Mel Kiper Jr. advocates for New York Giants to draft Rome Odunze

The New York Giants have the No. 6 overall selection in an upcoming NFL Draft that is loaded with talent, with many wondering which direction the franchise will go for their top pick.

Some forecast New York selecting a quarterback after starter Daniel Jones went down with a season-ending torn ACL injury in Week 8 last season. But not NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr., who explained to Field Yates on ESPN’s ‘First Draft’ why the Giants should instead select Washington wide receiver Rome Odunze.

“I’m a Daniel Jones fan and I think you get a big-time receiver,” Kiper said. “You’re getting a guy who certainly could be, you can make a strong argument, he could go a little higher than this with the Chargers being a possibility there. You mention Marvin Harrison Jr., you think Malik Nabers is right there, I think Rome Odunze is very close. I’m a big Rome Odunze fan coming out of Washington.”

A strong majority of evaluators believe Harrison is the top wide receiver in this year’s draft who won’t make it past the top five picks. But Kiper believes Odunze is right behind him, and could help Jones as he returns from injury and looks to show improvement following an underwhelming five seasons in the league.

“I get it, there’s an offensive line issue there as well. But the wide receiver position for Daniel Jones, they get a guy like Odunze. To me, that’s where I would go, that’s my pick here is Odunze for the New York Giants,” Kiper said.

Odunze is an impressive athlete at 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, leading all of college football with 1,640 receiving yards to go along with his 92 catches and 15 total touchdowns. Taking home First-Team All Pac-12 honors the last two seasons along with a First-Team All-American selection in 2023.

“He has the size, he has the ability with that catch radius to out-dual cornerbacks for the football, he’s so smooth, he’s so deceptive with how he runs his routes, he’s very difficult to handle in those situations,” Kiper explained. “You go to the national championship game, he was open, Michael Penix Jr. wasn’t able to get him the ball. Look at the consistency in terms of week in and week out.”

Known as a matchup nightmare and one of the best contested catchers in the country, Odunze was a model of consistency for Washington. Boasting 10 100-yard games last season along with five or more catches in all but one game in 2023. But in that one outlier he did catch two touchdown passes.

“Rome Odunze everybody knew he was the number one guy, he was the guy we had to figure out a way to contain and they could not do it. He is gonna be a freakish talent when he starts testing whenever he does it, combine (or) Pro Day. He can jump out of the building and he has that size, he’s what 215-218 (pounds) in that area,” Kiper said. “I’m a huge Rome Odunze fan, I gave him the slight edge over Malik Nabers.”

Odunze will be running and testing at the NFL combine this year, unlike his counterparts Harrison and Nabers. Allowing the former Husky to boost his draft stock by showing off his skills for the league’s top decision-maker and potentially even convincing the Giants to select him with the No. 6 overall pick.