Giants: off season continues

Chase Blackburn had a great late season and post season run, playing solid middle LB and coming up with several huge turnovers. Recall that he was sitting home without a football job, signed with the Giants on a Tuesday, was in the starting lineup the following Sunday and made a big INT of Rodgers of the Packers in his first game back. He also made a big fumble recovery and return in the conference championship game against those same Packers, a play which really iced the game for the Giants. It turned a 2 score lead into an insurmountable 4th quarter 17 point lead. Of course he also made a big INT of Brady in the Super Bowl taking the ball away from Gronkowski in what could have been a TD for the Patriots if Brady had not underthrown the ball badly After that significant contribution, it says a lot about the Giants evaluation of their own players that they did not rush out to sign Blackburn (or Goff)  to play MLB. It indicates that the Giants are calculating and objective (some night say cold) in judging talent. They are not swept away by the emotions of the moment and instead realize that you can't elevate your assessment of the players in the post title euphoria. Blackburn is a solid player and a good special teams player, but is not a dominant player in the middle of the defense. He has not received any offers from other teams, so it looks like the Giants judgment is consistent with the rest of the league. Goff also looked like a decent player in 2010 but missed the entire 2011 season due to an ACL injury. Giants will surely wait to see who they may get in the draft before they make an offer to resign one ro both of these players, but in addition to draft and FA additions, I think it shows how highly the Giants think of last year's rookie daft LB class. They are very high on Herzlich and Williams. They also like Greg Jones and Paysinger, but they think Herzlich and Williams could be star players at the position. If so, there is no need to make a commitment to Blackburn and Goff. Another indicator that the Giants may not be interested in Blackburn is that he is at the very least a good ST player and Giants have been adding under-the-radar FAs as ST players.

Very often, the draft experts do not forecast the Giants picks correct, largely because they don't focus in on the Giants draft strategy. Draft experts tend to focus on needs that each team has and assume that the team will try to fill those needs in the draft. Giants however have several principles for their draft and one of them is: "never bring your depth chart into the draft room". You don't satisfy your needs with 1st or even 2nd round draft choices, you go for the best player you can find. If there are roughly equivalent players at two different positions and one is a player that fills a need, then you can use the need to influence your pick. But you never reach down to a player that is not first or second round talent to plug a hole in the roster. Sometimes you get lucky and find a top player that also fills a need, like the Giants did a few years ago when Hakeem Nicks was available when the Giants drafted in the first round. If the Giants had compromised this important drafting principle, they would not have ended up with JPP or Kiwanuka, two DEs drafted on a DE-rich team. These players are key contributors to making the Giants defense as good as it is.

When you get to later rounds in the draft, position can become a more important influence, because the lower round players tend to bunch together more in talent and there is less to separate one player from the next. Consequently, you may see the Giants draft on the OL or a RB past the 2nd round, this year which are positions of need. But these later round picks tend to be less impactful on the team, since the studs at OL, especially at LT tend to go in the first round.

More on Giants draft strategy in later posts

2011 Free Agency - Cap Casualties

With the lockout over, as has been reported everywhere, this will be a very active period of time in terms of player movement and transactions. Three years worth of FA's are being accelerated into one year and the period of time to sign these players is compressed from about 4 months down to a few days. Because the player's end of the defined revenue pool dropped to 47% in the new CBA, the salary cap actually dropped this year from what it was in 2009. (2010 was an uncapped year because of the opt out by the NFL owners.) Giants have a bunch of free agents, and were over the salary cap and had to release a bunch of OL-men.

Seubert and O'Hara are the two best C's on the OL, but both are aging, coming off significant injuries, consume a fair amount of cap room and there was no way they could be retained. Shawn Andrews, while he looked good when he was on the field last year, was far from a guarantee to remain healthy with his chronic back issues and he would not accept a restructure of his contract, so he will be released. Same is true with Rocky Bernard, who will be cut. (Bernard is probably the only real bust FA signing of the Jerry Reese era.) Giants drafted two DTs in the second round of the last two drafts in Linval Joseph and Marvin Austin and it stands to reason that they will have to play and make a contribution this year along side of Chris Canty.

