Latest news with #Mbow
USA Today
11-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
New York Giants' Marcus Mbow prepared to play 'every position' along the OL
New York Giants' Marcus Mbow prepared to play 'every position' along the OL New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen has made fixing the offensive line a priority since he took over the job three years ago. He has tried everything to improve the line from using high draft picks to signing established veteran free agents. This year, Schoen went into free agency and basically whiffed and it wasn't until Day 3 of the 2025 NFL draft that he finally found what could be the key piece of the unit this year. Marcus Mbow of Purdue was selected with the 154th pick in the draft. He may be just what Schoen has been looking for. "He's a guy that we were a little bit surprised that he was there when we picked. We really liked his film," Schoen said two weeks ago after drafting Mbow. "He's another guy at the Senior Bowl that we got to spend some time with. "Really athletic player, has some position flexibility from tackle to guard. We think he can play both. Smart guy, finishes on film. You see him running down on the pulls and stuff. Super athletic. Excited about him." At rookie minicamp this weekend, Mbow was lining up at right tackle but once the full team convenes, we could see him line up all over the line until the Giants find the right fit. "I don't know a hundred percent," Mbow responded when asked where he felt he would end up. "I'll probably be moving everywhere, it's day two. Looking to see where it goes from there." Mbow, appears to be prepared to play anywhere he's needed. He has little preference. "Either way, I like to know every position on the line, like what each role is, no matter what's going on. Being able to play all positions would be better for myself at tackle or at guard or at center. Just being able to know everything, know what everybody's doing, I'll be good. I wouldn't say it's too stressful," he said. "All five," Mbow stressed a second time when asked about position preference. He's confident but not cocky. This is the NFL, after all. No one gets to the top without putting in the work. Mbow was asked what his current mindset is and if it will change once veterans return to the building. "For the most part, learn, learn, learn, learn. It's definitely not going to change when the veterans get here. I just want to continue to be the best version of myself each day and I want to be the best one day," he said. "I'm going to keep striving until I get to that one day and just learn as much as I can. Keep going each day." Versatility can only help both Mbow and the Giants.
USA Today
29-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
New York Giants thought they had to choose between Cam Skattebo and Marcus Mbow
New York Giants thought they had to choose between Cam Skattebo and Marcus Mbow When the New York Giants were on the clock in Round 4 on Day 3 of the 2025 NFL draft, general manager Joe Schoen had a choice to make, or so he thought. He decided on Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo at Pick No. 105 over several other players, including Purdue offensive lineman Marcus Mbow. When the Giants went to select in the next round at pick No. 154, Mbow was surprisingly still on the board. Schoen pounced. He never expected to land both Skattebo and Mbow. "Marcus Mbow, he's a guy that we were a little bit surprised that he was there when we picked. We really liked his film," Schoen told reporters after the conclusion of the draft. "He's another guy at the Senior Bowl that we got to spend some time with," Scheon added. "Really athletic player, has some position flexibility from tackle to guard. We think he can play both. Smart guy, finishes on film. You see him running down on the pulls and stuff. Super athletic. Excited about him." And they should be. Mbow was mocked as a possible Day 2 pick by many and should have been long gone before the fifth round. It was suggested that a late rumor of a medical issue might have caused Mbow to drop in the draft. Schoen shot that down. "No, and we look at all the medical, and that information is shared so you have an idea of what other teams have on guys," he said. "And no, it wasn't -- there were no real red flags from that standpoint. When you take these guys, sometimes you get texts from around the league from other personnel people or general managers if you took a guy they were going to take, and he's one that there were a lot of texts, just the value where we got him." The Giants won't complain. Mbow can play all three positions on the offensive line and play them all well. Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll said Mbow will be tried at both tackle and guard. It happens quite frequently in the draft. Teams panic and pass on players they shouldn't. The smart GMs with experience display more patience. Schoen appears to be growing into the job in his fourth draft with the Giants. He has been showing more patience and letting the other teams make the mistakes these days. "I'm not really sure what happened, but glad he was there. That happens sometimes in the fourth round," Schoen explained. "We liked guys in the past and we've been able to get them in the fifth that maybe we had in the fourth." The Giants and Schoen, after a rocky first two years, have seemed to master the art of drafting players the past two springs. The results are about to be on full display come the fall.
