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Jan 12, 2025; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Buffalo Bills defensive end Greg Rousseau (50) sacks Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix (10) during the fourth quarter in an AFC wild card game at Highmark Stadium. Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

2021 Re-draft Gives Giants a Much Better Option

Originally posted on New York Giants on SI
By Stephen Lebitsch | Last updated May 22, 2025 12:00 PM ET

It's been four grueling years since the New York Giants rounded up what they hoped would become their next up-and-coming core of rookie talent within their 2021 NFL draft class. As the story has unfolded, that wish from the organization was far from the ultimate reality.

The Giants franchise has often struggled to find diamonds in the rough in the initial rounds of the league's important roster tentpole event. While they've seen a couple of first-round gems that have become instrumental pieces to the team, such as Andrew Thomas and Malik Nabers, it's hard to point out a bigger disaster this decade than the one player who headlined the aforementioned class.

In an unforgettable draft for all the wrong reasons, orchestrated by then-general manager Dave Gettleman, the Giants traded down from their No. 11 spot to No. 20 with the Chicago Bears, allowing them to select quarterback Justin Fields. At the same time, the Giants chose Florida wide receiver Kadarius Toney to add a shifty slot threat to their aerial arsenal.

The only problem was that Toney didn’t come close to delivering the production the Giants envisioned. Toney became a constant problem, leaving an air that he didn’t want to be a Giant. He fought through some injuries and only managed 41 catches for 420 yards and zero touchdowns in 12 games for the Giants.

New York ended up trading Toney to the Kansas City Chiefs in the middle of the 2022 season. But that wasn’t the worst of it. In selecting Toney, the Giants passed up on what would become multiple Pro Bowl-caliber prospects, none more notable than current Dallas Cowboys outside linebacker Micah Parsons, who has tormented them over the last four seasons.

With the pieces that followed Toney, the 2021 group was one of the most negatively fateful, and it set the Giants locker room back a ton as the current regime of Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll ultimately assumed it. If only there were the possibility of a redo of that draft, and a recent exercise by Pro Football Network toys with that hypothetical scenario.

In the redraft of the class that featured many of the top players across the NFL, the Giants remained in the No. 20 spot but selected University of Miami edge rusher Gregory Rousseau to spearhead a defensive-heavy bunch.

"Gregory Rousseau has been a reliable starting edge rusher in the NFL, tallying 25.0 sacks through his first four seasons with the Bills. That would be a strong addition for a team like the Giants, who struggled with their pass rush significantly around 2021," the analysis said.

Looking away from the initial change that would come from not having a distraction and an unproductive prospect in Toney in the team's facilities, grabbing Rousseau undoubtedly puts the Giants in a far better situation regarding the reboot of their defensive front and pass-rushing success.

At the end of the 2020 campaign, the Giants ranked dead last in the league with a 31% team pass-rush win rate and didn't have one defensive member sniffing the top 10 players in the pressure department.

The unit was marred by an abundance of overaged and overpriced veterans, and only two of them held more than four sacks on the season, including former defensive end Leonard Williams, who led the team with 11.0 quarterback takedowns.

Gettleman tried to alleviate the issue by following up his first-round selection of Toney by drafting Georgia edge rusher Azeez Ojulari at the 50th overall pick in 2021.

Despite being the last piece of that class to be on the active roster until this past season, Ojulari's tenure never fully reached its ceiling. He was limited by nagging injuries that forced him to miss extensive time.

He had a pretty impressive rookie campaign. He made 49 total tackles and collected a career-high eight sacks to serve as one of the main pressure cookers on the Giants' defensive front. After that clean year, he missed at least six contests in the following three seasons and never returned to the same factor he was a stud.

With Ojulari less of a factor and his predecessors all departed from the team via trades or cuts, the Giants have had to rebuild their passing rushing operation from the ground up and it hasn't been an easy feat, They discovered some new young draft picks in Dexter Lawrence II and Kayvon Thibodeaux who both have grown into mainstays on the first level, but New York has malingered chiefly around the bottom half of the NFL in pass rushing metrics as of late.

Having Rousseau as a part of the equation would have provided the Giants with a more reliable player and consistent edge rusher who has helped steer the Buffalo Bills into the postseason regularly.

The 25-year-old has only missed more than three games once during the 2022 season, and the rest of the time has made at least 42 tackles, four sacks, and been a decent contributor to the turnover battle.

And while the Giants offense was nowhere near a juggernaut in the 2021 season, finishing 31st in overall points and yardage outputs, several of their 10 losses were less than two score affairs that could have been helped by the formula of a more powerful pass rush to keep opposing offenses in check and give the Giants' unit a better chance.

It relates to how the Giants establish their identity for the upcoming 2025 season. They want to excel behind the strength of their defense, particularly the versatility and depth of their core of pressure cookers at the line of scrimmage.

Assuming all things were equal, exchanging Toney for Rousseau in this positive redraft from four offseasons ago would have added an extra well-known option to that mission and altered the outlook of the Giants organization heading into an important journey.

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