The first part of my mock seemed to go over pretty well except for my Gerhart pick. I still stand by that pick, but I respect the dissenting opinions. This is a great community in that we can discuss these various opinions and all get a better understanding and appreciation of the game and the players who play it. This Part 2 of my mock will cover rounds 5-7. Doing a mock for these rounds is always dicey because so many variables have come into play it is very hard to guess who will be available. These are the rounds where the theory of best pick available really comes into play. There may be some player that you never thought about drafting, but he slipped too far not to take advantage of the value. We are going to assume that doesn't happen and I'm going to try to pick guys that I think would be a good fit and are projected at these rounds.

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It seems like it's mock draft time, and rather than just commenting on other folks mocks I thought I'd put up my view. If for no other reason than for you guys to get a chance to return the favour of critiquing my picks. I'll follow Blue Gates' lead by breaking my mock into two parts. Part 1 will cover picks 1-4. Here goes.

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There has been a lot of discussion and focus on what the Giants will do about the middle linebacker position. This discussion is warranted due to the departure of Antonio Pierce. However, middle linebacker might not be the only question mark in the linebacking corps. The consensus opinion is that second year player Clint Sintim is likely to get the chance to start at the SAM position. The hope is that Sintim is able to turn all of the potential he has into something much more than what was seen out of him last year. Last season Sintim was impressive stuffing his hand in the dirt and rushing the passer, but he looked stiff and lost when attempting to play in space.

Looking at the current roster of linebackers has to leave fans somewhat concerned about the possibility that Sintim can't put it all together this year, or if he does put it together that he might get hurt. The reason for this concern is that Sintim appears to be the only prototypical SAM on the team. It's difficult to say how big an issue this is not knowing what system new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell actually intends to run, but if the system calls for a bruiser SAM the Giants do not appear well prepared at the position (if the system is more Tampa 2 and calls for a more athletic SAM our projected starter does not seem like a good fit which is a whole new issue). Currently the Giants have three WILLs on the team: Boley, Wilkinson, and Kehl (with Boley being a solid starter and the other two having not shown much to be impressed about), a Mike in Jonathon Goff, a special teamer in Blackburn who can handle some reserve duties at WILL and Mike (a classic small physical talent huge heart player), and a long snapper in Zak DeOssie who is technically a LB but not expected to really see any time there.

Assuming the Giants address the middle linebacker position early in the draft, which seems to be a popular expectation, what do they do about the SAM position? Are the Giants going to need to look at taking two linebackers in this draft? Is there anything remaining on the free agent/restricted free agent market that fills the need? Furthermore, the immediate reaction to Antonio Pierce leaving is that the Giants biggest need is instantly middle linebacker, but when one evaluates the linebacker situation closely it is revealed that there are not one but two linebacker positions where young unproven players are expected to step into a starting role. This begs the question is Clint Sintim anymore a guaranteed solution at SAM than Jonathon Goff is at Mike? If the answer to that question isn't clear, which it isn't to me, it makes it difficult to clearly state that middle linebacker is far and away the Giants biggest need. If Fewell moves to a more Tampa 2 oriented system do we even have a starting linebacker for the strong side? We've talked a lot about Mike, but what about SAM? 

Center. I know, I know a giant "What?" just went across the Giant fandom, but I've been thinking a lot about this so stick with me for a minute. I've been giving a lot of thought to what the Giants could/should do in the first round of this years draft (I'm a big believer that we need to get Weatherspoon, but that is a different post). One possibility that floats around is what would happen if a high caliber tackle is available. This has forced me to give a lot of thought to our current offensive line. Two years ago it appeared to be one of the best lines in the league. Last year we saw some drop off. What does the future hold?

As I look to the future, an obvious question mark is the left tackle position. Diehl was slid into that position more out of necessity than desire. He has done a respectable job, but I don't believe he is the future at that spot. From what I saw out of Will Beatty I think he will be the left tackle of the future. If we insert Beatty at left tackle, we have a few options. Diehl could kick back in to guard or move over to right tackle. We know that Diehl can play guard, but I think his size and skill set is ideally suited to man the right tackle position. Diehl is still young enough and has enough years left on his contract that this scenario would put us in a very good place moving forward at the tackle position. McKenzie can become a reserve tackle(because his injury problems have hurt his ability to be counted on as a starter), and we don't have to worry about addressing the tackle position in the draft this year.

Now that our tackle position is solid, what is the status of our interior line. Chris Snee is hands down a stud at the guard position. Shaun O'Hara is a great center and a true leader of the offensive line. Rich Seubert is a promoted backup and the only remaining "question mark", so why am I not saying that guard is our biggest need? As much as I love O'Hara, he is 32 and his contract is up in 2012. We have no other centers on the team. Last year when they were having players practice snapping in case O'Hara couldn't go we didn't have anyone that could snap a ball to save their life. O'Hara has been an ironman, but how much do you depend on a 32 year old man never getting nicked. I know that O'Hara desires to get into coaching in some form after he retires. This leads me to believe it is very likely that in 2012 at the age of 34 O'Hara will be retiring. We need a player who can give us protection now and a starter in the future.

I need to further evaluate this year's center prospects. I've identified the need, but not the player. Ideally we'd get a player who could come in and compete with Seubert for the guard position now. He could then soak up all of the knowledge possible from O'Hara and be ready to slide over into that spot come 2012. Sound off about your thoughts on our offensive line needs, and if you've got any potential center prospects worth looking at, I'd love to know more about them