28 Nov 1999: Cedric Jones #94 of the New York Giants hits Dave Brown #17 of the Arizona Cardinals during the game at the Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Cardinals defeated the Giants 34-24. Mandatory Credit: Al Bello /Allsport

The 1990s was somewhat of a lost decade for the New York Giants. After winning the Super Bowl to open the era, things gradually fell apart.

Bill Parcells left. Lawrence Taylor retired. Much of the old guard was gone and there weren’t a lot of guys able to step in and fill that void. Michael Strahan did arrive but he was only one man. Great as he was, he wouldn’t be able to pull the team out of the sinking quagmire by himself. As time went on it became apparent that the magic touch the franchise seemed to have in the draft had steadily begun to dry up with things reaching a low point in 1996.

Pressure was on the organization that year. They hadn’t made the playoffs since 1993 and head coach Dan Reeves was no doubt feeling the need to win. According to former team scout Greg Gabriel, this led to things getting contentious between his coaching staff and the scouting department in regards to roster composition.

Things came to a head that year. During preparations for the draft, Reeves made a hard push for the team to consider Oklahoma defensive end Cedric Jones. Gabriel and the scouts much preferred Simeon Rice out of Illinois. They believed he could make a perfect compliment to Strahan on the defensive front. Fast forward to the draft, and no consensus decision had been made. The front office merely assumed they’d get their way and snag one of their four preferred players.

They had the #5 pick after all. Gabriel soon learned a valuable lesson. Never expect the draft to bend to your expectations.

Giants got caught with their pants down after top four picks

What happened next can be attributed to two things. Bad luck and bad preparation. Luck in that the four players New York coveted were taken in the first four picks. As for the preparation? Gabriel explained exactly how things went so wrong and how unprepared they were for it.

“As the draft began, the Jets selected Keyshawn Johnson with the first overall pick. A few minutes later, Jacksonville selected Kevin Hardy at No. 2. Next up, Arizona promptly took Rice, our favorite player. Now, Baltimore was up and Johnathan Ogden was still there. While Rice was the player we wanted, Ogden was rated as the best player on our board. With Baltimore on the clock, we felt confident Phillips would be the pick, leaving Ogden for us. As I stated above, Newsome was not going to take a risky player with his first-ever draft pick and he went against Modell’s wishes, selecting Ogden. We were now on the clock and the four players we wanted were gone — we didn’t have a player to draft. In our preparations, we never thought about another player to take if the top four were gone. We had briefly talked about Jones, but not to the extent of the other players. Yes, we had failed to do our due diligence.”

Jones ended up playing just five seasons in the NFL. During that time, he amassed 15 sacks. By contrast, the player they’d wanted all along in Rice had more than that (16.5) in his fourth season alone. Rice went on to three Pro Bowls and retired with 122 sacks and a Super Bowl ring alongside eventual teammate Johnson. Ogden? He helped the Baltimore Ravens crush the Giants in the Super Bowl four years later.

All of their misery be it losing or playoff disappointment can be traced back to that badly mishandled draft in 1996.