One of the players that has been linked with the Giants during the pre-draft process is Iowa offensive lineman Brandon Scherff, who is expected to be the first blocker to come off the board when the first round gets underway next Thursday.
Part of the reason that Scherff makes sense is that Justin Pugh, who was drafted in the first round two years ago, has failed to impress at right tackle. Scherff could take over that spot and kick Pugh inside to guard, something that isn’t worrying Pugh. He said Thursday that he hopes the Giants draft Scherff and that he’d happily move inside if that’s what the team wants him to do.
“Not at all,” Pugh said, via ESPN.com. “I think, if you look at every single Giant offensive lineman that’s been here when we’ve won Super Bowls -- the David Diehls of this world, who moved from guard to tackle to left tackle, won a Super Bowl playing left tackle, no one thought he could do that. If you don’t have that mentality in that offensive line room, you’re not going to be successful. You have to have that versatility.”
The Diehl example is actually the opposite of what Pugh would be doing as the fifth-round pick’s play moved him into a more prominent position on the line before then going back down the ladder later in his career, not that those facts make Pugh’s attitude about things any less helpful to the Giants. If they draft Scherff, they would be able to have flexibility about how they deploy their offensive line while improving their chances of improving last year’s woeful run blocking.
