Eli Manning

It still bothers me that for all intents and purposes the Giants traded Philip Rivers, Nate Kaeding, and Shawn Merriman for Eli Manning. Who knows, maybe he'll turn out to be good. Doesn't look like it, though.

Sean Taylor's untimely death this week reminded me a lot of that '04 draft. A lot of what if's? Sean Taylor was the man I really wanted the Giants to draft at #4. I thought our offense could still go a few seasons with Kerry Collins at the helm, and we needed a SS. Drafting Gibril Wilson in the 7th round instead worked out, but I began wondering, what if we had drafted Sean Taylor? Maybe he doesn't get hurt in a game 3 weeks ago, which lets him be at his home in Miami on Monday morning, which, unfortunately, is when the break in occured. Or maybe he became infatuated with NYC and moved his whole family up here? Who knows.

Either way, the point is, it's a tragedy. A senseless one that need not have happened.

Anyway, before Eli's last second heroics tonight, I was planning on writing a post about how bad Ernie Accorsi screwed up that draft, and all the players we could have had in his place. I won't go into all that detail now, because somehow he pulled a rabbit out of a hat. Instead, I'll just give you a nice long list of players drafted after the Giants #4 spot in that draft (where they took Rivers and traded him for Manning), a lot of whom have accomplished way more than he has.

Sean Taylor, Kellen Winslow Jr, Roy Williams, DeAngelo Hall, Dunta Robinson, Ben Roethlisberger, Jonathon Vilma, Lee Evans, Tommy Harris, Will Smith, Vance Wilfork, Stephen Jackson, Kevin Jones, Ben Watson... and that's just round one.

Igor Olshansky, Tatum Bell, Julius Jones, Bob Sanders, Michael Boulware, Nick Hardwick, Chris Cooley, Bernard Berrian, Matt Schaub, Jerricho Cotchery, Nathan Vasher, Jason David, Jared Allen, Jake Scott, Erik Coleman, Nathaniel Adibi, Michael Turner, Mike Karney, DJ Hackett, Thomas Tapeh, Dexter Wynn, Jim Sorgi, Patrick Crayton, and Derrick Ward.

Yup, wow.