Skip to main content
New York Giants homepage
Advertising

Giants News | New York Giants – Giants.com

Experts debate: Who will be this year's Odell Beckham Jr.?

After seeing what Odell Beckham Jr. did last season as a rookie, fans, coaches and team executives around the NFL are lining up to select the next one of him in this year's draft.

Even Beckham, the reigning AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, took time to emerge after the Giants drafted him with the 12th overall pick in 2014. The wide receiver missed his first four games with a hamstring issue before going on a run that hadn't been seen since Randy Moss in 1998.

So who will it be this year?

The NFL Network crew on "Path to the Draft" debated the topic. College football analyst and former Tennessee defensive back Charles Davis said Georgia running back Todd Gurley could be that impact player despite coming off a torn ACL.

"I think he's electrifying, but because he's had the knee injury people are still waiting for the medical," Davis said.

"But I think that things are tracking towards Todd Gurley being ready. I'm hearing nothing but positives about the upcoming medical. They expect him to be cleared from training camp is what I'm hearing. I think that he's the type of player that you can put the ball in his hands, swing it out to him, hand it to him. He can be that type of a player, and I'm going outside of the wide receiver position."

Meanwhile, former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah stayed inside the wide receiver class, which again is rich in talent.

"The wide receivers we had last year were special, and there's been a lot of debate about how this class stacks up," Jeremiah said. "And I think the guys right at the top, those three receivers when you look at DeVante Parker, then ahead of him Amari Cooper and ahead of him Kevin White, all three of those guys could put up big seasons like we saw from Beckham. I'm going to go, though, with the wild card and that's Dorial Green-Beckham, who was at Missouri and then got in some trouble and ended up last year at Oklahoma.

"But this was the No. 1 player in high school coming out and you see when he got on the field at Missouri how special he is, the rare blend of size and speed. He tore up the combine. He has the ability to be a double-digit touchdown producer in Year 1."

But will White, Cooper, Parker, Green-Beckham and the rest of the 2015 wide receiver class fare better than the 2014 group? It's tough to beat a proven group that includes Beckham, Sammy Watkins, Mike Evans and Kelvin Benjamin.

"I'm only going to go to 2014 as the better draft only because of what we've already seen," analyst and former NFL offensive lineman Brian Baldinger said. "All these guys have already done it. I just think last year's draft had a lot of depth. John Brown, Jordan Matthews, Martavis Bryant, there were 33 wide receivers drafted last year so I don't know if the depth will be that great [this year]. But when you look at the top -- Kevin White, Amari Cooper, DeVante Parker -- there's certainly a lot of star power ready for this year's draft."

This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be missing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an issue.
Advertising