Giants Add a Weapon for Manning
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Giants fans saw Eli Manning flailing and failing throughout most of the 2013 season. The Giants' brain trust apparently saw the same thing.
Minutes after using the team's first-round draft pick on the fleet Louisiana State wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., Coach Tom Coughlin and the team's general manager, Jerry Reese, insisted that getting offensive help for Manning was a chief priority.
'We tried to get the quarterback some weapons,' Reese said. 'The quarterback needs some help. This guy is a weapon.'
Coughlin said, 'We can count on him to put the ball in the end zone.'
'It was an easy pick for us,' Reese said.
And Coughlin offered this insight as well.
'We did some work on the offensive line in the free-agency period,' he said, referring to the four veteran offensive line free agents they signed.
In Beckham, the Giants have a speedy receiver who is also a gifted punt and kick returner - something Reese and Coughlin mentioned more than once.
'He can score touchdowns three different ways,' Reese said.
Beckham was a first-team all-Southeastern Conference selection who broke L.S.U.'s single-season all-purpose yardage record with 2,315 yards in 2013. Although just 5 feet 11 inches and 198 pounds, Beckham impressed coaches in the predraft workouts because he has large hands and is known as a crafty and shifty runner of pass routes.
Coughlin was drawn to Beckham's intelligence, with the coach saying he left his first interview with Beckham knowing he was likely to be near the top of the team's list of wide receivers.
Beckham has some outstanding athletic bloodlines. His father, Odell Sr., was a running back at L.S.U. from 1989 to 1992 and his mother, Heather Van Norman, was an all-American runner for the L.S.U. track team during roughly the same period. Beckham also attended Isidore Newman High School in New Orleans, which counts Eli and Peyton Manning among its graduates.
'I walked by their jerseys in a trophy case every day,' Beckham said Thursday night. 'It was always a motivation for me.'
Most analysts believed the Giants would take Notre Dame offensive lineman Zack Martin if he were available. It would have been a traditional selection for the Giants, who for years have been built around line play. But the Giants were without a bona fide outside wide receiver and deep threat. Hakeem Nicks, injured and ineffective the last two seasons, left via free agency. Victor Cruz has made his name as a slot receiver, and Reuben Randle, entering his third year, has been inconsistent.
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