CBS Sports ranks Eli Manning as top No. 1 overall pick since 2000
Since the 2000 NFL Draft, 15 quarterbacks have been taken with the number one pick, including this year's top pick Joe Burrow. The other six top overall picks consisted of four defensive ends and two offensive tackles, with Myles Garrett being the most recent non-quarterback selection back in 2017.
Bryan DeArdo of CBS Sports came out with a ranking of all of the first overall selections of the 21st century (other than Burrow), and it should not come as a surprise that legendary Giants quarterback Eli Manning was on the top of the list.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
[The first overall pick in the 2004 draft, Manning retired after the 2019 season with 125 career wins and two Super Bowl MVP awards under his belt. A four-time Pro Bowler, Manning is seventh all-time in both career passing yards and touchdown passes. His 210 consecutive starts is the third-highest total in league history.
Manning did post an impressive 8-4 postseason record that included two Super Bowl wins over the Patriots. To get there, Manning and the Giants defeated Tony Romo and the Cowboys in the 2007 divisional round, Brett Favre and the Packers in the '07 NFC title game, Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the 15-1 Packers in the divisional round of the 2011 playoffs, and Alex Smith and the 49ers in the '11 NFC Championship Game."
When asked about his younger brother's legacy, Peyton Manning, who will likely earn induction into the Hall of Fame in 2021, summed it up best. "When you're the Super Bowl MVP twice against the greatest dynasty of all-time, the New England Patriots, Tom Brady/Bill Belichick, and you join a list that includes Terry Bradshaw, Bart Starr, Tom Brady and Joe Montana, Eli Manning as the only (multiple) Super Bowl MVPs. I don't really know what that term, 'drop the mic' is, but I guess if there was one. ... There really is no 'yeah, but' after that. That kind of ends it. But if you want a, 'yeah, but,' yeah, but he also started 220-plus consecutive games. He's sixth or seventh all-time in touchdowns. It wasn't like he just played those two seasons. He answered the bell, played his butt off, won some huge games for his team."]
Blake Martinez explains decision to join Giants in free agency
The Giants made several splashes in free agency this offseason, with one of the biggest moves being the signing of linebacker Blake Martinez from the Green Bay Packers.
Martinez comes to the Giants having led the NFL in total tackles over the last three seasons with 443. In 2019, he started all 16 games and registered 155 total tackles (97 solo), 3.0 sacks, five tackles for loss, three quarterback hits, one forced fumble, one interception and two passes defended. The inside linebacker has not missed a game in the last three years.
On Tuesday, Martinez joined NFL Network's "Good Morning Football" to discuss several topics, including the reasoning behind signing with the Giants.
"Going through the process, I just thought about what kind of fit (would be best) for myself, individually, my play style and those types of things," Martinez said. "Obviously, looking at the potential places I could go to, New York just jumped off the tape for me. Just seeing the guys that are on the team, the young talent across the board, obviously a new head coach (Joe Judge).
"Then my old inside linebacker coach (Patrick Graham) is now the defensive coordinator. Everything kind of just paired together easily. I was just super excited that I had the chance to go be a Giant."
Martinez went on to discuss his eagerness to get involved in the New York / New Jersey community, his early interactions with Coach Judge and more. Check out the full clip from NFL Network below.
NFL.com lists Dalvin Tomlinson as most underappreciated Giant
Cynthia Frelund, NFL.Network's analytics expert, created context-based models in order to identify the most underappreciated player from every team across the NFL. For the Giants, that honor belongs to defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson.
Tomlinson has started all 48 games of his career since joining the Giants as a second round pick in 2017. Last season, he finished the year with 49 total tackles (23 solo), 3.5 sacks, seven tackles for loss, nine quarterback hits and one forced fumble.
As Frelund writes, "NGS shows that Tomlinson earned 19 run stuffs -- those are plays when a defender tackles an opposing rusher for a gain of zero or negative yards -- in 2019, tied for third in the NFL. This helped the Giants' defense allow the fourth-lowest rushing average (3.86 yards per attempt) despite allowing the eighth-most yards per game (377.3)."
