2019 NFL Draft – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Deandre Baker named Giants’ biggest draft mistake of past three years

Cornerback Deandre Baker has been named the New York Giants’ biggest draft mistake of the past three years.

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Every NFL team makes mistakes at the draft table and the New York Giants have had their share over the years. One of their biggest mistakes came just two years ago in 2019 when they traded back into the first round to select Georgia cornerback Deandre Baker.

Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report lists the Baker selection as one of the league’s seven worst over the past three years. You don’t have to convince Giant fans about that.

In 2019, the New York Giants used the sixth pick to select the heir apparent to Eli Manning in Duke quarterback Daniel Jones. But Big Blue wasn’t done. The team shipped fourth- and fifth-round picks to Seattle for the right to move up seven spots and select Georgia cornerback DeAndre Baker at No. 30.

In retrospect, the Giants would have been much better off standing pat—and drafting someone else.

To be fair, Baker was a highly regarded prospect after a standout career in Athens. Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports ranked the 5’11”, 180-pounder as the No. 2 cornerback prospect in the class.

True. Baker was the first corner taken in what was a weak one for cornerbacks. He likely would have gone undrafted in the first round and even fallen to the Giants at No. 37. There was no need to trade.

“Baker reminds me of Tre’Davious White,” Trapasso wrote. “Not someone who’ll wow you with his physical stature, twitch or length. But his vast experience (and productivity) in the SEC has led to him being a mirroring magician. He stays glued to receivers and has awesome awareness.”

That was the last time Baker’s talents and the word “awesome” would be used in proximity.

As a rookie, he was roasted in the Big Apple. Baker allowed 15.7 yards per completion and half a dozen touchdowns with a passer rating against of 116.2.

That was red flag No. 1 with Baker. He was uncharacteristically unprepared for the NFL for a Georgia player and looked completely lost out on the field. To compound issues, Baker seemed aloof at meetings and off the field, and didn’t appear to be taking his position as a pro seriously.

The Giants figured they righted the ship with him as the season went on. Then, in the offseason. the boom was lowered.

In May 2020, Baker was arrested in Florida and charged with four counts of robbery with a firearm, as well as four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm/intent to commit a felony. That July, Baker was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list, and by September 2020 the Giants released him after just one season.

Yet last November, all charges against him were dropped. Per assistant state attorney Paul R. Valcore, “The alleged victims and the known witnesses have become uncooperative, and their credibility is inalterably tarnished.” In addition, an attorney for three of those victims was arrested and charged with extortion related to the case.

Baker would catch on with the Kansas City Chiefs on their practice squad in mid-November of last year. He eventually was elevated to the active roster for the final three games of the regular season and even sacked Los Angeles Chargers rookie sensation Justin Herbert before suffering a broken femur in Week 17.

Baker was re-signed by the Chiefs in February but his legacy will always be tied to the Giants’ miscalculation of him, even though they said they saw no red flags during the vetting process.

Baker’s combination of being overvalued and then being in the wrong place at the wrong time sunk him as a Giant but everyone seems to get a second act in this league. Perhaps he’ll become the player everyone thought he was in Kansas City.

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Evaluating early competency of Cowboys last 2 drafts

The Cowboys had a forgettable draft in 2019, but Mike McCarthy’s first draft in Dallas gave fans confidence in the draft moving forward.

The draft is the No. 1 way to rebuild, reload, or revamp an NFL roster. If teams want to sustain success, it is crucial to make the most of their draft picks year after year. The Dallas Cowboys recent, and future, drafts are even more important than usual, as the Cowboys attempt to fill out and improve their lineup without much cap space based on last year’s franchise tag and the expected follow up in 2021.

The Cowboys 2019 and 2020 drafts, after just a few short seasons, are shaping up to be very different hauls. Of course, some players may continue to develop, but for the most part, we’ve seen enough to determine who is a positive value and which picks were potentially wasted.

