At 8:30 p.m. Thursday night, Edgemont’s Matt Bernstein was given another chance at football. That’s the moment the Wisconsin graduate got the message from his agent Justin Schulman that the Giants wanted him to report to their rookie minicamp to fill a fullback tryout spot. Truth is, if Bernstein’s home town wasn’t just 40 minutes up the road, he probably wouldn’t have gotten the call. But when you’re running routes in front of NFL coaches, it really doesn’t matter how you got there.”I’m just here,” Bernstein said. “I’m going to practice as hard as I can, I’m just happy I got this opportunity.” I took this shot with my camera phone during practice. You say blurry, I say arty. Either way that’s him, No. 45. Bernstein in a Giants jersey. 

$$$$$ for David Diehl. A starter on the offensive line since his rookie season, Diehl has proven to be one of the Giants’ most reliable performers. After spending his first three-plus seasons at guard, Diehl was moved to left tackle at the end of the 2006 season and played the big-money spot for all of 2007.

Now he’s going to be rewarded. According to reports, Diehl will get roughly 31 million over 6 years, and the contract has clauses in it where Diehl will be paid more if he plays left takle. Seems fair.

Diehl isn’t a superstar, but he’s a dependable player and is certainly appreciated by the Giants.

More new players to learn. The Giants signed guard Andrew Bain (Miami) guard Camell Stewart (LSU), center Digger Bujnoch of (Cincinnati…wait, someone other than Digger Phelps is called Digger?) , tackle Dylan Thiry (Northwestern), defensive tackles: Joshua Muse (Lousiania Tech) and Ogemdi Nwagbuo (Mich. St.).

Also the Giants released practice squad players Andrew Shanle (DB) and Marcus Freeman (TE).

With consecutive picks, at No. 198 and 199, the Giants completed their draft by taking quarterback Andre’ Woodson of Kentucky, and defensive end Robert Henderson from Southern Miss.

UPDATE, 6:13 p.m.

Some quick scouting reports on the two sixth-rounders:

Andre’ Woodson (198 overall), QB, Kentucky, 6-5, 224 pounds: Woodson red-shirted at Kentucky in 2003, when current Giants QB Jared Lorenzen was the starter there. Only Lorenzen had more career passing yardage than Woodson’s 9,360 in school history. Woodson’s season began in the conversation of Heisman hopefuls, but it tailed off. Yet he had 3,709 yards, 40 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions in ‘07. Giants coach Tom Coughlin called him “too good a football player” to not have taken.

Robert Henderson (199 overall), DE, Southern Miss. 6-3, 278 pounds: Giants GM Jerry Reese calls him a “size-speed defensive end … a developmental type of kid … he has some things to develop that we like about him. He’s a big thick guy with some athletic ability. We think he can develop into something for us in a year or two.” The Giants may have improved on their main strength with this pick.

With their fifth-round pick (165 overall) the Giants added a second linebacker, Jonathan Goff of Vanderbilt.

Goff plays in the middle, goes 6-2, 245. He led Vandy in tackles in each of the last two seasons, with 93 in 2006 and 113 in 2007. He was also a two-time team captain who had a chance to leave for the NFL last year and decided to stay. He led Vandy to the 16th-best  defense in the nation in ‘07.

The All-America honorable mention is a good student and, it would seem, the complete opposite type of character of earlier pick Mario Manningham. No questions or gambles here.

The Giants just traded up in the fourth round, moving from 130 to Pittsburgh’s 123rd pick, and took outside linebacker Bryan Kehl out of BYU.

Kehl, a 6-2, 242-pounder played 48 games, 26 starts, and made 205 tackles (108 solo) with seven sacks, three picks and a blocked punt.

The Giants dealt their fourth-rounder and one of their three sixth-round picks (the first) to the Steelers in order to get Kehl.

PS, the Red Bulls are playing here this afternoon. Should I post updates? … “0-0” … “Still 0-0” …  “Still 0-0” … Hope there’s no traffic jam getting out of here.

UPDATE: OK, this one is a gamble. Maybe a big gamble.

With their third-round pick, the Giants selected WR Mario Manningham from Michigan, and Jerry Reese—and many others—think the only reason he was available this late was his character.

Manningham, whose middle name is Cashmere, admitted to NFL executives at the combine that he had not been “straightforward” with them regarding his past marijuana use, according to Pro Football Weekly early this month. He initially denied he had twice tested positive for marijuana, when questioned. He also reportedly bombed on a Wonderlic test used to evaluate intelligence.

There were also questions about his effort and focus, and an unexplained one-game suspension at Michigan last season.

Giants GM Jerry Reese just said that, as simple and easy (“clean” is the word he had used) it was to draft a high-character player like Kenny Phillips in the first round, the Giants did a lot of research and homework on Manningham, and are convinced he will understand the dire consequences if he messes up at this level.

The Giants had a similar situation with running back Ahmad Bradshaw last year, and were happy with the way he panned out.

