Giants GM Joe Schoen Biggest Winner of NFL Draft

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen had to make a big splash in the NFL Draft this weekend. He had to act as if his professional life was dependent on it.

He did that and much more.

Because, really, his job is on the line.

Schoen nailed all of his top picks and plugged holes where the Giants were leaking talent. His moves in the first round were stellar. He stepped up to the plate and knocked the ball out of the park.

First, he did not overthink the third pick when he drafted Penn State outside linebacker Abdul Carter. He took the best defensive player on the board and got himself a plug and play starter who can take control of the defensive line from day one. 

Carter was also an outside linebacker for Nittany Lions, so when Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux are on the field together, Carter can line up on the outside in a stand up position.

The next move by Schoen is where he may have saved his career. 

He traded his No. 34 and 99 picks to move back into the first round to draft Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart with the 25th pick. The Giants also gave up a third-round selection in next year's draft.

The Giants needed to make a bold statement at quarterback and they did just that.

By taking Dart, they got the second-best quarterback in the draft. Dart will fit into the Giants' scheme very well and they won't have to rush him into the starting lineup. He has the cushion of having Russell Wilson entrenched as the 2025 starter and can be taught how to play quarterback in the NFL.

We bet Dart will be a starter in the NFL, but head coach Brian Daboll wants to develop him and bring him along slowly. He wants to treat him like the last quarterback they drafted from Ole Miss, a guy named Eli Manning, who had Kurt Warner as a mentor and learned from him, for most of his rookie season before he took over.

The Giants are not in the same position now as they were then. Wilson can handle the offense and they have enough weapons around him. Dart will do just fine sitting and learning from a Super Bowl champion.

The third-round pick of defensive tackle Darius Alexander from Toledo gives the Giants a strong interior presence in the trenches. Alexander is a strong run defender and brings an element to the line the team missed last season. The Giants were terrible in stopping the run and Alexander will plug that weakness nicely. 

The Giants got an absolute stud and a steal in the fourth round with Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo. He will pair well with Tyrone Tracy in the Giants backfield. He is a hard-nosed runner who smells the first-down marker or the end zone like no other back in the draft, outside of Ashton Jeanty. 

He is tough to bring down and is equally effective out of the backfield as a check-down receiver or running the wheel route, which was so effective with ASU quarterback Sam Leavitt last season. 

All one has to do is look at the game tape from the College Football Playoff game last season against Texas and it is plain to see Skattebo almost defeated the Longhorns single-handedly.

In the fifth round the Giants got another great value pick with guard Marcus Mbow. 

This effectively spells the possible long-term end of the Evan Neal project. Mbow, from Purdue, would have gone earlier in the draft if not for his medical concerns, which Schoen said are non-existent. 

Schoen did exactly what co-owner John Mara wanted him to do. Mara wanted to be able to stop the run, find a long-term solution at quarterback and be more efficient on offense. Schoen did that.

He should be lauded for his accomplishments and as such, the Giants were the big winners in the draft this weekend.