Redoing the 2011 NFL Draft: Which player would you have selected for the Giants?

Could any of them have made a difference in their future?

You would be rich if you had a dollar for every time a football fan started a sentence with the words, “The New York Giants should have drafted…” given their futility in drafting future stars since their last Super Bowl victory in the 2011 season. The most recent two drafts by GM Joe Schoen have given some hope for the future since both appear at the moment to have been highly successful. Malik Nabers is already a budding star, Abdul Carter may well become one, and fans will cross their fingers that Jaxson Dart follows suit.

In 2011, the glow of the Giants’ massive upset of New England in the 2007 season’s Super Bowl had faded. They had missed the playoffs for two consecutive years and seemed to be wasting the peak years of Eli Manning’s career. An opening 28-14 loss in Washington and mediocre play thereafter left them at 7-7. Then a stirring victory over the Jets, another in Dallas, and a second remarkable playoff run brought them another title.

The seeds of their demise were being planted, though. This was their 2011 draft class:

Courtesy of Pro Football Reference

Prince Amukamara was a solid cornerback for the Giants, starting for most of his five seasons in blue. He only had 7 interceptions in five seasons, though, and the Giants did not sign him to a second contract. The rest of that draft was mostly forgettable for the Giants, though sixth round pick Jacquian Williams had his moment of fame as a rookie in the NFC Championship Game in San Francisco, knocking the ball out of punt returner Kyle Williams’ hand and allowing Lawrence Tynes to kick the Giants into another Super Bowl. Beginning the next season, the Giants would only make the playoffs once in the next ten years

I bring this up because Pro Football Focus has re-done the first round of the 2011 Draft with the hindsight of 14 seasons worth of production for the players who were drafted. Here are the players actually drafted in Round 1 that year, through No. 19, where the Giants took Amukamara:

Courtesy of Pro Football Reference

Here are the players who were left on the board by the Giants but taken later in Round 1:

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

Here are the top 32 players from that draft ordered by weighted Approximate Value (wAV), PFR’s metric for sustained quality of play over a career:

Courtesy of Pro Football Reference

It’s wild that certain Hall of Famers Jason Kelce (Round 6) and Richard Sherman (Round 5) remained on the board until Day 3. Amukamara is tied for 40th in wAV for that class. (Note that wide receiver Doug Baldwin, who had a terrific career with Seattle and a 54 wAV, does not show up in the PFR wAV listing for this draft class because he was an undrafted free agent.)

In their redraft, PFF chose defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, who actually went No. 3 to Buffalo, for the Giants instead of Amukamara. Dareus had a nice career start, giving the Bills some interior pass rush, but his career was marred by substance abuse problems that resulted in two suspensions and fell off after that:

Courtesy of Pro Football Reference

Here’s what PFF had to say about him:

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

The Giants already had Linval Joseph and Chris Canty at DT in 2011. Dareus was a step up from them, but not dramatically so. The Giants would draft Johnathan Hankins, who gave them similar production, in 2013.

The question for you, Giants fans, is which player left on the board you would have taken at No. 19 if you were doing PFF’s redraft. Here are some of the players they passed up for the Giants that went in the first round, plus the one they took and Amukamara. Vote for your favorite: