New York Giants Draft Breakdown: James Brewer

James Brewer is a prospect who was right around 100 on most draftnik’s big boards including CBS sports (top 100) and ESPN’s Scouts INC (117th), and he was drafted 117th overall so he represented fair value based on most big boards. And very good positional value. Brewer is a bigger offensive linemen with pretty good athleticism. He’s 6’6 inches tall, 323 pounds who played basketball in high school.

Here’s what Jerry Reese had to say immediately after drafting Brewer.

James Brewer, Indiana – height, weight, speed, offensive tackle. A bit of a late bloomer, but we think he has a tremendous upside. He’s a really good athlete. Only had one year of high school football, but he’s played a lot of football at Indiana. Long arms, big man. Not as developed as much as you would like for him to be at this point, but this guy’s already 323 pounds. He can add 10 to 15 pounds in a blink, we think. With the long arms, he’s got 35.5 inch arms, he benched 25 times, which is good, and he ran really fast for a gigantic man like he is. So we think there is a lot of upside with him. We’ll get him in the mix

The Good

Brewer is going into an excellent situation as the Giants have undoubtedly one of the primer offensive line coaches in the league in Pat Flaherty and Brewer is renowned for having a good work ethic. Brewer also has good NFL Tackle size, 35.5 inch long arms (which is considered very good; Wes Bunting has used the word “great” when describing 35 inch long arms), 10 and 3/8inch hands, and at the 6’6 range is not considered too Tall to create good leverage. Brewer has excellent upside, and going to the Giants is a Big, big plus because of their coaching. Brewer was also productive at Right Tackle for the Hoosiers. The Giants, at least according to Jerry Reese, also believe he can be a LT for them.

Q: Left or Right Tackle?
A: He played on the right side for them because they had Saffold and they didn’t want to move him, but we think he can play left tackle. We think he can play either tackle, but he does have left tackle feet for us

The Bad

Brewer battled nagging and major injuries throughout his college career, and he lacks experience; he didn’t play football until his senior year in high school and was injured often throughout his college career. Brewer also has some possible weight concerns and even Reese mentioned that “He can add 10 to 15 pounds in a blink, we think”. Though I think Reese was saying that he can get bigger without impacting his athleticism. The other worrying point is that Brewer, like Beatt was, is a developmental prospect, who needs refinement in his technique and that he might not be ready for meaningful game time this season. Reese said, “We see him coming in and developing. Not a lot of pressure to come in and play right away”

The Grade

A-. Brewer has excellent upside and he’s going into a position where he has a great chance of succeeding. The Giants have an excellent offensive line coach and the Giants in general have done a great job of developing offensive linemen. The Giants only have two high picks on their offensive line which has been among the best in the league the last five years (Chris Snee, and Will Beatty were both players drafted in the second round). Brewer also offers good value and great positional value. If you can get a future starter at the tackle position in the fourth round it’s a great pick. The other thing that is good about this pick from the Giants stand point is that he complements Will Beatty’s style well. If teams make a pick on a talented, but injury prone player in the second round it’s a questionable pick, but an very high upside player at a vital position in the middle of the fourth round at a position of need is a great pick.

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