The New York Giants held the 10th overall selection in the 2016 NFL draft. They had their eye on several players they felt may fall to them: Offensive tackle Jack Conklin of Michigan State and Georgia outside linebacker Leonard Floyd were two of them.
Unfortunately, due to some crafty maneuvers by the two teams directly in front of them, they were aced out of both players. That left general manager Jerry Reese in a lurch. Running out of time, he reached for Ohio State cornerback Eli Apple — a player he could have gotten at least 10 picks later.
Every Giants fan knows Apple’s story. He was young and immature and not ready for the NFL. His tenure with the Giants was rocky and he was traded midseason 2018 to New Orleans. Since then, Apple has been with four other teams: Carolina, Cincinnati, Miami and, most recently, the Los Angeles Chargers.
A free agent again at 29, Apple’s options are dwindling. He likely will play again in this league but his odyssey has been anything but smooth, beginning with the Giants overdrafting him and thrusting him into the spotlight way before he was ready.
In a recent interview with Kyle Odegard of ReadWrite, Apple discussed his less-than-ideal indoctrination into the NFL with the Giants.
Apple on trying to be ‘Superman’ to his friends and family after getting drafted top-10
“Being a young guy coming in, you try to balance everything, and you try to play Superman,” Apple said in our Q&A. “Sometimes it’s tough. You have to leave people where they are, because you can’t save everybody. That was my mistake, trying to do too much. And then a lot of stuff with my family ended up becoming public, and it unraveled. It played with my peace, played with my emotions. I think that ended up carrying out onto the field, not being able to focus.”
On reacting poorly to conflict
“I was such a young, hot-headed kid, and at different points I was feeling like a lot of the blame on how the season was going was kind of towards me. That was something I didn’t appreciate, and I was kind of defending myself a lot in those meetings. Outbursts happened. But it is what it is. It happened that way, and from there I grew.”
On if he wishes his Giants tenure would have gone differently
“I mean, of course, yeah. You wish you would have handled things differently. But I think the beauty of everything is not having regret, but learning from those mistakes and knowing you had to go through that to become who you are. I say that a lot. And I don’t really have any regrets, honestly. I think everything happened for a reason. I’m very thankful to get drafted by the Giants and get that opportunity. That was amazing. I learned a lot throughout that time about myself. I learned a lot about the people close to me, and I needed to go through what I went through to be where I am now, so I don’t have any regrets at all.”
On why getting traded was a good thing
“Chaotic is what I knew from being in the media storm of New York. So when I got to New Orleans, the media wasn’t as ruthless when I got out there. It was more calm for me. I was leaving a tornado, and I was coming into more of a family, more of a group of people that had more love and appreciation for what I brought to the table.”
Giant fans will always look back on the section of Apple as a major fail by management more than anything else. They got beat to the punch on Conklin and Floyd and then left several other viable players on the table such as Laremy Tunsil, Sheldon Rankins, Taylor Decker, Keanu Neal, and Ryan Kelly.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Eli Apple reflects on chaotic Giants career, ruthless New York media