With the sports world dark like much of the rest of the country right now, it’s time to delve into what normally would be non-sensical exercises such as revisiting and re-drafting the 2001 NFL Draft.
Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport did just that this week and, in reading it, I found going back in time can be fun. This particular draft was the last year of the league’s old alignment of three divisions in each conference.
In 2002, the NFL would add a 32nd team (Houston) and realign into two conferences consisting of four four-team divisions that were more palatable geographically.
There is only one player remaining in the league from that draft. Have you guessed it? That’s right, Purdue quarterback Drew Brees, who was selected with the first pick in Round 2 (No. 32 overall) by the San Diego Chargers.
Naturally, in Davenport’s re-draft he has Brees going No. 1 overall to the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons, if you remember, selected Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick with that pick.
The New York Giants were the defending NFC Champions in 2001 having lost the Super Bowl earlier that year, 34-7, to the Baltimore Ravens.
The Giants held the 30th overall selection in the 2001 draft but traded three selections to Indianapolis to move up to No. 22 where they selected Syracuse defensive back Will Allen.
They gave the Colts their 2001 first round pick (No. 30, which Indianapolis selected Pro Football Hall of Fame Candidate WR Reggie Wayne), 2001 third round pick (No. 91, Cory Bird) and 2001 sixth round pick (No. 193, Jason Doering).
To fill in the blanks left by that trade, general manager George Young sent the Giants’ second round pick (No. 61 overall) to the Lions for Detroit’s third and fourth rounders. The Lions selected defensive tackle Shaun Rogers of Texas. Rogers would go on to have a stellar NFL career with three Pro Bowl berths. He ended up finishing that NFL career with the Giants by playing two seasons for them in 2012-13.
With the picks from Detroit (Nos. 78 and 114), the Giants selected Western Illinois’ William Peterson (James) and Southern Mississippi defensive end Cedric Scott.
Davenport’s re-draft has the Giants staying put at No. 30 and still landing Allen.
Heading into the 2001 season, the Giants were coming off the high of a Super Bowl run and the low of how that run ended: a 34-7 beatdown at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens. The Giants were aggressive during the draft, offering up three picks to move up eight spots to No. 22 and fill a major need with Syracuse corner Will Allen. Here they get him at No. 30.
The problem for the Giants is that this draft class wasn’t strong at cornerback. Every corner in the class of 2001 combined to make one Pro Bowl.
That’s um…not great.
Still, while Allen never made a Pro Bowl and suffered a pair of major knee injuries over his decade-plus in the NFL (not to mention the fraud conviction and prison sentence after his retirement), for quite a few years the 5’10”, 195-pounder was a capable cover man who started 130 games over his career.
He was never great. But he was good for quite a while.
The draft was basically a disaster for the Giants. As Davenport says, Allen was good but not first-round good and certainly not worth trading up for. The Giants found that out over time and allowed him to walk in free agency in 2005.
Peterson (James) played five seasons for the Giants but was plagued by injuries. Scott played nine games as a rookie but did not make the roster the next season and was waived.
Other players selected basically had little or no impact. Fourth rounder Jesse Palmer, a quarterback out of Florida, was out of football after two seasons and headed for a career in television. Fifth round selection K John Markham of Vanderbilt never played in the NFL. Troy WR Jonathan Carter, taken in Round 6, played two seasons with the Giants then two with the Jets. Seventh rounder Ross Kolodziej, DT from Wisconsin, played just two seasons for the Giants.
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