OT- UConn's Matt Peart Drafted in 3rd Round by NY Giants

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

The big offensive tackle went at the end of the 3rd round to the NY Giants. Congratulations to Matt Peart!

 

[the Blades]

Giants fan since he was a kid...now he gets to go home....

"Born in Jamaica, (moved to NY at age 4) he grew up in the Bronx where basketball rules. Peart started playing football after arriving at Governor's Academy in Byfield, Mass. He also continued to play basketball in high school."
" He embraced the sport and developed into a Division I player. "That's when I first really got into football," Peart said. "I was exposed to the sport relatively late. Most kids start at Pop Warner age. Governor's, my high school, was just 400 kids total. To be able to get a scholarship to a D-I school and getting the accolades to get to where I am right now is really amazing. I'm very very humbled by it. I'm blessed."

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

I think the Giants see him as a developmental right tackle behind Nate Solder, who will move from left tackle to right tackle to accomodate 1st round pick Andrew Thomas of Georgia, who is expected to be an immediate starter at left tackle.

Peart is actually a little bit bigger than Thomas, but this draft demonstrated that teams want size at the tackle position over athleticism. Of the 4 top rated tackles who all went in the first round (Thomas, Wills, Becton and Wirfs), Wirfs, who absolutely crushed the combine, was selected last of those 4, because he is smaller than the other 3, who are all monsters, especially Becton. Bectom could wear the Predator suit if they ever make the movie Predator 3.

I can remember when it was a big deal in the early 1980s that the Redskins had an offensive line compromised of 300 pounders who were affectionately called the "Hogs." Now all these guys are well over 300 pounds and it is an industry standard.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

From Big Blue View:

https://www.bigblueview.com/2020/4/...-explain-ny-giants-selection-of-ot-matt-peart

From Sports Illustrated:

https://www.si.com/nfl/giants/draft/ot-matt-peart-the-pick-at-a-glance

 

[Calhoun_for_President]

As a diehard giant fan, I can only hope Peart turns out better than previous UCONN O line bust Will Beatty

If I recall correctly, the Giants took off in 2011 after Beatty went down and wound up winning the Super Bowl.

Jerry Reese's Pieces inexplicably signed Beatty to a big money extension in 2012.
He continued to be injury prone and ineffective, contributing to a problem the Giants have not been able to solve since.

Offensive line performance not equal to draft or free agent capital spent.

Lets get some meat on this dude and coached up so we can turnaround the NYG perception of UCONN................

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

The Giants have indeed had consistent problem with their OL due to injuries/ineffectiveness since 2012. I think Beatty had been progressing before he had that string of injuries, and they prevented him from developing. He was better than Ereck Flowers who was the Giants biggest OL bust in the last 10 years. I am hopeful that they have a better OL coach now but I feel as though they have better OL depth and there will not be any pressure on Peart to start right away, unless of course Solder gets hurt, and Solder is 32 with a lot of mileage on him. The Giants also still need a center and I assume they will deal with that in free agency. In addition to Thomas and Peart, the Giants drafted an offensive guard from Oregon who was actually 2nd team All American and looks pretty good, who is further depth. They just need a center and should be all set and better on the OL.

CFP- Although the OL line played well, my recollection of the roll the Giants got on in 2011 had to do with the WR production they got from Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz at the end of that season which was unbelievable and record setting. The Giants never had a pair of WRs perform like that for a half season and playoffs before or since. I think both ended up getting hurt the next season and were never the same.

I was overall happy with the Giants 2020 draft except for the midget CB they drafted out of UCLA. The NFL.com scouting report on him said that he is susceptible to getting shaken by good route runners and does not recover well. I hope he is just a backup/depth and is not used 1 on 1 too much.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Here is the NFL.com Scouting Report on Matt Peart:

Strengths

• Beautiful off the bus with long arms and athletic build
• Frame carries weight easily with room for more
• Plus initial quickness out of stance
• Movement is easy and smooth when moving laterally on stretch plays
• Has change of direction talent to adjust to targets in space
• Started doing better job of unlocking hips later in the year
• Tons of athletic potential to work with in pass sets
• Nimble feet with ability to mirror once he latches in
• Could offer swing tackle flexibility
• Started all four years

Weaknesses

• Play strength is not up to par
• Unable to bench-press defenders off his frame
• Flexible but needs more discipline in keeping pad level lower
• Gets over-extended and beaten inside in run game
• Doesn't show finishing demeanor or toughness on tape
• Hands are limp, lazy and miss proper landing spots too often
• Disjointed movement in working from first to second block
• Must learn to throw a punch with better urgency and violence
• Feet occasionally stall when mirroring at the top of the rush
• Poor hand placement and redirect power doom him when his edge is challenged

https://www.nfl.com/prospects/matt-peart?id=32195045-4163-4229-79fd-743221e3c286

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Here is an article from Big Blue View in which Randy Edsall gushed to the Giants blogger that the Giants are a perfect fit for Matt Peart:

https://www.bigblueview.com/2020/4/...-matt-peart-uconn-coach-randy-edsall-reaction

 

[the Blades]

Speaking of Uconn and the NFL... just read this from the Barstool CFB blogger......Now if they only had a head coach who could do something with that talent ...SMH !

 

[Calhoun_for_President]

When you think about its not that shocking
15 years is a long sample size. Without looking it up I'm guessing most of the picks were during the mid to late 2000's when UCONN transitioned to the Big East and the program was thought to be on the rise.

14 schools from the Big 5 represents the bottom of each conference.
We have bested football world beaters like Duke, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, and Kansas I would imagine among others.