2019 Draft

Round	Player	Position
1 (27 ovr)	Traded for Amari Cooper	WR
2	Trysten Hill	DT
3	Connor McGovern	OL
4	Tony Pollard	RB
5	Michael Jackson	CB
5	Joe Jackson	DE
6	Donovan Wilson	S
7	Mike Weber	RB
7	Jalen Jelks	DE

The earlier the draft pick, the more crucial it is that the club hits on that pick. The Cowboys created excellent value by acquiring Amari Cooper for what ended up being the No. 27 overall selection.

However, when it comes to the picks after that, the picks that Dallas actually made, the class is pretty hit or miss, with four of eight players drafted never seeing the field before departing Dallas.

With no true first-round pick, the No. 58 overall pick became more important for the Cowboys, and the team used it on UCF defensive tackle Trysten Hill. Many viewed this pick as a reach at the time and Hill has had limited results through two years. Hill certainly looked improved from his rookie year, but his sophomore season ended with an ACL-tear after just five games.

Connor McGovern was forced to fill in along the line this year after missing his entire rookie year with an injury, but he has not locked in a sure-fire starting job entering his third season.

Snagging Tony Pollard in the fourth round was one of the bright spots from this Dallas draft class. The elusive Memphis prospect has proved more than capable of being a change-of-pace back behind Ezekiel Elliott, and he shined in the lone game Elliott missed in 2020.

Sixth rounder Donovan Wilson has a case for best selection by the Cowboys. Wilson barely saw the field in his opening year, but took over the Cowboys starting safety position midway through 2020 and never looked back. Wilson was a takeaway machine in the second half of the year for the Cowboys, and will likely start at one of the safety spots again in 2021.

As previously mentioned, the four remaining Cowboys selections didn’t contribute at all, and none are with Dallas just two years after being drafted.

When assessing just the Cowboys draft selections and not the trade for Amari Cooper, it was a forgettable haul. Pollard and Wilson are solid young players, but too many picks were wasted for this to be the draft Dallas was hoping it would.

2019 was the last draft under head coach Jason Garrett, and the good news is that Mike McCarthy’s first shot at the draft process with Dallas is shaping up to be noticeably better than Garrett’s last.

2020 Draft

Round	Player	Position
1	CeeDee Lamb	WR
2	Trevon Diggs	CB
3	Neville Gallimore	DT
4	Reggie Robinson II	DB
4	Tyler Biadasz	C
5	Bradlee Anae	DE
7	Ben DiNucci	QB

Coming off a disenchanting draft in 2019, McCarthy and company needed to make a splash in their first draft calling the shots in Dallas and the initial impression is that they did just that. The Cowboys were able to acquire multiple players they had their eye on, and Dallas was able to get a few of the players later than some experts thought.

While wide receiver was a sneaky need for Dallas, one would be hard pressed to find pundits saying it was the most pressing. Dallas likely never imagined a prospect the caliber of Lamb would fall to No. 17, and Lamb was just too talented for the Cowboys to pass up. Lamb’s production slowed as the year progressed, but the main cause was the loss of quarterback Dak Prescott. With Prescott under center, Lamb was on pace for one of the most productive rookie receiver ever, and it’s clear his dynamic receiving abilities have translated to the next level.

The selection of Lamb showed the Cowboys front office wasn’t scared to take the best player available, regardless of position.

A player many thought the Cowboys were considering in the first round, cornerback Trevon Diggs, managed to stay on the board until the second Dallas selection. Diggs was thrown straight into the deep water, matching up man-to-man with opposing teams best wide receivers week-after-week. Of course there were ups and downs, as cornerback is one of the hardest positions in the league, but Diggs showed off his coverage and ball skills, convincing many he will be a longtime starter in the Dallas secondary.

Neville Gallimore’s snap counts increased as the season went along and the Cowboys lost defensive tackles to injury (or to the waivers in Dontari Poe’s case). The former Sooner will obviously need to improve his consistency, but showed flashes of ability to break through the line that you want out of a defensive tackle prospect.

One of Dallas’ two fourth-round picks, Reggie Robinson II didn’t do much as a rookie. Many had high hopes for the versatile newcomer. Ultimately Robinson only played in only five games, and saw no defensive snaps, while many fans wondered why the coaching staff didn’t give him a chance late in the year. He was moved to safety by defensive coordinator Mike Nolan and neither he nor secondary coach Mo Linguist is returning to the team in 2021. Robinson could return to corner.

Tyler Biadasz saw action at center after an injury to veteran Joe Looney. He played relatively well as one of the only rookie centers to play in 2021, earning first-team all rookie honors from PFF. He however didn’t play down the stretch even after returning from IR.

Another Cowboy who fans were clamoring to see more of was fifth-round pick Bradlee Anae. A pass-rushing machine at Utah, it was a surprise to many that Anae was on the board as long as he was. Year two will be big for Anae as he tries to work his way into the edge rotation.

The Cowboys final pick, Ben DiNucci, might never see the field again in Dallas, but fans are still trying to forget his attempted sidearm pass in the Week 8 loss to Philadelphia.

Overall, the effectiveness of McCarthy’s first draft with Dallas will take more time to determine, but it was a promising start for the majority of the 2020 Cowboys draft class.

PFF re-grades Giants’ three first-round picks from 2019

Pro Football Focus has re-graded the New York Giants’ three first-round picks from the 2019 NFL draft.

They say you can’t judge a team’s performance in the NFL draft until at least two full seasons have passed. Well, that is where we are with the 2019 NFL draft, which saw the New York Giants select three players in the first round.

Pro Football Focus is chiming in with their grades for the frost round of last year’s draft and they have given the Giants an average grade overall on their three picks.

6. NEW YORK GIANTS: QB DANIEL JONES

It’s no secret that Jones’ pocket awareness has been bad — no quarterback has racked up more fumbles in a collapsing pocket over the last two seasons than Jones has, and he has also taken way too many sacks.

That said, Jones took big strides as a passer in Year 2, ranking 12th in clean-pocket passing grade at 90.5 and 11th in grade on passes thrown 10 or more yards downfield. He ranked in the bottom 10 in those two metrics as a rookie. The Duke product also did some damage with his legs in 2020, recording a 78.8 rushing grade that ranked fifth among quarterbacks.

Jones still has a lot to prove in Year 3, but he surpassed expectations in 2020 to a certain extent. It’s way too early to commit to Jones long term, but it is a bit too soon to give up on him. For the time being, this selection gets an “average” regrade until we see if Jones can elevate a team that just ranked 28th in the NFL in expected points added (EPA) per play generated.

REGRADE: AVERAGE

Eleven touchdown passes and 10 interceptions with under 3,000 yards passing is nothing to crow about, especially in a league that set records for passing offense in 2020. The fear when Jones was drafted was that he would be just an average quarterback. He was a safe pick.

Going into Year 3, Jones has done nothing to knock critics off their initial stance on him. He has talent and smarts but just doesn’t have the dynamic dimension to his game like many of the other young guns around the league.

The Giants should have passed on him and taken Justin Herbert in 2020 like most experts thought they should have – or passed on Saquon Barkley in 2018 and selected Josh Allen.

17. NEW YORK GIANTS: DI DEXTER LAWRENCE

Lawrence was one of the few players from this draft class who was able to make an impact right away, earning a 76.2 PFF grade. He managed to maintain that success in 2020 and improved drastically as a pass rusher. Lawrence’s pass-rush grade jumped from 64.5 in 2019 to 73.2 this past season, tying for 23rd among 111 qualifying interior defensive linemen.

REGRADE: EXCELLENT

The Giants sure got value here with Lawrence. He’s been dominant at times and will only get better with age. This was one of the few picks in the Dave Gettleman era that the Giants can truly hang their hat on. Lawrence is a Pro Bowl-caliber player and will be the heart of their defensive front for years to come.

30. NEW YORK GIANTS: CB DEANDRE BAKER

There were some off-the-field concerns with Baker before the 2019 NFL Draft, and according to ESPN’s Jordan Raanan, that popped up from time-to-time throughout his rookie campaign. He had a rocky first year with a 45.6 coverage grade and 130.1 passer rating allowed that was buoyed by eight touchdowns and zero interceptions. Then, following a legal issue in the offseason (Baker was eventually exonerated), the Giants released the former first-rounder.

