New York Giants: Eli Apple Lands On Pro Football Focus 16 Worst Picks List
The New York Giants had a relatively strong draft, but that didn’t keep them off of Pro Football Focus’ list of the 16 worst picks of the 2016 NFL Draft.
The New York Giants had a strong draft according to many people. They were able to hit on a number of needs, while finding value with many of their picks as well. But, if there was one thing that people weren’t high on about the Giants 2016 NFL Draft, it was their first round selection of Ohio State’s cornerback Eli Apple.
It was pretty unanimous that it was a reach for the Giants to select Apple, and Pro Football Focus agreed. The website, which relies on advanced stats to hand out grades for players during the game, made up their list of the 16 worst selections of the 2016 NFL Draft.
It is difficult to truly grade a draft class without them getting on the field, but based on prior performance, fit with the team and using their own grading and draft board they selected 16 instances that teams look to have made a mistake with their pick. A number of things, such as scheme fit, need for the team and where the player was selected could go into determining if a pick was poor or not.
Apple landed on that list, albeit it more because of the spot on the board, not that they believe he will be a bad player with the Giants. Here is what Pro Football Focus had to say about the 10th overall pick for the Giants, who landed at 15th on their list.
"This is another pick where the team didn’t select a bad player — we had a first-round grade on Apple — but they passed up better options in order to get him. The Ohio State cornerback was fourth on our draft board, and from a grading standpoint, he wasn’t close to Vernon Hargreaves or William Jackson III over the past two seasons. It also leaves the Giants with the question of who plays slot cornerback. Apple, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, and Janoris Jenkins had fewer than 100 snaps among the three of them out of the slot last season."
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What Pro Football Focus said about the selection is pretty much what everyone else felt as well. While Apple is a talented player, he is extremely raw and there is some work that needs to be done with his technique. With so much riding on this draft, it was peculiar that Jerry Reese would go with such a raw prospect, but Apple was supposedly who was atop the Giants board when they got on the clock.
While Apple has the makeup and potential to be a No.1 corner in the NFL, it will take some time. Until then, the Giants may be using him as their slot corner, which could be a problem. As Pro Football Focus points out, the Giants have three talented corners in Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Janoris Jenkins and Apple, but none have much success playing the slot.
Less than 100 plays combined at the slot is not encouraging, and it will be interesting to see how the Giants make it work. Rodgers-Cromartie was a disaster playing the slot when with the Philadelphia Eagles, and Jenkins hasn’t done it with the St. Louis Rams, playing almost exclusively on the outside.
Next: New York Giants 2016 NFL Draft Grades
While Apple could eventually develop into a No.1 corner, he is not currently one and it makes sense that he landed on this list. While the remainder of the draft was strong for Reese, he will be judged based on what Apple does, as he has not had much success in the draft process and developing prospects.