USA Today
27-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
New York Giants draftee Marcus Mbow lives for 'demoralizing people' on the field
New York Giants draftee Marcus Mbow lives for 'demoralizing people' on the field Back with my Dawg!!! Proud of him and his journey !! Great pick up 🦍 — TYRONE TRACY JR (@TyroneTracy) April 26, 2025 On Saturday afternoon, the New York Giants selected Purdue offensive lineman Marcus Mbow in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL draft. No pun intended, but it wasn't just a pick out of the blue. Mbow was recently in for a Top 30 visit plus the Giants got a close-up look at him at the Senior Bowl earlier this year. But, they also know him as a blocker for one of their picks from last year's draft, running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. The two played together with the Boilermakers in 2022 and 2023. "That's my guy," Mbow told reporters on Saturday. "We've been in touch a good amount throughout this process. I was talking to him earlier today, so I'm extremely excited to be back with him and ready to go put it back on the line for him for sure." Asked if he could block for Tracy, Mbow had no doubts. "I know I can block for him," he said. Mbow can play anywhere on the line and is confident that he will be able to fulfill any role the Giants ask of him. "No doubt," Mbow said when asked if knocking people over is something he cherished. "Putting people on the ground, winning reps, demoralizing people. It's always fun. It's definitely part of the reason I love the game." That's the sort of identity the Giants are striving for in 2025.
New York Post
27-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Giants draft versatile Marcus Mbow to boost offensive line
And on the third day, the Giants addressed their offensive line. It took until the 154th pick (fifth round) in the 2025 NFL Draft for general manager Joe Schoen to put in the card for Marcus Mbow, who has experience playing guard and right tackle during his four years at Purdue. He likely projects as a guard for the Giants and he adds a much-needed dose of youth and athleticism to the interior of the line. There were no major additions to the line in free agency this offseason, with the signings of James Hudson III and Stone Forsythe made to augment the depth chart at tackle. As it stands now, the starting guards are two returning veterans, Jon Runyan Jr. and Greg Van Roten. In reserve, there is Aaron Stinnie and possibly Evan Neal, the 2022 first-round pick (No. 7 overall) who has been a bust at right tackle and could be headed for a position change. Mbow was projected to go earlier, a projection he took to heart. Friday night, he had a draft party with family and friends at his house but 'things didn't work out,'' as he was not selected in the second or third round. A day later, it was a much smaller group poised for the call that came, eventually, from the Giants. Marcus Mbow, doing a running drill at the NFL Combine, was drafted in the fifth round by the Giants. AP 'It was a waiting game, but at the end of the day it doesn't really matter,'' a subdued-sounding Mbow said. 'Just got to do what you can with the opportunity you're given and go kill it.'' Mbow, a college teammate at Purdue of Giants running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. — taken in the fifth round last year — was limited to only six games in 2023 with a leg injury but started all 12 games — at right tackle — in 2024. This is the first offensive lineman taken by Schoen since center John Michael Schmitz in the second round in 2023. This is a pick that needs to hit, as the track record for offensive linemen is not strong. In 2022, in addition to picking Neal, the Giants also drafted Josh Ezeudu (third round) and Marcus McKethan (fifth round) and neither has done much — McKethan is no longer with the Giants and currently unsigned. Marcus Mbow talks with the media during the NFL Combine. Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images Mbow said: 'I feel like I'll be able to succeed at all five positions.'' He started working taking snaps as a center as part of his predraft regiment. At the Senior Bowl, he met with the Giants and together they watched tape of him in action. 'Going over it, seeing what I remembered, knocking people over, seeing movement, seeing athleticism,'' he said. Follow The Post's live coverage of the 2025 NFL Draft He liked the 'knocking people over'' part. 'No doubt,'' he said. 'Putting people on the ground, winning reps, demoralizing people. It's always fun. It's definitely part of the reason I love the game.''
New York Times
27-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Giants 2025 NFL Draft takeaways: The wait begins. When will Jaxson Dart be ready?