Reese said that, if not for the character issues, Manningham could have been a first-rounder in a draft where no receiver went in the first round. He also said that there are players with issues whom the Giants scratch completely off their draft board, and that indicates that they don’t believe Manningham is as big a gamble as he could be seen to be.

Manningham is a home run threat, and although he left Michigan after his junior season, he is NFL ready. Reese said he could also become the team’s punt returner.

Welcome to Day 2 of the NFL draft on this dreary, wet Sunday.

By the way, you gotta love the new, shorter version of the draft. With fewer minutes between picks in all rounds, the first two went surprisingly quickly and smoothly yesterday, and today’s marathon should relatively breeze by.

Until then, here is my story from The Journal News today. I also wrote a sidebar on the unchanged Shockey situation.

Kevin Devaney wrote about New Rochelle’s Ray Rice, who was picked in the second round by Baltimore (a great get by the Ravens).

And yesterday Sam Borden had his take on the draft, which he apparently dislikes.

Finally … I know this is a Giants blog, but if you have any interest in the other tenant of Giants Stadium, here is Jane McManus’s story on the Jets’ first two picks.

Jeremy Shockey is still a Giant.

Giants GM Jerry Reese, just minutes after making Kenny Phillips the champs’ first-round pick, was asked a question about Shockey and became annoyed.
“Can we talk about our draft pick?” he said.

Reese then said, “Jeremy Shockey’s our starting tight end … and I’m going to leave it at that, OK? … really that’s the end of the story.”

Well, maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t.

Coach Tom Coughlin sounded a lot like Reese when he was asked about Shockey.

“Jeremy Shockey is our starting tight end and that’s the way it is,” Coughlin said. “Despite all that has been said and what have you, as I stand here right now he is our starting tight end.”

But it’s obvious there were discussions about Shockey, with New Orleans in the mix according to reports.

When asked if a trade of Shockey ever got close to being done, Coughlin, who hasn’t recently spoken to the tight end, said, “I don’t know that. There has been a lot of talk, very litle activity.”

That doesn’t mean it’s a dead issue as we head into the second day of the draft, and beyond.

“There is so much that goes on with regard to the draft in terms of picks and players that you learn over the years that the discussions come and go,” Coughlin said. “Whether there is any seriousness to them, that’s probably for someone else to say. These conversations are made all the time. The phone does ring. This has been reported in the paoer. There have been comments about it and I don’t really have anything else to say other than the fact that Jeremy Shockey, while a New York Giant, while playing in our program, has worked very hard. He has done a good job in mentoring, if you will, a lot of these young guys that had to come through and play for us this year, and he has outstanding ability, as you all know, and there is no change in that status as of right now.”

Sorry for the delay. Things happen pretty quickly after the first round ends. We had Phillips on the phone, then Coughlin, Jerry Reese and Marc Ross press conferences, and deadlines on stories for the paper, including one on Jeremy Shockey still being a Giant.

Anyway, the Giants went defense/defense, actually defensive-back/defensive-back with their two picks today, selecting Terrell Thomas, a corner from USC, with the 63rd pick overall.

Marc Ross, the Giants’ director of college scouting  insisted the Giants didn’t go into round thinking “need.”

“We’re happy we got two good football players,” Ross said. “We didn’t go in saying ‘We’ve got to take two defensive guys or two offensive guys.’ We went in and stuck with our board and we took two football players we really liked. We didn’t have a gameplan in mind of what positions or what side of the ball. It was ‘Let’s get good football players.’
“We don’t draft like that, by need. That’s when you get hurt, when you say ‘We need this, we need to take a corner, we need to take this.’ How the board falls and how we have them stacked, that’s how we take ‘em.”
They also got versatility, which the Giants obviously have at other positions, i.e. linebacker and defensive line — guys who could play elsewhere, too.
Phillips could play either safety position, or corner, and the Giants will have to decide which safety spot best suits him, and Thomas could play safety, too, although Ross said definitively that he was drafted to be a corner.
Thomas is probably more NFL-ready, too, having played through his senior year on a national powerhouse at Southern Cal, while Phillips spent three seasons on a down Miami program, and is a younger player, having skipped his senior year to enter the draft.
“There’s a lot of things to like about Kenny Phillips,” GM Reese said. “We like his size (6-2, 213), we like his speed, he’s multi-dimensional.
“We think he can go down and play on (the opponents’) third receiver if he has to. He’s smart. He’s a good person. We like all that stuff about him. … Nothing but upside for this guy.”

Here’s a quick scouting report on Thomas:

Terrell Thomas (63rd overall), CB, USC, 6-1, 198 pounds: Considered one of the top “lock-down” cornerbacks in college football, and a force against the run, scouts think Thomas could switch to free safety, although the Giants said they drafted him to be a corner. The downside here is that Thomas’s aggressive style has resulted in injuries. He has had surgery on both shoulders and his right knee. Thomas was a tailback, also, in high school at Ranch Cucamonga in California. Thomas started 28 times in 39 career games at Southern California. He had eight picks, three forced fumbles, three recoveries and 109 tackles (78 solo).