Roster rundown

The roster as issued following cut down day on Saturday has some real interesting underlying principles and some might say some peculiar characteristics. First, while it's really unfortunate that Will Johnson got put on IR and the Giants do not have a legitimate complete TE on the roster --- Tye can catch and run after the catch but can't block at all; Donnell can catch, catch in traffic but can't run after the catch or block much; and Adams, the rookie can block but can't catch. I think long term, Adams will come along and may become the starter at TE, whether that happens this year or next year is entirely predicated on how much progress he makes. But, regardless of how the team got here, if it's 2nd and 5 and Giants want to run a power two-TE formation without completely giving away that it's a run by putting an extra OL-man out there, they really don't have a good option. This may be one reason why I think that one of the things to go by the boards from the Coughlin era is the 50-50 run-pass balance that TC always preached. I think we will be passing more than running this year.

The roster seems unbalanced - how does the team go into the season with 8 LBs and only 8 OL-men and the aforementioned 3 TEs/FBs. Typically on game day, the team may dress only 8 OL-men, but there are generally 9 or sometimes even 10 on the final 53 roster. You definitely need more TE/FBs and OL-men. I will not be surprised if one of these LBs get cut when/if a decent OL-man or TE becomes available. (NOTE: while writing this post, I just noticed that Giants cut Brinkley and signed Josh Johnson as QB. This is not done - Giants will cut one of these backup QBs and strengthen the roster elsewhere.) 

The other interesting thing about the roster is that there are no "made-men" (mafia reference) on the roster anymore. It used to be that if you were a recent draft choice or were a favorite of the organization, e.g. BC or ND alum, you had special status and would stay on the team at least a couple of years. Not this year. Andre Williams, Geremy Davis and Cooper Taylor all fit this category and were all cut. Andre Williams had an opportunity to win a job and just didn't show enough improvement. They must really not have liked what he showed, because he got beaten out both by Darkwa and Rainey. I speculated in my last post that Darkwa would beat out Williams if the Giants carried 4 RBs; and I flat out assumed that Rainey would also be gone. The fact that they are carrying five RBs and STILL could not find a place for Williams shows how much he has fallen.

At WR, Geremy Davis didn't lose the job like Williams did as much as Lewis and King just took it away. They both played really well, showed talent and just simply beat him out for a job. Frankly, King right now looks like he might be in better shape and more productive than Cruz. Of course Cruz has the history and pedigree, so Giants will get him on the field, but don't be surprised if King gets into the mix, especially if Giants go to 4 WR sets.

McAdoo said that he wants to put the "best 53" on the roster. I think he was true to that philosophy and he took the best 53 even if it resulted in some imbalance in certain units on the roster. 

Giants just HAVE to find a competent OL-man to add to this group. Now that they have cut one LB, perhaps the loser in the backup QB competition is the one to go.