasons with the G-Men.