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Giants Wrap Up Draft and Announce Kiwanuka's Move to Linebacker
Team drafts son of former Giant DT Zak DeOssie, along with a TE, OT, S and RB.
By Michael Eisen, Giants.com

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April 29, 2007

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The Giants concluded their 2007 draft by revealing big news about their 2006 first-round choice.

In their respective post-draft news conferences, at which they were asked about staffing at several positions, general manager Jerry Reese and head coach Tom Coughlin revealed that Mathias Kiwanuka, who played impressively as a rookie defensive end last year, will move to strongside linebacker this season. That is a major reason why, in the weeks leading up to the draft, Reese kept saying, "we have linebackers" when almost everyone outside Giants Stadium thought they should take one in the first round.

"We have him penciled in as our starting SAM linebacker, so linebacker wasn't a pressing need for us," Reese said. "We have two very good defensive ends (in Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora) and this guy is a very good football player. We expect that he can make the transition very easily. We want our best players on the field. We penciled him in a long time ago.

"There is no question he can make the transition to outside linebacker. There is no question he can play SAM linebacker for us. He's athletic, he's long, he's tall - you want your SAMs to have some height to play on the end of the line. He can do all that stuff. He zone dropped and had a couple of interceptions last year."

Coughlin said that he, new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and linebackers coach Bill Sheridan will spend the spring working with Kiwanuka on the switch.

"He is definitely an option that we are going to look at very strongly," Coughlin said. "Mathias from the defensive end position has been up and dropped a year ago. We think that our idea there is to try to get as many quality players on the field at the same time as best we can. I think he can play well in that position and as we move into the spring here we get an opportunity to spend more time on the field and in meetings where we will continue with that experiment."

Zak DeOssie, drafted on the fourth round today, will likely back up Kiwaunka. Antonio Pierce will remain in the middle. Recently-signed Kawika Mitchell and second-year pro Gerris Wilkinson will compete on the weak side.

Because of the recent release of Luke Petitgout, left tackle is another position of great interest. Both Reese and Coughlin said Guy Whimper should get a long look there. Whimper was a fifth-round draft choice last year who did not play a down on offense as a rookie. The versatile David Diehl, who played left guard in the regular season finale last year, is another candidate.

"We won a game at left tackle with David Diehl and if he has to, I think he can play out there," Reese said. "Don't forget Guy Whimper. I think Guy Whimper is going to be a very good football player at left tackle. Don't discount Guy Whimper at left tackle."

Oh yes, this year's draft. The Giants added five players at five different positions in today's second day of the draft. They selected four offensive and four defensive players in the two-day event.

Their first choice was in the fourth round (the 116th overall), where they selected DeOssie, the linebacker/long snapper from Brown. DeOssie is the son of former NFL player Steve DeOssie, who played 61 games for the Giants from 1989-93 and was a starter on the 1990 Super Bowl champions. Zak DeOssie had 315 tackles (187 solo), 36.5 tackles for losses and 10.5 sacks for Brown.

In the fifth round, the Giants took Western Oregon tight end Kevin Boss with the 153rd overall selections. Boss caught 134 passes and scored 19 touchdowns for the Wolves. Their sixth-round choice, the 189th overall, was Oregon State's Adam Koets, a three-year starter at left tackle and a third-team Academic All-Pac 10 selection.

With their first of two picks in the seventh round, the 224th overall selection, the Giants took safety Michael Johnson from the University of Arizona, who played in 21 games and intercepted five passes after transferring from Tyler (Texas) Junior College. The Giants had a compensatory pick in the seventh round, the 250th overall, and used it to choose Marshall running back Ahmad Bradshaw, a 5-9, 198-pounder who rushed for 2,987 yards and 31 touchdowns in three seasons. Bradshaw ran for 1,523 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2006.

The five draftees selected today joined the three players the Giants took yesterday: Texas cornerback Aaron Ross in the first round (No. 20), USC wide receiver Steve Smith in the second round (No. 51) and Penn State defensive tackle Jay Alford in the third round (No. 81).

"There is no doubt I feel better because some of these slots that we have been anticipating trying to solve we were able to go forth and do it with regard to the draft," Coughlin said. "The draft is a time for the individual to show some patience, because there is so much time in-between and you see so many players come off that board that you begin to wonder whether you are going to have an opportunity to accomplish what you need to. I do feel like we did have success filling our needs along with value picks. We are excited about seeing these guys come in. Now they obviously have to come in and go to work and prove to us how in fact they will. You have to take your hat off to our scouts, to our scouting department, to all the work that our coaches and scouts have done with regard to grading and being in position to feel good about each one of these players and we do."

"I think we had a solid draft," Reese said. "We got a bunch of value picks plus need picks. I think our team got better.

"I think we got better at a lot of need positions. We had value picks. We got better because we picked guys with character, we picked guys who are team-oriented players and we picked guys with talent. We reached some of our goals."

Reese, apparently, exited the draft with only one disappointment.

"We didn't get Calvin Johnson," he said of the Georgia Tech wide receiver who was widely considered the draft's best player.

You can't have everything. But the Giants are very happy with what they do have.