 

[Calhoun_for_President]

Alright I'm bored
27 players drafted since 2005
Most of the ones that made an NFL roster never got past their initial contract

Byron Jones was clearly the best of the bunch
The other first round pick Donald Brown was the biggest bust

Alfred Fincher
Dan Orlovsky - career beyond initial contract
Deon Anderson
Tyvon Branch - career beyond initial contract
Donald Thomas
Donald Brown
Darius Butler - career beyond initial contract
Will Beatty - career beyond initial contract (thanks Reese)
Cody Brown
Marcus Easley
Robert McClain - career beyond initial contract
Anthony Sherman - Amazingly has lasted with the extinction of the FB
Lawrence Wilson
Jordan Todman
Greg Lloyd
Kendall Reyes
Dwayne Gratz
Sio Moore
Blidi Wreh-Wilson
Trevardo Williams
Ryan Griffin - still going strong with the Jets
Shamar Stephen
Yawin Smallwood
Byron Jones - $$$$$
Geremy Davis
Obi Melifonwu
Folorunso Fatukasi
Matt Peart

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Anthony Sherman has managed to carve out an excellent college and pro career as a player whose best skill is/was blocking. He has now played 9 NFL seasons. He has 65 NFL rushing yards, for his career, and 547 career receiving yards in those 9 years. His season averages are 7 yards rushing and 60 yards receiving per season.Teams clearly value a guy like him who can block, and forget his other numbers. One could argue he has had the most impressive NFL career of all the guys on your list, considering where he was drafted. Plus he has a Super Bowl ring.

The Chiefs also resigned him and he will play a 10th NFL season.

Consider also that while at UConn he was lead blocker for Donald Brown and Jordan Todman and now has had a much longer professional career than either one.

 

[the Blades]

Anthony Sherman has managed to carve out an excellent college and pro career as a player whose best skill is/was blocking. He has now played 9 NFL seasons. He has 65 NFL rushing yards, for his career, and 547 career receiving yards in those 9 years. His season averages are 7 yards rushing and 60 yards receiving per season.Teams clearly value a guy like him who can block, and forget his other numbers. .....at UConn he was lead blocker for Donald Brown and Jordan Todman and now has had a much longer professional career than either one.

..... the other thing with Sherman ( a 5th round/ Pro-Bowler 2 years ago) carving out an unlikely career, in his re-up article:
" He has also been a mainstay of the Chiefs special-teams units ever since the Chiefs traded cornerback Javier Arenas to obtain him from the Arizona Cardinals in 2013. While his contributions on special teams are often invisible to casual fans — and his offensive statistics have never been particularly notable — he has still been one of the team’s locker room leaders. Vocal and unpredictable, he has slowly become a fan favorite."

So it shows if you can find a role, how unpredictable it is when the average NFL career has dropped to about 2 or 3 years...about 10 years ago, the average career was about six years......this ...How Long Is the Average Career of an NFL Player? | Chron.com

Also noticed Obi Melifonwu who was a combine phenom and a bad pick in the 2nd round, just got dumped by the Pats...He's been banged up since the Raiders drafted him in 2017. I always thought he was overrated and gave up a lot of big plays as a S for Uconn....but teams get mesmerized by combine #'s.

Just the opposite of Obi are guy's like Wreh-Wilson (3 round) and Shamar Stephen (7th round - contract ) both going on 7 years ..and Bucs re-sign Andrew Adams .....the DB who played safety along side Obi at Uconn and wasn't even drafted....he's started 15 of the 27 games he played for the Bucs in 2 years and is now going on year 5....Also here's a recent (2018 w/ less yrs) team draft chart :

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

So it shows if you can find a role, how unpredictable it is when the average NFL career has dropped to about 2 or 3 years...( about 10 years ago, the average career was about six years......this ...How Long Is the Average Career of an NFL Player? | Chron.com

These are interesting stats to me. I think partly for financial reasons and partly due to a high attrition rate (due to injuries and wear and tear on bodies), NFL teams are really trying to churn younger and cheaper bodies. I see trades of capable veteran players for 5th and 6th round draft choices- which boggles my mind, but it's all about teams constantly trying to keep flexibility on their payroll within the salary cap. Just last week, the 49ers traded Matt Breida, who was a starter for much of last year and is a very good chain moving RB, to the Dolphins for a 5th round draft pick. I was stunned. But the 49ers have depth at the position and they want to reload with more draft picks. Draft picks have much more value now than years ago. They mean young and cheap players. Fresh, new bodies with no mileage.

Somehow, the Giants, through trades, ended up with 3 7th round draft picks this year, which to me is something of a joke. But some of those guys will play special teams or just be depth if they make a team. But it is what it is. You can be arguably the best RB in college football and early 2nd round might be as good as it's going to get for you.

Another interesting trend is how running backs are no longer picked in the 1st round. Teams have realized that due to injuries and severe wear and tear on RBs, it's better to have 3 or 4 good guys than it is to have 1 stud and a few crappy backups. So they do not waste 1st round picks on them any more. I kind of feeling sorry for RBs. A guy like JK Dobbins, who is outstanding, did not get picked until the 2nd round by the Ravens which are going to have an absolutely hellacious rushing offense next year.

 

[the Blades]

These are interesting stats to me. I think partly for financial reasons and partly due to a high attrition rate (due to injuries and wear and tear on bodies), NFL teams are really trying to churn younger and cheaper bodies. I see trades of capable veteran players for 5th and 6th round draft choices- which boggles my mind, but it's all about teams constantly trying to keep flexibility on their payroll within the salary cap.

Yeah, when you look at MLB and the mega contracts they always seem to get stuck with on untradeable 30+ year old stars (that never seem to live up to them) .... it's like night and day compared to the NFL ( plus all the concussion stuff lately hasn't helped NFL careers with some guys just walking away)