There was a report both on ESPN and in the Sacramento Bee that the Giants had come to an agreement with the very fine C/G of the 49ers, David Baas. On the one hand, the OL has been a very stable, very consistent unit for the Giants over the last several years. But there is also no doubt that they have declined somewhat over the last few years and it is time to make them younger, more athletic and better. Baas will surely play C and the right side of the OL seems set with Snee and MacKenzie. But the left side could see some change. Petrus, Beatty and Diehl will probably occupy the two slots. If Diehl keeps his LT position, perhaps Petrus starts at G. If Beatty outplays Diehl at LT, maybe Diehl slides into the LG position.
It is a real question about what to do at RB. It sure looks like the Giants are making a strong play for Bradshaw, by making all the cuts and by trying to renegotiate Brandon Jacobs' contract to free up even more space. They might be able to make a deal with Steve Smith, because teams will be reluctant to make him an offer coming off knee surgery. I still say that while it is a nice emotional story, it makes very little sense for the Giants to go after Plaxico. They have lots of weapons at WR - Manningham, Nicks, Smith (if he is retained), Barden, Hixon, draftee Jernigan and lots of other talent in Clayton, Hagan and Cruz. GiantS should not invest in Plaxico and instead should find themselves a LB. If Smith comes back, it is completely stupid to re-sign Burress, but even if Smith does not come back, it seems like a waste.

Giants: defensive philosphy

All the analysts were twittering, protesting and criticizing the fact that the Giants did not take a MLB in the 2nd round, especially when Sean Lee from Penn State (AKA Line Backer University) was available for the taking. Instead, the Giants took Linval Joseph, DT from East Carolina University. Giants did not take a LB on the 3rd round either and waited until round 4 to take ILB Dillard. Again, moans and whines from the experts who wrote columns complaining that the Giants did not know what they were doing by not filling the MLB role until so late in the draft.

I think this move reveals something about the draft philosophy of the Giants, but more so about the philosophy the Giants have in building a defense. As far as the draft itself, the Giants had very high grades on Joseph, ranking him as a first round talent. They rarely will sacrifice value for need and did not have Lee ranked as high as Joseph. The mantra that describes the Giants philosophy is "Never take your depth chart into the draft room". If you have a chance to take a top player, you take him (almost) regardless of need. If Joseph and Pierre-Paul are as good as the Giants think they are, they could anchor the Giants DL for 10 years.

More important though, one of the Giants philosophies in drafting is positional upgrades of talent. In other words, DE is a more important position than, for example G. So if there is a G that has grades roughly equal to a DE within his position, the Giants will rank the DE higher because it is a more critical position. Giants will be even more strict about the value/need philosophy in the early rounds and may be a little more flexible, weighing need a bit more in the later rounds. Based on this position-importance approach, IMHO the Giants have lowered the value of MLBs in their charting of defensive values. Here's why: If the modern day offense is reliant on passing more than running, you build an offense with QBs, a strong OL to protect him and WRs who can be deep threats. In this model of the offense, the RB is actually somewhat diminished in value. It's not that you don't need RBs; obviously you need them. If the offense does not have balance or is one dimensional, it is much easier for defenses to prepare and to stifle them. However, if you have a great OL, even a good RB can be productive enough to balance out the attack. Furthermore, if you have a great RB, he will be undermined by a poor OL. For the running game - the OL is the foundation more than the RB. As a consequence, the defense has to be built to stop these pass-oriented offenses. This means that the DL /pass rush, and CBs are the most important positions on the defense to handle that passing attack. But I think what is less obvious, but is evident in the Giants off season FA moves and drafting philosophy is that LBs are of lesser importance and the S position has actually displaced the LB somewhat and been elevated in importance to the defense. The converse of: "you don't need a great RB to play behind a great OL - a good one will do just as well"; is: "you don't need a great LB to play behind a great DL - a good one will do just as well". If you can keep the LBs clear by having strong DTs and great DEs occupying the OL, the LBs, even average ones, are free to make plays. Moreover, every team in the league uses S to drop down "in the box", i.e. close to the line of scrimmage, to help stop the run. The S has become like an adjunct LB and the LB is eroded in value. On passing downs, when so many offenses use 4 and even 5 WR sets, the S is often forced to play man-to-man pass coverage, further increasing his value relative to the LB. Take a look at how Rex Ryan used his DBs and S on defense, keeping 6 or even 7 in the game often and not being afraid to blitz them from any angle. It is effective - they are faster and more elusive than LBs and the OL has less of an idea of where they might be coming from and who might be blitzing. This further devalues the LBs who used to be the prime blitzers on defense, and places more importance on S. Giants, of course, signed two safeties in the off season and drafted one in the 3rd round (ahead of a LB), strongly signalling how they plan to build their defense.

