Top Five Giants Draft Botches
The last time the New York Giants saw a Super Bowl was back in the year 2012. Since then, things have really gone downhill for the team. New York has had plenty of people come in to make things happen for the team and they had others who haven’t really done a whole lot. Some of these areas were choices made by management and they really weren’t the smartest. These draft picks were seen as the greatest thing to ever come to the Giants but in the end, they turned out to be a complete bust for the team. Here are the top five draft picks that the Giants thought were going to have something spectacular, but in the end they turned into complete botches.
The Tale of Saquon Barkley
Saquon Barkley was the guy for the New York Giants. He proved that in so many ways. This current Super Bowl Champion made it so that the Giants could move ahead during games and do the best they could, despite how bad things got for them. Barkley’s record with the Giants was that he started in 74 games, attempted 1,201 catches while rushing for 5,211 yards. He may have been great and still is but he definitely did have a downfall with the Giants.
Barkley was drafted by New York as the second overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. He was in the top five prospects for that year and was a part of the tail end of the Eli Manning Giants era. The 28-year-old running back was coming right out of Penn State where he had time to better himself and become one of the greats of this era. However, he spent more time on the sideline than actually playing due to injury for the next several seasons that he was playing. Following that, the Giants liked how he worked when he did get on the field to play. The next season after the Giants went to the first round of the playoffs, there was a debate as to what was going to happen for Barkley. It sent him over the edge when he felt that he had done a lot and the Giants gave Daniel Jones a $160 million dollar contract and the franchise tagged him so he could not go anywhere. Barkley also spent time that season trying his best but ended up not being what he was when he fell out of place for the Giants and eventually hit free agency following the 2023 season. When the Giants let him go, it was a mistake because he went to the Super Bowl and rushed for over 2,000 yards with the Philadelphia Eagles. Something he should have been doing for the Giants all along.
The Fall of Jalin Hyatt
Jalin Hyatt was promising from the start. He was picked in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft and has not done what the Giants have needed him to do at all. The now 23-year-old wide receiver was a promising rookie when he first entered the NFL but since then, things have taken a major downfall for him and the Giants did not get what they were looking for in him. This wide receiver came out of the University of Tennessee, and he seemed very promising at the start. In 2023, Hyatt caught 23 out of 40 pass targets for 373 yards. In his rookie season, Hyatt showed hints of having some speed. It looked like he was going to come through on what he promised he could bring to the team. However, as of last season, there was a lot that was decreased from the player that he was. Hyatt wasn’t making all of the plays that needed to be made for the Giants to move forward. Hyatt is considered to be a complete bust for the Giants from the hopes that they had when they drafted him.
The Giants Should Have Skipped Out On Evan Neal
This was one of the worst choices that the Giants have ever made picking up right tackle Evan Neal. He was drafted in the 2022 NFL Draft. The Giants thought they were getting someone decent to put on the field but in reality, Neal has failed to protect at all costs. Jones was not protected. Neal was out on injury for a while but even with that he could not pull through and get the job done. During one game, Jones was sacked 11 times. The right tackle had to be switched out on several occasions because he could not protect his quarterback. He has only played in 29 games during his three-year career with the Giants and has barely made any tackles during his time with them. It was not the best idea for the Giants to go in and pick him up during the 2022 Draft despite how promising he seemed to be at the time. This was another bust for the New York team.
The Daniel Jones Era
Jones has not had the greatest record in the NFL. The Giants, when they had drafted him back in the 2019 NFL Draft thought they were getting a better quarterback since Jones was coming out of Duke where he went 17-19 as a starter. For a while there, New York believed he was promising since he was under Manning at the tail end of his career. Jones didn’t really have much to go off of for him because everyone thought after being mentored and taught by Manning, he would be a decent starter. Jones and the Giants went to the playoffs at the end of the 2022-23 season. Yet, they were defeated by the Philadelphia Eagles and knocked out, the Giants offered him a four-year $160 million dollar contract for taking the team to the playoffs once. A contract that fell through because Jones was out on injury the following season and the season after was a major bust because Jones couldn’t make contact with his receivers and ended up playing the bench. Shortly after, he asked for a release. He couldn’t get the job done for making touchdowns and the Giants had one of their worst records in all of Giants history because of this.
The Disaster of Kadarius Toney
Kadarius Toney was a bad decision for the Giants from the start. He was drafted by New York in the 2021 NFL Draft and was the 20th overall pick. The Giants traded down from their original spot at 11 to pick him up. Toney came from the University of Florida and they thought they were getting someone decent from them. However, it backfired for the Giants. They found that there were a lot of issues with him despite what they had seen on all of the tapes leading up to the draft.
They thought he was going to be something decent and make a difference for New York. However, Toney was full of nothing but errors, drops, and injuries. He also lacked maturity while playing with the team. The 26-year-old also had off-field issues which made things worse for the Giants. Toney may be a young guy for any team but he was full of mistakes on the field and it was the best option to let him go and trade him to the Chiefs.
The 2025 NFL Draft is right around the corner. Whoever they decide to pick up this year, may or may not be someone really great or they will become a part of the bust list for the Giants. However, it seems that the Giants may have their eyes on some pretty great players already to add to the roster. Who they will grab may or may not be a surprise, though there has been much talk about who they are going to take. The Giants hopefully will pull someone successful who can make a difference to the franchise for the 2025-26 NFL season.
