With their third pick (No. 99 overall) of the 2020 NFL Draft, the New York Giants took developmental offensive tackle Matt Peart from UConn.
The pick has a ton of potential down the line but is unlikely to help the Giants in 2020, which begged the question: why take Peart over any of the remaining centers, which is a position of need for Big Blue?
“It’s about value. [Peat] was too good of a value to pass by. We had him rated well above the rest of the other centers on our board,” general manager Dave Gettleman told reporters on a conference call. “I think he has a sizeable ceiling. He’s young, he’s really got a lot of talent. We really like the upside on him.”
Meanwhile, head coach Joe Judge refuses to call Peart “developing,” and expects big things out of the tackle in the near future.
“He definitely has a lot of upside,” Judge said. “I don’t want to say he is developmental, he is developing, and they all are. He’s got tremendous work ethic, he’s got a great attitude. I think we are going to see a lot better football in the future than we’ve seen from him already. That’s what makes us really excited to work with these guys that we’re bringing in.
“I think his athleticism is going to lend him to being a swing tackle early on in his career and work on both sides. We don’t want to limit any of our guys to just play on one side. We have to cross train everybody. If you play on the left side, you have to be able to play on the right side as well. That’s going to go ahead and lend to what we need based on roster situation and game plans.”
Peart is clearly a solid and sound addition for the Giants, but they’ll still need to poke around some available centers on Day 3.
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