I think this also signals how they evaluate their DTs - which is not very high. Alford is coming off an injury and has to be considered a question mark. Cofield had a mediocre year partly because it was his first year back after off season knee surgery. Canty was injured, missing about half the season and was invisible when he did play. Rocky Bernard was also invisible. So the pick of Joseph was both a value and a need pick. If last year's under-performers come back strong, particularly Alford and Canty, then the Giants will have a strong DT rotation.

As another result of the above estimation of value of LBs, maybe we can take another look at Antonio Pierce's Giants career and estimate how good a player he really was. My assertion is that Pierce was a slightly-above-average athletic talent who got the most out of his natural ability because: 1) he was highly motivated 2) he was a great film studier and reader of defenses and 3) he had a very high football IQ. When you think back to the impact plays Pierce made, most were cerebral plays and positioning, rather than speed or strength. Everyone noticed that his play declined last year, but maybe that was a result of the declining play of the DL as much as it was of his decline. Pierce played well when the DL in front of him was strong and he could make plays. When the DL slipped, so did Pierce. He was as much a product of the system as he was a big time impact player. The biggest play I remember Pierce making in the 2007 Superbowl run was the great play he made stopping a screen pass in Green Bay in the conference championship game. Green Bay had 3 blockers set up in front of the RB and had a clear field with maybe 1 or 2 DBs down field. This play had TD written all over it. Pierce read the play and attacked from an angle, slipping in between two of the blockers and holding up the RB until the defense could swarm over and help make the stop. It was a great read by Pierce, it took a perfect angle to attack the play and it required great effort for him to hang on to the RB until the play got stopped. But it was not a great athletic play. By contrast, I can remember 3 or 4 great athletic plays that LB Kawika Mitchell (now with Buffalo) made for the Giants that same year, including INTs and fumble recoveries that turned into TDs. I am not saying that Mitchell is great and Pierce stinks. I am just saying that Pierce is more of a system guy and if the Giants have a great system around him and DL in front of him, Goff, Dillard or Wilkinson may do just fine in the middle of that defense.

One more thought, since I brought up Canty earlier in this post. I am worried that the Giants made a mistake signing him. Canty played DT on a 3-4 defense which is a much different technique and requires different athletic skill than a DT in a 4-3 defense. In particular with Dallas, DeMarcus Ware is such a force on their DL that he makes people playing next to him look better. Jay Ratliff replaced Canty in Dallas and had an outstanding season, playing better than Canty had in the middle of that Dallas DL. Ratliff made the pro-bowl and was very strong in the middle. Giants personnel evaluators got reports from their own OL that Canty was very hard to move in the middle. But with Ware on the outside, sometimes lining up right and sometimes left and with the style of the Dallas DL, Canty was often alone in the middle and rarely did the man assigned to block him get any help from his OL-mates. Maybe he was evaluated higher by the Giants than he really should have been. We'll see.

Giants: First round pick JPP

I'm not going to use revisionist analysis and all of a sudden proclaim that I love this pick of Jason Pierre-Paul. I don't, for all the reasons that I mentioned in my comments to the previous post. The biggest mistakes in the draft come from scouts falling in love with player's results at the combine, where they somehow show ridiculous athletic ability that exceeds their on-field performance. Conversely, the draft is replete with guys that did not show freakish athleticism, or had moderate times in the 40 and therefore slipped later in the draft, only to become excellent players. Jerry Rice comes to mind as an example of this latter category, someone whose 40 time was much lower than his football speed. Rod Smith is another WR in this category who was actually undrafted and will probably be a HOF candidate. In the former category - players that wowed the scouts with their pure athletic skill but were not football players, you don't need to go back much further than the last few drafts of the Oakland Raiders. They took Darrius Heyward-Bey who has incredible straight line speed and Jamarcus Russell whose arm is as powerful as a MIRV missile and apparently about as accurate. (Editor's note: MIRV missiles were a category of offensive nuclear weapon called multiple reentry missiles. The idea was to load a rocket with multiple warheads as a first strike, offensive weapon and when the rocket re-entered the atmosphere and approached the target, multiple warheads would be delivered in a somewhat random pattern across the target area. Accuracy was less important in this weapon, hence my rather lame comparison of MIRVs and Jamarcus' arm.) Frankly, this is why the Giants stuck to their guns and drafted Hakeem Nicks last year at WR. They loved him (accurate judgment imho) because of the play making ability he showed ON THE FOOTBALL FIELD. His 40 time was good enough, but somewhat pedestrian and certainly not eye-catching. They scouted a football player on the field in his time at UNC and they were right in their evaluation.

