Tag: Raymond Walsh Jr.

Sean Payton says he tried to convince Giants to draft Tom Brady in 2000

Sean Payton claims he attempted to convince the New York Giants to draft QB Tom Brady back in 2000 but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

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Tom Brady in New York Giants blue? The NFL world would have been very different had that come to fruition back in 2000. And Sean Payton says if he had his way, it would have.

While appearing on the “Green Light” podcast with retired defensive end Chris Long, Payton says he tried and failed to convince the Giants to draft Brady in 2000. At the time, Payton was the team’s offensive coordinator and shared agents with who we now know as the G.O.A.T.

“All right, so I’m in New York and my agent is Don Yee, and Don also represents Tom Brady,” Payton explained. “Don would periodically call me with a client that he just signed, and he said, ‘Hey, will you call up Tom Brady? He’s at Michigan and I’ve got him, and just help him out with things that would be important for him at the combine.'”

Payton claims he then met with Brady and began to study his film. He placed a late third-round/early fourth-round grade on the Michigan quarterback but simply did not have enough power to sway the Giants’ draft room.

But Payton wasn’t alone. Long-time Giants scout Raymond “Whitey” Walsh has also gone on record claiming he was high on Brady at the time. Like Payton however, he just didn’t have enough pull.

“I thought he had something,” Walsh Jr. told the New York Post. “I thought he could help us. . . But nobody in the room had anything to say about Brady.”

Payton and Walsh were helpless as Brady went off the board to the New England Patriots in the sixth round (No. 199 overall). And the rest, as they say, is history.

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Ex-Giants scout implored team to draft Tom Brady in 2000

Former New York Giants scout Raymond “Whitey” Walsh Jr., who was with the team in 2000, pleaded for the decision-makers to select Tom Brady.

The New York Giants made seven picks in the 2000 NFL draft, meaning they passed over quarterback Tom Brady six times (Brady went No. 199, the Giants’ final pick was No. 217).

Hindsight is always 20/20, so it’s easy to say that then-general manager Ernie Accorsi & Co. made a tremendous mistake. As did 31 other teams.

It’s a lazy argument without substance but as it turns out, there was at least one person in the Giants’ draft room screaming to select Brady.

As the Giants crept up on their sixth-round selection (No. 177 overall), they were strongly considering a Michigan prospect. It just wasn’t the right prospect, much to the dismay of long-time scout Raymond “Whitey” Walsh Jr.

The Giants ended up selecting Michigan linebacker Dhani Jones, passing over Brady in the process — just as they had done in the fourth and fifth round. Each time, Walsh Jr. was in the ear of anyone around him: You’re making a mistake if you don’t pick Brady!

“I thought he had something,” Walsh Jr. told the New York Post. “I thought he could help us. . . But nobody in the room had anything to say about Brady.”

The Giants had Kerry Collins, who was beginning a resurgence, under center at the time and they weren’t necessarily thinking long-term with late-round prospects. Ironically, just a year later there would be a shift in philosophy as the team selected Florida quarterback Jesse Palmer in the fourth round.

Dhani Jones’ career with the Giants would last just three seasons, while Palmer’s time in the NFL would fizzle after two years.

Brady, on the other hand, would go on to become the greatest of all-time.

“Every time I watch Brady I think the same thing,” Walsh Jr. said. “I feel exonerated.”

Walsh Jr. had it right and the Giants had it wrong. If there’s any solace to be found, it’s that the veteran scout helped bring in players like Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw and the entire offensive line that protected Eli Manning in Super Bowl XLII.

Thanks in large part of Walsh’s scouting, the Giants were able to bring down the goliath Brady twice. But how would history have played out had they just listened to him in the first place?

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