Pro Football Focus did an interesting second-guessing exercise
on the draft, selecting a few teams they believe made the wrong pick in the first round and naming the players they believe those teams should have taken instead. They believe the New York Giants should have selected cornerback William Jackson III instead of cornerback Eli Apple.
If you click on that link (and have Insider access), you'll see that the PFF critique has to do with scheme fit and their own evaluation of Jackson as the superior prospect to Apple. On the latter, I think you have to chalk up the pick to subjectivity. The Giants liked Apple due to his age (still only 20, a couple of years younger than Jackson), his size (6-foot-1, 199 pounds as compared to Jackson's 6-0, 189) and his big-school pedigree (Ohio State versus Houston, in this case). They looked at Jackson and had him in for a pre-draft visit, but Apple was the higher player on their board, and you know the Giants lean on their scouts.
What's more interesting to me is whether the Giants should have traded down knowing they could have had either Jackson or Apple later in the first round and picked up an extra pick along the way. Jackson lasted until the Bengals at No. 24. Giants general manager Jerry Reese said he got one offer for the No. 10 pick and didn't like it, but the fact remains that Reese has never once traded down in 10 drafts since becoming the Giants' GM. He's never had an offer he liked for a pick.
Without getting into the comparison of Apple versus Jackson as players, it's worth wondering whether Jackson would have been the better pick for the Giants because he might have brought with him more value. But that gets again to the issue of the Giants' draft methods -- not which player will be better. That, with all due respect to PFF and the stellar work they do, is something none of us can know at this point for certain.