Apr 132013
 

Manti Te’o Visits New York Giants: According to press reports, LB Manti Te’o (Notre Dame) visited the Giants on Thursday and Friday in advance of the 2013 NFL Draft.

NFL teams allowed to invite up to 30 non-local players for pre-draft visits. Based on previous history, a pre-draft visit is not necessarily a good indication of the Giants’ overall interest in a player. For example, as The Bergen Record points out, the Giants did not invite HB David Wilson and CB Prince Amukamara in for visits.

The Star-Ledger correctly states there are a number of reasons the Giants might invite a player in for a pre-draft visit, including smokescreens to confuse other teams about the Giants’ actual intent during the draft. If the Giants are actually more seriously interested in the player, factors could include a medical exam and interviews to help determine the individual’s character. As is widely known, Te’o was involved in a very controversial and strange “catfishing” hoax in January involving the fake death of a girlfriend who did not exist.

“We’ll bring (Te’o) in, and we’ll let him explain that situation for us,” General Manager Jerry Reese said at the NFL Scouting Combine in February. “But again, I think there’s people with a lot more issues than this issue.”

According to The Star-Ledger and The Daily News, other non-local players the Giants have invited in include:

  • OT Vinston Painter (Virginia Tech)
  • OG Chance Warmack (Alabama)
  • OC Patrick Omameh (Michigan)
  • DE Quanterus Smith (Western Kentucky)
  • DL A.J. Francis (Maryland)
  • DB Charles James (Charleston Southern)
  • S Alonzo Tweedy (Virginia Tech)
  • S Rontez Miles (California – PA)

The Star-Ledger also reported that the Giants held a local workout day on April 10 for players who are from, or played college football in, the Giants’ region. Players at that workout included:

  • QB Kyle Frazier (Monmouth)
  • RB Jawan Jamison (Rutgers)
  • RB Ray Graham (Pittsburgh – from Elizabeth)
  • RB Miguel Maysonet (Stonybrook)
  • WR Tim Wright (Rutgers)
  • WR Nick Williams (UConn – from East Windsor)
  • WR Ryan Spadola (Lehigh – from Howell)
  • WR K.J. Stroud (Bethune-Cookman – from Brooklyn)
  • TE D.C. Jefferson (Rutgers)
  • TE Chris Pantale (Boston College – from Wayne)
  • TE Matt Furstenburg (Maryland – from Flemington)
  • OG Zack Chibane (Syracuse – from Paramus)
  • DE Mike Catapano (Princeton)
  • DT Gilbert Pena (Ole Miss – from Yonkers)
  • LB Steve Beauharnais (Rutgers)
  • LB Khaseem Greene (Rutgers)
  • DB Duron Harmon (Rutgers)
  • DB Maurice Jones (Temple – from Belleville)
  • PK Patrick Murray (Fordham)
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Eric Kennedy

Eric Kennedy is Editor-in-Chief of BigBlueInteractive.com, a publication of Big Blue Interactive, LLC. Follow @BigBlueInteract on Twitter.

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