Giants: Nicks signs, players report

Hakeem Nicks Signs

Hakeem Nicks, Giants first round draft choice that showed so much promise in the off season conditioning program and organized team activities this spring signed with the Giants late Saturday night. He reported today, Sunday and will be ready to go when practice begins tomorrow Monday August 3rd. With the departure of both starting WRs from last year's team, the WR position is wide open. The top 6 WRs will probably make the team, but fighting for playing time and finding someone who will emerge as a deep threat is very important for the players in this unit. Giants have not had a great track record with rookie WRs in the last several years. Moss and Manningham missed a lot of time their rookie years and in the case of Moss did not get on the field much in the succeeding years. The one rookie WR who did have an impact in his rookie year was Steve Smith, but he missed 11 games in the Superbowl year of 2007, before coming on and having a big impact in the last few games of the the year and in the playoffs. It was particularly important for Nicks to get in on time, to avoid the injury bug that has hit the Giants WRs in the last few years and to compete for playing time.

Nicks showed the ability to go deep in the spring practice and Giants coaches are very high on him. If Nicks or Barden really steps up and shows ability to succeed early on, maybe Moss becomes trade bait. A few years ago, the Giants traded Ryan Grant to the Packers when he showed real ability, but the Giants were overstocked at RB with Jacobs, Bradshaw and Ward. Maybe the same situation exists at WR, if Nicks and/or Barden really show something. You'd like to carry 6 WRs on the team, but rarely more than 5 get any quality playing time. We'll see.