Maybe Giants Should Tank for the No. 1 Pick

If the Giants were interested in procuring the No. 1 draft pick in the 2015 NFL, they should have started their current four-game losing streak a few weeks earlier. As it stands, the G-men are one of five teams at 3-6, with five teams above them in the race for the No. 1 pick, including their MetLife Stadium bunkmates, the Jets.

Short of Oakland, Jacksonville and Tampa Bay collapsing down the stretch, the Giants have little chance of jockeying into the top slot, which is good, because there is no consensus No. 1 pick anyway.

Besides, what are the team’s chief needs? A franchise quarterback? They have one in Eli Manning. A premier wide receiver? They have one in budding superstar Odell Beckham Jr. A top-flight cornerback? They have one in former virgin Prince Amukamara.

Teams don’t draft wide receivers and cornerbacks with the No. 1 pick, anyway. Not if they want to keep Chris Berman’s comb over in place.

The last wide receiver taken No. 1 overall was Keyshawn Johnson in 1996 by the Jets, and he went on to become a great possession receiver, thus killing any opportunity for a wideout to ever be taken No. 1 again.

A cornerback has never been taken with the top pick, which is odd when you consider all the ink that’s expended on shutdown this and so-and-so island.

Right now the Giants’ needs are vast and diverse. Would a run-stopping defensive tackle help the league’s worst run defense? Sure. Would a quarterback-killing defensive lineman (who is not in his contract year and has only produced 3.5 sacks this season) help? What do you think, Jason Pierre-Paul?

No one player is going to help the Giants, so tanking on the rest of the season and landing the top pick in the 2015 draft doesn’t seem like a good organizational game plan. Consequently, the Giants are left to try and make hay from a 3-6 record.

Running back Rashad Jennings returns this week, which should be a nice jolt to a running game that was averaging 121 yards on the ground before Jennings sprained his knee, missed the last four games, and left us to watch Andre Williams average 2.75 yards per carry in his stead, which is less than he’d gain if defenders simply got out of the way and allowed the 5-foot-11 Williams to call “timber!” and fall forward.

Is Jennings single-handedly going to save the Giants’ season? Not unless he can also play defensive tackle, linebacker and cornerback, thus helping a defense that is now ranked last in the NFL.

Will he help re-establish some much-needed balance to the Giants’ offense? Yes.

Will successfully running the ball help keep the Giants’ defense fresh and angry-looking? Yes.

Will someone please explain how we can land a robot on a comet 4 billion miles away but we can’t figure out a better way to wash skyscraper windows?

OK, well, will the Giants’ pull off a miracle and make the playoffs this year?

Frankly, it wouldn’t take a miracle; it would merely take playing up to a modicum of their potential. 

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