The silver lining to a horrible 2024 New York Giants season was that it set up a fascinating offseason buildup to the 2025 NFL Draft. The current regime, led by general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll, was put on notice by ownership. Fix this or … They needed, it seemed, to deliver big during the draft. Time will tell if that's what they did, but in terms of taking big swings to turn things around, Schoen and Daboll didn't disappoint. Advertisement It all started Day 1, with the Giants selecting Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter with the No. 3 pick before making a huge splash by trading back into the first round for Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart — the franchise's first QB selection since using the No. 6 pick on Daniel Jones in 2019. The Giants then tackled some of their biggest remaining needs, adding a new running mate for star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence in Darius Alexander, a potential future starter on the offensive line in Marcus Mbow and an intriguing playmaker who could quickly become a fan favorite in Cam Skattebo. 'Doesn't matter what I think, till we go out and do it,' Schoen said when asked how much better he thinks New York's roster is after the draft. 'Do I like the guys? Heck yeah. I like the makeup. I think they're wired the right way, the right DNA. I think we have the right people in this building, but it's up to us to really start to jell and develop who we want to be and what we want to be about.' Marcus Mbow had his draft party Friday night, so there was clearly an expectation that he'd be picked in the second or third rounds. The offensive lineman wasn't alone in that assumption, as The Athletic's draft expert Dane Brugler ranked Mbow No. 84 on his top-300 prospect list. However, Mbow fell to the Giants at No. 154 in the fifth round. 'It was a waiting game, but at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter,' said Mbow, who celebrated the moment with family at home. 'Just got to do what you can with the opportunity you're given and go kill it.' A potential reason for Mbow's fall was his medical history. According to Brugler's 'The Beast,' Mbow suffered a gruesome broken right leg (Oct. 2023) and missed the second half of his sophomore season. But Schoen admitted Saturday they were surprised Mbow was still available in the fifth round. They knew of no red flags that caused him to slide. The Giants, in fact, considered Mbow in the fourth round before they opted to go with running back Cam Skattebo at No. 105 instead. Advertisement But Mbow's slide could be extremely beneficial for the Giants, whose offensive line has struggled in recent years. While the team returns all of its starters from last season (left tackle Andrew Thomas, left guard Jon Runyan Jr., center John Michael Schmitz, right guard Greg Van Roten and right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor), there's room for a rookie to compete and take over. That's especially true at right guard, given Van Roten's age (35). In the mix with Mbow will be Aaron Stinnie, Josh Ezeudu, Jake Kubas and Evan Neal. Mbow played tackle and guard in college, and he's been working at center, as well, since his college season ended. 'I feel like I'll be able to succeed at all five positions,' Mbow said. 'Been working them all, and they all feel pretty good, so I'm excited to see where they want me.' It's not surprising the Giants traded back into the first round for a quarterback. That gambit was talked about a lot leading up to the draft. It also wasn't too wild the Giants ended up taking Dart, a QB the Giants seemed to grow fond of during the pre-draft process. No, the most surprising part of this whole thing was that the Giants twice passed on the chance to draft Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders, whom most believed to be the QB2 in this year's class. But the Giants' selection of Dart made him the second quarterback taken, and it officially kicked off Sanders' historic slide. Really, the surprise was just how swiftly the QB marketplace seemed to change and the role the Giants played in that. 'We went through an extensive process, and we moved up for Jaxson,' Schoen said. 'Again, we're fired up to have him. But at the end of the day, when we went through the process and we ranked them, this is how we had them ranked, and Jaxson, we felt the value matched up with where we saw the player.' Since Jones was benched last November, the future of the Giants' quarterback position has been the most dominant storyline in New York. Dart's selection doesn't quiet that discussion; it merely changes the nature of it. Now it's: How long until Dart is ready to take over? It's obviously way too early to say if Dart will find long-term success as the successor to Jones. But his selection alone has invigorated the fan base with the idea of change. Advertisement But as to the question of when he'll be ready, everything scouting reports said about Dart, and everything the Giants have said so far, indicates he'll need some time to develop. In that regard, New York is a good fit, as Dart won't be pressed into action right away. He can sit behind veterans Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston to start the season. Daboll will then get the time to develop Dart, and we'll see if the coach can replicate the success he had with QB Josh Allen in Buffalo. You do have to wonder, though, as Schoen and Daboll enter their fourth season at the helm and are coming off a combined 9-25 record over the last two seasons, how much pressure will they be under to show Dart's progress if things turn south early on? If Dart's forced onto the field early, will he truly be ready? Give the Giants credit: They addressed a lot of their glaring needs in the draft even after picking an edge rusher, a spot they were already set at, with their first selection. While there's not really an immediate need for a new starter at any spot, the Giants could use quality depth across the board, but especially at inside linebacker. Micah McFadden and Bobby Okereke return as the inside linebacker starters, and Darius Musau showed some flash as a rookie. But the Giants still brought in free agents Chris Board and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, so adding some young top talent here in the future could be interesting to ponder. Wide receiver is another position that could use some reinforcements despite having rising star Malik Nabers on the depth chart. They brought back Darius Slayton and Wan'Dale Robinson is a solid slot option, but if there are injuries to any of those three, there's not much beyond them. It's too early to provide a win-loss prediction, but they certainly look a lot better on paper than the 3-14 mess they were last year, especially on defense. For all of the attention the quarterback situation gets, the Giants have been somewhat quietly building a strong defense this offseason. And they needed to. 'Quite frankly, I didn't think our defense played very well this year at all,' team co-owner John Mara said immediately after the season. Advertisement Schoen heard him loud and clear and set about trying to fix the issue. We'll see if all the investment this offseason does indeed result in a better defensive performance, but the pieces are there, so that it should be this team's strong suit, no matter what happens with the offense. (Photo of John Mara, Joe Schoen, Jaxson Dart and Brian Daboll: Thomas Salus / Imagn Images)
