Giants may not have the best 22-man set of starters in the NFL, but I contend that they have the best 53 man roster. More particularly, for example - if you compare our starters to Cowboy starters on offense (excluding the qb, I'll get to that later) it's probably true that few Giants starters would start on the Cowboys. Our best OL-man is probably Snee and he happens to play the same position as Leonard Davis, the huge G that Cowboys converted from T when they signed him from Arizona. Giants C O'Hara is very good, but Cowboy's C Gurdoe is a probowl player. Diehl plays his heart out at LT but gave up more sacks last year than any other LT in football. Owens vs. Burress - I love Burress, but TO is better. At TE Witten is far better than Boss. At the other WR Toomer is probably better than whoever they start, but is certainly not a star himself. At RB, Jacobs is very good but Marion Barber is a better player. So - of the 10 starters excluding qb, they are probably superior at 7 or 8 positions. But here's where the depth of the roster comes in to play: if TO, Marion Barber or Flozell Adams goes out with an injury, their offense declines greatly. On the other hand, if our starting RT, star WR AND his replacement get injured/suspended as they did this past Sunday, Giants go out and hang 44 on a team that made the playoffs last year and most picked to win their division this year.
Of course unspoken in all this is the great equalizer: the qb position. I cannot say that Eli is the best qb in football right now. (I can say it and I believe it, but others could argue against it.) But I can say this - I would not trade him for any qb in football. For one game, Brady or Peyton may be better. Maybe Carson Plamer throws a prettier ball or Drew Brees is more productive right now. But when you consider what he has accomplished at such a young age, when you further consider that he is getting better each game, and when you consider how young he is - when all is said and done, we may be looking at the growth of one of the best qbs to ever play the game. Watching how he has continued to grow from last year, I can say without hesitation that I expect him to win 1 or 2 more rings for us in the next 5-6 years. Of course, Dan Marino made the Super Bowl his rookie year with the Dolphins and never got close again, so maybe that is presumptuous of me to say. But - I just have a pretty good feeling about this kid.
Just so you don't think I'm crazy, take a look at this:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/081007&sportCat=nfl
No comments:
Post a Comment