Day 2 of Giants' draft shows rebuilding this once-proud franchise will take patience

Over on the other side of this big city, the Jets are starting to feel like they’re on the verge of something special. They have loaded up on talented players this offseason, and added even more in the first two days of the draft. The expectations for them this season have already started to rise.

Meanwhile, the Giants’ new regime is still on its honeymoon. But the excitement they’ve generated has hardly been the same, and Day 2 of the 2022 NFL Draft was a good reminder that they’re probably not on the verge of a special season either.

Rebuilding this once-proud franchise is going to take a little patience and time.

Exhibits A, B, and C were the three players they drafted in the second and third rounds on Friday. While the Jets stole the headlines by trading up for a first-round talent and another elite weapon in running back Breece Hall, the Giants added three players whose impact might not be clear until late in the season, if then. They added a fourth receiver, a developmental guard, a nickel corner and a couple of Day 3 picks.

There were hugs and fists bumps and screams of joy coming from the Jets’ headquarters in Florham Park, N.J. Meanwhile, the reaction to the Giants’ picks were shrugs, raised eyebrows and yawns.

And it’s not that they were bad picks. They might be very good, in time. It’s just impossible to tell yet how they’ll fit in when no one has seen the Joe Schoen-Brian Daboll plan in action. They took a 5-foot-8 receiver in Kentucky’s Wan’Dale Robinson in the second round, when many thought he’d probably still be available in the fourth. Then in the third they took North Carolina guard Joshua Ezeudu, who won’t be a starter this season, followed by LSU cornerback Cor’Dale Flott, whose role will be determined by whether veteran cornerback James Bradberry is here or not.

All of them are part of the bigger picture, which at the moment is a picture that no one else can see.

Robinson was probably the biggest head-scratcher in that group, and not just because of his diminutive size. The Giants already have a receiving corps that features Kenny Golladay, Kadarius Toney, Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton. There are question marks about all of them and they all may have uncertain futures. But for now they’re all here and presumably healthy.

So what are the Giants doing drafting a receiver in the second round?

Schoen, who called Robinson a “generator with the ball in his hands,” said they drafted him because “for what we’re going to do offensively, we thought he would be a very good fit for us.” His skill set seems to be similar to Toney’s, but Schoen said, “We’ll take as many of those guys as we can.”

“That's a versatile piece you can use in your offense,” he added. “If you look at some of the other guys, how you can use them? And if you look at Daboll's past or you look at (offensive coordinator Mike) Kafka's past in terms of the creativeness in their offense and the weapons they can utilize, I think you can kind of see what the vision may look like.”

And that’s the thing: Right now, it’s a vision. It’s nothing anyone has seen on the field. Maybe, in September, everyone will see exactly why the Giants grabbed Robinson so early and how he fits into their offense. Maybe Edeuzu’s development will be obvious and Flott’s role will be clear, too.

But this is all still the very early stages of a work in progress. While the Jets are using all the salary cap room and draft picks they’ve accumulated to plug holes and be aggressive to add big-time players, the Giants are busy laying the foundation. It’s hardly the exciting part of rebuilding a franchise, but it has to be done.

If they get it right, then maybe next year they can be the Jets. They can look at their offense with Robinson and their line with Ezeudu and their defense with Flott and figure out what worked and what didn’t, and what holes they need to plug.

But for now, it’s all a leap of faith for their fan base. They got one day of excitement on Thursday night when the Giants added two exciting pieces in edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux and tackle Evan Neal. But just like their low-budget trip through free agency, it can’t all be exciting in the early stages. And it won’t be clear whether some of these moves were the right ones for quite a while.