UPDATE: The Giants traded up with the Tennessee Titans to grab the first pick in the second round and then selected Collins.
The New York Giants addressed a crucial area of necessity last night when they drafted Miami offensive tackle Ereck Flowers with the No. 9 overall pick. They will have the eighth pick of the second round on Friday and may possess the opportunity to grab Alabama safety Landon Collins.
In previous mock drafts Collins was projected to be a mid-first round pick, but he went undrafted last night and now could be a second-round steal. The Alabama product was one of the best safeties in college football, but there remains concern about his coverage abilities at the NFL level, especially since the league has become extremely pass-oriented.
"The player who has the most pub who I was not oohed and awed by is Landon Collins," an anonymous NFL scout told Nolan Nawrocki, author of NFL Draft 2015 Preview. "He will come down and run the alleys and be a really good support player. He has some physicality to him. In coverage, he is OK. I thought he was supposed to be a 'wow.' I didn't see a 'wow.' To me, 'wows' jump off tape when you're not looking for them. I think I saw one pick in the games I did. He had some good, solid tackles."
Collins notched 103 total tackles (60 solo), three interceptions and seven passes defended during his junior season at Alabama last year, so it's no secret he's got the tools to be a good run-stopper. His struggles came when opposing teams got in a groove with their aerial attack.
"Collins wasn't perfect, and there were times where he got caught out of position in big games when passing games really got going. When you look at film and talk to people more familiar with Collins' week-to-week play, I get his fall in the draft," writes Edward Aschoff of ESPN.
So perhaps he didn't have the tools to be a first-round pick, which is understandable, because teams likely didn't want to take a chance on having to develop such a player with that early of a selection. Now he can be great value in the second round and the New York Giants have a chance to land him.
ESPN Insider Mel Kiper Jr. projects the Giants to grab Collins with the 40th overall pick in the draft later today and noted, "I know Collins has some limitations in coverage, but he's a steal at this point. [The Giants] need help at safety and linebacker and in some ways he's both."
Mike Wilkening of NBC Sports' ProFootballTalk also has the G-Men selecting Collins at No. 40.
The Giants are in desperate need of a safety because Antrel Rolle signed with the Chicago Bears, Stevie Brown recently landed with the Houston Texans and they have yet to re-sign Quentin Demps, if they're interested in doing so. Rolle and Brown were the starters last year and right now the team only has safeties Taylor Cooper and Nat Berhe on the depth chart.
If Collins falls to the Giants there's no reason they shouldn't take him, but it's all a matter of if he lasts that long. The Buccaneers could use a safety after trading Dashon Goldson to the Washington Redskins and the Jaguars can use some help in the secondary after failing to land Devin McCourty in free agency (even though they have Sergio Brown and Jonathan Cyprien back there).
We'll see what happens when the second round begins at 7:00 p.m. ET.