Baker was then signed by the Kansas City Chiefs in the midst of the 2020 season but suffered a broken femur in his first appearance with the team in Week 17.

REGRADE: POOR

There were no red flags pointing to Baker possibly blowing up his career at the time the Giants drafted him. That being said, they still should don’t have traded up for him. There were no cornerbacks selected in the draft up to that point and it was very possible that Baker would have fallen seven more spots to No. 37, where the Giants were picking in Round 2.

Instead, the Giants traded that pick and their fourth- and fifth-round selections (Nos. 132 and 142) to Seattle for the No. 30 selection and took Baker. He was a disaster on the field as a rookie and then got himself jammed up in the offseason, leading to his dismissal this past summer.

The Giants have nothing to show for this deal. While they should have had three viable players on their roster, instead they have three holes.

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Cardinals GM Steve Keim already impressed by 2020 draft class

He raved about the rookies’ maturity in an interview on the radio in Phoenix on Friday.

The Arizona Cardinals have yet to take the field in 2020 and play any real football, but they are getting positive returns for the six players they selected in the 2020 NFL Draft. General manager Steve Keim spoke about the rookies in an interview on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM on Friday.

“This draft class has been extremely impressive,” he said. “Just the maturation of some of these young guys and the commitment and passion. It’s just a nice mix to have in the locker room right now.”

One of the areas of focus for the Cardinals with their draft class was to select mature players who were leaders.

While not everyone will play this season, the Cardinals feel like they have a very mature group of players in the locker room, even if many lack playing experience in the league.

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Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Sub scribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.

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Jaylon Ferguson keeping up with the tremendous strides he made as a rookie

Right as the Baltimore Ravens need another outside linebacker to step up, Jaylon Ferguson is hitting his marks in his second season.

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The Baltimore Ravens kept their outside linebacker group the same from last year, despite seeing some struggles there. But entering the 2020 season, there’s hope young players like Jaylon Ferguson will step up and improve the unit as the Ravens eye up a run at Super Bowl LV.

Ferguson got off to a rough start last season. He wasn’t even active on gamedays until Week 3 and it took until Week 6 for Ferguson to get more than 50% of the defensive snaps. But once he got into the lineup, there was a pretty steady improvement on the field. Defensive coordinator Don Martindale saw Ferguson progress over the final 10 games of the 2019 season thanks to getting in better shape throughout the year.

“He made tremendous strides last year,” Martindale said. “The biggest part — if you remember me telling you, it was about halfway through the year when he finally got in — what he felt was the best shape that he’s been in.”

Ferguson had only one quarterback hit and no sacks until Week 11 despite playing on 261 defensive snaps. In the final six games of the regular season (238 defensive snaps), Ferguson had another seven quarterback hits, three tackles for a loss, and 1.5 sacks. While not stellar production, it shows a sharp increase and plenty of flashes of what could be.

Though the pads don’t come on until Monday, Martindale believes Ferguson has improved upon that condition as he enters his second season.

“His body has changed,” Martindale continued. “He’s a year older. All those second-year and third-year players start to get that old man dad strength – you know what I’m talking about there. They’ve had a year away from college football and they can really train and just focus on themselves and not the combine — not going to this visit, that visit, this visit, that visit and just focus on themselves, and he’s done that.”

The Ravens are hoping Ferguson can step up his production and become a legitimate terror for opposing offenses this season because they desperately need him to be.

Baltimore ranked 21st in sacks while blitzing the most in the league by a wide margin (54.9% compared to 43.4% for the second-ranked Tampa Bay Buccaneers). Outside of Matthew Judon, the Ravens’ three other outside linebackers, including Ferguson, accounted for just 10.5 sacks and 25 quarterback hits combined. While Baltimore is hoping the additions of Calais Campbell and Derek Wolfe (13.5 sacks and 37 quarterback hits combined last year) will help the group out, the Ravens are ultimately relying on Tyus Bowser and Ferguson to improve their play.

