The big knock on Amukamara (that I was parroting from KC Joyner earlier) was that he got torched by Justin Blackmon, the star receiver at Oklahoma State, when they played each other last year. After all, NFL receivers are gonna be more like Blackmon than like the average college receiver. But on the other side of ESPN, the scouts guys make an interesting point about that performance:
"Biggest matchup problem was versus Justin Blackmon (Oklahoma State) in 2010 but Amukamara did not play as poorly as many seem to think. Blackmon pushed off on a 36-yard catch in 2nd QTR. Amukamara runs step-for-step with Blackmon on a debatable 2nd QTR pass interference penalty.And while Amukamara does get beaten for an 80-yard TD on a 2nd QTR flea-flicker, he shows recovery speed to get back into the play. From that point on, Blackmon was targeted three times versus Amukamara and caught one pass for three yards."

So it looks like I was wrong with some of my earlier concerns, hopefully the Prince works out!

Ralph Vacchiano posted a story yesterday (the DN's links don't work perfectly, scroll down for the story) where Tiki justifies his actions and explains why Giants fans shouldn't be booing him - and when you read it you can understand exactly why he's missing the point about why Giants fans are upset at him. Its not because, as Tiki puts it, "I’ll tell it how it is. I think that one of the issues with Giants fans is that I don’t sugarcoat anything. I never wanted to come into broadcasting and be the guy who says a whole lot, but says nothing. I have always wanted to be succinct and to the point about what my opinion is, based on what my experiences are. If people hate me for that, they hate me"

Tiki doesn't understand that we aren't just upset with his career as a broadcaster - we're upset with the way he acted during his last season as a player and how that has carried over to his career in broadcasting. Rodney Harrison criticizes the Patriots regularly on NBC, but people don't get upset about it because any criticism he has of Belichick is just seen as him being even-handed rather than him pettily trying to exact revenge at a person he clearly hates, the way Barber's not "sugarcoated" opinions about Coughlin sound. Its a pity that our memory of a great Giant keeps being sullied by him opening his mouth at just the wrong time.

A nice piece of work supporting the argument has been dropped into your laps by the folks at Football Outsiders.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/nfl-draft/2010/introducing-sackseer

The bottom line from this article is that, notwithstanding his ability to do backsprings, JPP doesn't actually show "athleticism" in the ways that matter for a pass rusher (which are apparently vertical leap, which doesn't totally make sense to me, and short shuttle, which absolutely makes sense to me). Of course, this system is also bearish on Morgan and Graham - the only man feeling really good about this will be Sunlion, whose support for Jerry Hughes gets support from this system. Definitely worth a read.

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Sunday-at-the-Post-7983.html

From item #13 in the article:

13. If the Giants draft DE Jason Pierre-Paul of South Florida, which is possible, they’ll get calls on Osi Umenyiora -- and I hear if the deal is right, they’ll make a deal. Umenyiora can be had for the right price.

With both Mortensen and Lombardi reporting it, its time to assume there is some serious fire behind the smoke of Osi being shopped. Of course, commentors here won't like the idea of Reese drafting JPP, but unless its some really high-level smokescreening (and thats a very real possibility) it looks like the man is interested. Of course, that just might serve to make Al Davis fulfill his destiny and rescue JR from a less than ideal pick by stealing his favorite all-tools prospect...

Most mock drafts nowadays seem to have Denver taking Rolando McClain and it is certainly realistic. McClain seems like the most logical intersection of value and need at the #11 spot in most mocks for the Broncos. Nonetheless, its less obvious that Denver will end up taking McClain than the mocks would suggest, for a few reasons:

-They already have DJ Williams. Yes, Denver runs a 3-4, but not all 3-4 defenses need to have 2 high-end ILBs. Some 3-4 variants prefer to use the 2nd MLB (the Ted) in more of a DT-like role, soaking up blockers while the Mike collects the tackles. If Denver prefers that setup they won't bother to waste a high Round 1 pick on McClain, particularly because:

-There are trades in the real draft. In reality, if Denver doesn't want McClain and doesn't like the mix of players available in that spot, McDaniels will just trade down. Of course, that seems unlikely, given that McDaniels' first draft demonstrated that:

-He has a weird taste in players - the mock draft consensus did an awful job of predicting who Denver took last year. Knowshon Moreno at #12 for a teams with innumerable holes on defense? Robert Ayers at #18, which was probably 10 spots higher than most mocks had him going? Alphonso Smith in Round 2 might have been a consensus choice, but trading his 2010 first round pick for Smith was a very surprising move. (#11 came to them from Chicago in the Cutler trade). More than anything, the Smith trade is proof that:

-McDaniels falls in love with players and does what it takes to get them. Its entirely possible that he has fallen in love with McClain and is taking him - I honestly have no idea. But I say that Denver is one of the most unpredictable teams in the draft. Its not even a 50-50 chance in my eyes that they take McClain if he is on the board, perceived "value" and perceived "need" be damned.

(No, this really isn't pure optimism, I think....)

Take a look at the 4 mock drafts cited in today's Mocking the Draft that had us taking Price. One by one:

In the Joe Weisen draft, the Giants take Price with Trent Williams on the board

In the Ben Standig draft, the Giants take Price with Derrick Morgan and Brian Bulaga on the board

In the Randall Weida draft, the Giants take Price with Derrick Morgan, Trent Williams, Rolando McClain (??!! I mean, this guy has the Steelers drafting McClain to pair with Timmons - what, does he think Farrior is going to the bench??), and CJ Spiller on the board.

In the Mocking the Draft draft, the Giants take Price with Brian Bulaga and Trent Williams on the board. When the Giants pick in Round 2, they could get DTs such as Arthur Jones, Lamarr Houston,  Tyson Alualu or others.

I think there are two takeaways from this. One is that the reason the Giants shouldn't take Brian Price is because he simply isn't the 15th best player in the draft. No matter how you play the permutations, there will almost always be a choice better suited to the Giants than Price, despite the legit need at DT. Secondly, Randall Weida's drafts probably don't deserve to be cited in Mock Draft Monday!!