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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
John Fennelly

Giants were only team Julian Love didn’t meet during 2019 pre-draft process

New York Giants safety Julian Love has been making the rounds on the talk show circuit this week and causing quite a stir with his comments regarding Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni.

“He’s a guy who really is doing a good job because he’s not getting in the way of his team,” Love said on Thursday. “He has an experienced roster from top to bottom — offense, defense.”

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Then Love hit hard with his follow-up when asked about Sirianni’s sideline reaction during the Eagles’ 38-7 blowout win over the Giants in the playoffs two weeks ago.

“I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all,” Love said. “He’s in for a free ride right now. You guys can coach this team.”

That naturally sent ripples throughout the football world and Love, about to become a free agent, might have cost himself a few opportunities. The Giants apparently want him back — cost permitting — but this won’t be the first time Love has been an afterthought.

The former Notre Dame star was passed up repeatedly in the 2019 NFL draft finally getting selected by the Giants with the 108th overall pick in Round 4.

Ironically, the Giants were the one team that did not meet with Love during the predraft process.

“I did not think I was going to the Giants,” Love told the crew at Good Morning Football. “I talked to 31 teams — the combine interviews, the informal interviews — 31 teams. The one team I didn’t talk to was the Giants.

“I must have been saying something wrong in these interviews, obviously, because the one team I didn’t talk to, well, it wasn’t working out.

“I thought I’d be a Day 2 guy. You’re waiting, there’s a lot of stress. It’s all relative because being drafted is a blessing no matter where you’re at. I ended up with the Giants. Got a call from a 201 area code. I saw Jersey. I didn’t know — ‘Who’s in Jersey – the Jets?’ And it was the New York Giants.”

Love, who will be 25 next month, led the Giants in tackles this past season and has been improving each year he’s been with the club. He is on the long ‘to-do’ list of Giants general manager Joe Schoen this offseason.

“He’s a guy … that we talked to in the bye week. And we weren’t able to get something done with Julian,” Schoen told reporters after the season. “Julian knows how we feel about him. We had a good exit interview with him yesterday. Again, as we start to get into the offseason planning, we’ll talk to the coaches. We’ll see where he fits in. And if we can get something done, that’ll be good.”

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