With Martindale’s aggressive schemes and the additions of Campbell and Wolfe, Baltimore is on the cusp of something great upfront. When added to the Ravens’ secondary, this is a defense that’s capable of great things if they get another fearsome pass rusher. Ferguson is starting out on the right foot this year and might just be the answer.

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Ravens waive DT Daylon Mack, P Dom Maggio

As the Baltimore Ravens trim down to the 80-man roster for training camp, they cut last year’s fifth-round draft pick DT Daylon Mack.

The Baltimore Ravens continued to work down to the 80-man roster limit for training camp, making two more cuts on Saturday. The Ravens announced they waived defensive tackle Daylon Mack and punter Dom Maggio via Twitter.

Baltimore waiting Maggio should come as no surprise as the Ravens have one of the best punters in the league in Sam Koch. While the team typically keeps an extra leg or two for training camp, the reduced roster size this year due to the coronavirus pandemic makes an extra punter a completely unnecessary luxury.

It’s Mack getting waived that could shock some. After being taken in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft, it was expected Mack would at least be in the running for a spot on the 53-man roster, if not a rotational role, as he entered his second season. But with Baltimore selecting Justin Madubuike and Broderick Washington Jr. in the 2020 NFL Draft as well as re-signing Jihad Ward and Justin Ellis, as well as adding Calais Campbell and Derek Wolfe this offseason, Mack was simply the odd man out in a now very deep group.

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TE Josh Oliver talks about his rookie season, says he’s been cleared to return from back injury

There was a great deal of buzz surrounding tight end Josh Oliver when the Jacksonville Jaguars selected him in the third-round last year, but he unfortunately didn’t get to make a significant impact. A hamstring injury from training camp set him back to start the regular season off, and four games into his return, a back injury sent him to injured reserve.

In the end, Oliver exited his rookie campaign with just three catches for 15 yards throughout those four games. Despite that, however, he believes he learned a lot during his rookie campaign and feels that it will help him tremendously heading forward.

“Definitely,” Oliver said to Jaguars.com when asked if he learned any lessons in 2019. “Just those four games, I feel like I improved – getting used to the speed of the game. I think those games were crucial for me just to get out on the field. I never got to go through the preseason. I never got to go through any of the games, so actually having NFL reps under my belt – I think that’s a huge thing going forward into Year Two. I know what to expect in a game. I know what to expect when we’re traveling. I have a good feel for what’s going on. The next step is just going out there and playing.”

The experience Oliver feels he received in a short amount of time is certainly a good thing for the Jags because they will need him to take a significant step in 2020. Not only have the Jags lacked a true threat at tight end for all of Dave Caldwell’s tenure as general manager, but it was painfully clear that quarterback Gardner Minshew needed a big threat up the middle in 2019. While the team did add veteran Tyler Eifert, he’s missed 53 regular season games out of 112. Simply put, that means there is a strong chance Oliver will be counted on as a No. 1 or No. 2 tight end at some point in the upcoming season.

As for the status of his health, Oliver said he has been cleared for a while now and is 100 percent.

“At the end of the [2019] season, I was cleared 100 percent,” Oliver said. “It was awesome [to get cleared]. I was eager. As soon as New Year’s happened, I went back to Southern California and started training with the people I trained with before the draft – and I worked with physical therapy on maintenance and stuff.”

With a clean bill of health and a new coordinator who loves to utilize the tight end position in Jay Gruden, things are likely to improve for Oliver. When looking at the production his comrades from the 2019 class had like Minshew and Josh Allen, fans should be confident that Oliver could pan out, too.

PFF: Josh Allen’s 49 pressures were good for second among 2019 rookie class

Gardner Minshew’s 2019 season was so shocking that one key thing went unnoticed for fellow rookie Josh Allen: his quarterback pressure rate.

With quarterback Gardner Minshew II having such a solid rookie campaign, many forget that the Jacksonville Jaguars first pick of the 2019 NFL Draft, Josh Allen, had an even better season. After falling in the team’s lap with the No. 7 overall pick, he didn’t disappoint finishing the season starting in four games, registering 43 tackles, and also accumulating a franchise rookie record of 10.5 sacks.

