André Woodson, University of Kentucky, Senior, New York Giants

Could this spell the end of J. Load? The Giants and the Bucs can now field a team just of quarterbacks between them, as Big Blue now sports Eli Manning, Anthony Wright, David Carr, Jared Lorenzen (former Kentucky Wildcat), and now the 6'4, 220 André Woodson out of Kentucky. This probably means that the QB lineup going into the season will be Eli, Carr, and Woodson as the emergency QB.

In watching Woodson's games this year, he is definetly one to stand tall in the pocket and not get happy feet during the blitz. He's got better than average mobility and great size, but he fell down the boards because of the hitch in his throw, and his poor performances at the combine and especially at the Senior Bowl.

I was not expecting this pick, but evidently, this was not a need pick for the upcoming season. The Giants must have felt that Woodson was the best player on the board at the time, and that they can pick up what they need in FA (immediately after the draft or in the months before camp).

According to Giants.com, Woodson:

Has a tall, athletic frame with long limbs, large hands, smooth calves and muscle tone, but needs to control his weight (shed some bulk during the 2007 off-season and now looks more mobile moving around in the pocket)…Demonstrates the fluid range of motion to put all of his power behind his follow-through when passing…Can buy time scrambling in the pocket and shows the arm shows the strength to make throws on the move, as he has the velocity needed to get the ball deep…Has made very good strides in his timing and shows much better field vision than he did in the past…Sets up quickly, displaying decent throwing mechanics and precision in the intermediate passing game, alonmg with the pay action agility to throw on the move, thanks to good foot balance…

Wow, what a great description of muscle tone.

Here's some more info:

Has the arm strength to thread the ball through traffic and did a better job of handling progressions as a junior… Has the mental makeup to call his own game and did a better job of picking up stunts and blitzes as a junior and senior than he did earlier in his career…Can throw the deep outs with good consistency, as he has the wrist flick and ball placement skills to loft the ball into the soft areas or go over the top of the defender firing deep…Despite his wind-up motion, the ball comes out cleanly and smoothly due to his wrist action…Can get the ball down field effortlessly and has the strength to make his throws from the opposite hash…Has developed better touch on his deep throws, as he can feather the pass away from the defender and drop it into his receivers hands, but when he throws off his wrong foot, his passes lack touch…No longer locks on to his primary target and will scan the field to find his secondary receivers, even though that will sometimes result in him getting sacked or being too late to hit those third option targets in stride…Most of his deep ball success comes vs. Cover-2 defenses, as he can get the ball over the outside shoulder of the receivers operating along the perimeter or when executing on crossing patterns…One of the toughest pocket passers as you will find he knows how to use his size to stand tall in the pocket…Shows no flinch standing under pressure and taking the hit or sack rather than coming up with a costly interception.

And here's Woodson throwing a short dump off with like 4 dudes on his ankles for a TD