In the first round of the 2007 NFL Draft, the New York Giants selected cornerback Aaron Ross out of Texas.
Although Ross never developed into an elite shutdown corner, he played well enough to make an impact and held tough in a Super Bowl XLII upset of the New England Patriots.
Ross would go on to win a second title with the Giants just four years later.
However, in a 2007 NFL re-draft courtesy of Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport, Ross goes undrafted and the Giants instead select defensive tackle Paul Soliai out of Utah.
Paul Soliai was never much of a pass-rusher. He had 5.5 career sacks over 10 years in the NFL. In fact, he wasn’t a statistically impactful player at all. He never had even 40 stops in a season.
But the impact a 344-pound defensive tackle can make shows up more on film than in the box score.
That Soliai’s lone Pro Bowl season came in 2011 feels fitting. I hear that was a good year for the Giants, too.
The choice of Soliai is an interesting one because it not only prevents the Giants from addressing a need at cornerback, it also leaves Soliai far down on the depth chart behind the likes of Fred Robbins, Barry Cofield and Jay Alford, who you might recall came up big in Super Bowl XLII.
Additionally, the Giants frequently ran what was called a “NASCAR” defense under coordinator Steve Spagnuolo at the time, which featured Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora and either Cofield or Mathias Kiwanuka along the line. Needless to say, Soliai would not have factored in.
In this case, the Giants would be best suited sticking with Ross or taking another available cornerback.