His solid season was good enough to get him a Pro Bowl nod as well, but one key element that was missed in all of the production he and the rest of the Jags’ rookie provided was Allen’s pressure rate. After seeing 634 total snaps on defense, he was able to register 49 pressures, good for the second-highest total among all rookies.

Josh Allen had 49 QB pressures in his rookie season with the #Jaguars, 2nd most among all NFL rookies in 2019 pic.twitter.com/jbJGDo3GBR

— PFF JAX Jaguars (@PFF_Jaguars) June 1, 2020

Allen was a player who most believed should’ve been a top-4 pick in last year’s draft and his ability to get to the quarterback certainly shows it. In addition to the Pro Bowl recognition he received, he also was in the Defensive Rookie of the Year conversation. Unfortunately, the award was given to Nick Bosa, but the argument certainly could be made that Allen deserved it because he saw fewer snaps (634 to 777) and had more sacks.

This year, it appears Allen is set to start as Yannick Ngakoue is currently at odds with the front office for a new contract. With the potential of a significant snap increase, it will be interesting to see how he produces as his 2019 season was quite impressive for a player who wasn’t a full-time starter.

DeAndre Baker had some red flags prior to 2019 NFL Draft

DeAndre Baker had some work ethic red flags prior to the 2019 NFL Draft, but nothing that could have predicted his current situation.

When the New York Giants traded back into the first round in last year’s NFL Draft to select Georgia cornerback DeAndre Baker, many criticized the deal.

The Giants held the 37th pick in Round 2 and forked that over to the Seattle Seahawks along with a fourth round pick (No. 132) and a fifth rounder (No. 142) in exchange for the 30th overall selection, which they used to take Baker.

What did the Giants know — or didn’t know — at the time? Many believe Baker should have been a first rounder, but there were “issues” surrounding him that caused him to drop in the draft. Other scouts simply did not see him as a first round talent.

That being said, Baker was ignored for the first 29 picks — as were all other cornerback in the draft — until the Giants made the head-scratching move. Many believed at the time the Giants could have kept their picks and taken Baker at No. 37.

Now, of course, they wish they steered clear of Baker altogether. The disturbing news that he is under investigation for armed robbery along with another NFL player is rattling the Giants’ cage today as they try to get their arms around what exactly is going on with this young man.

Were there any serious red flags surrounding Baker before the Giants drafted him? There was, but nothing specific except his attitude.

My immediate post-draft thoughts after NYG selected DeAndre Baker in 2019 pic.twitter.com/i0lYyknC1H

— David Syvertsen (@Ourlads_Sy) May 15, 2020

ESPN’s Jordan Raanan wrote the content below last November when Baker was in the throes of a horrendous rookie campaign.

“Two players recently described Baker as a “handful” this season, sources told ESPN. It’s an issue that has become noticeable even to guys on the offensive side of the football.

It’s more than just allowing a completion or committing one of his team-leading seven penalties this season. It’s being able to trust that Baker knows his responsibility on a particular play and won’t commit a mental lapse like he did on a 49-yard Marvin Hall touchdown in Detroit. These types of costly mistakes, when the defensive call has been right but the execution insufficient, have left the defense demoralized far too often.

More than anything, it can be attributed to a consistency issue for a player who entered the draft with questions about his character and had at least two other teams concerned because of his lackadaisical training and questionable attitude.”

The Giants saw some of that last year, but to be fair, Baker’s issue wasn’t just his attitude, but the reaction to the manner in which the Giants used him. One pre-draft scouting report described him as a “pesky press corner who has proven he can thrive against man-to-man challenges in a competitive conference.”

The Giants didn’t use Baker in that fashion. They had him playing 10 yards off the line of scrimmage and he was unsure of his responsibilities most times — something he acknowledged publicly. That led to a lot of frustration on everyone’s part.

As the season wound down, Baker was playing closer to the line and was asked to play more man coverage, which he had mush more success at.

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