Anyway - you get the point - players can rise or fall on the basis purely of their athletic performance, while the actual production and performance on the field is ignored or at least minimized in value. Ryan Leaf had a stronger arm than Peyton Manning. Enough said. My concern with Jason Pierre-Paul is exactly that - his athleticism supersedes his football skill. He is a freak of an athlete - good size, strong hands, great speed and a frame that could carry a few extra pounds. But he only started playing football in his junior year in HS and was not recruited to a major college program. He spent time in junior college, where of course his dominance was predictable and he played only one year at the Division I level. He did well at USF, but because of his inexperience there, he did not even start every game in college. Generally, someone who has two years at the junior college/community college level and only one year experience at Division I, would stay for two years in college, build some experience, learn the game, enhance his credentials and enter the draft after his senior year. My suspicion is that with the expectation, or at least possibility that 2011 will be a lockout and further, that the next CBA will have some kind of rookie salary cap, JPP was encouraged and strongly incented to come out this year. With all that, in the best case his athletic talent may give him an opportunity to be a good player, but expecting him to contribute strongly in 2010 might be a stretch.

That's the bad news; the pessimistic view of drafting a great athlete instead of a football player. Let me put on my rose colored glasses and explain that there is a positive side to it as well. For one thing, with a name like Pierre-Paul, I figure he's got a great recipe for brioche that he can share with us. Furthermore, I guess we have to have some faith and confidence in the Giants scouting and drafting department because they have not had many (any?) draft busts in a long time. Another accomplished DE was on the board, available for them to pick in Derrick Morgan and they excitedly and eagerly opted to take JPP. They did scout him on the field at USF and they are making a positive assessment of him based on his performance on the field, not only on his ability to do back flips. There is no denying that he is a freak of an athlete, combining incredible speed and strength. He even showed that he can play the run in his time at USF and the Giants are not taking him because he was just the best player left with limited talent. They really love him and think that he can become a dominant game changing player for them. In the end, every player taken in the first round has boom-or-bust capability. Even the so called can't-miss players sometimes miss, regardless of position. The Giants scouting department scouted him and evaluated him carefully - let's hope they're right.

Giants: draft thoughts from a blog follower

I got an email from a friend who is a faithful follower of the Giants (and this blog). I cleaned it up a little bit, edited it and am posting it below:

BIG BLUE 1ST AND EARLY 2ND ROUND TARGETS:
This is a compilation/summary of the different thoughts and prognostications on who the Giants may pick in the first round. I have read through profootballtalk.com, mike mayock and his colleagues at the nfl.com, sportsline, the 3 stooges at foxsports.com, and even the used car salesman and Ellen Degeneres of espn. I threw in my own thoughts where noted (I watch an unhealthy amount of college football so only about 90 percent of what I think is pulled out my rear end as opposed to the typical 98 percent)....I have mentioned ten players, which means the Giants will likely draft no one from this group. In no particular order...

The Two GIFTS:
Rolando Mclain: When I first started paying attention to the mock drafts everyone had him top 4. He has played under Nick Saban in a pro style defense, and has been compared to Antonio Pierce from a football intellect standpoint. He can play right away and fills the obvious gaping hole the giants have at linebacker. The Giants typically don’t trade up, however Mike Mayock in a radio interview yesterday said he heard the Giants were sniffing around about moving up to 9 or 10 as they thought Denver may snag him at 11.

CJ Spiller: He has been compared to Chris Johnson and seems like a freakish all around athlete. I mentioned to wolfman at the end of last year that he would be a great target for the Giants, and he correctly pointed out that the Giants just don't draft running backs in the first round. As much as I would love to see a playmaker of his caliber, it is highly unlikely he will drop to the giants and if they do move up I think it will be for Mclain. I would love to see them take Dexter Mcluster in the second round if they fill a defensive need in the first round.

The Five Best Left:
These are the guys that everyone is slotting in to the Giants assuming they dont move up or get lucky and have Mclain drop to them.

Jason Pierre Paul: RED FLAG, a lot of people are high on him and frankly I know nothing about scouting, but all I keep hearing is he has freakish physical abilities and may be missing something in terms of football IQ. To me this screams VERNON GHOLSTON. Also remember, the Giants really need an immediate impact player out of their first round pick, not someone to groom.
Mike Iupati: He has been compared to Alan Faneca, and is said to have fantastic technique. What confuses me is that more then one of the big analysts have worded it that they would draft him and groom him to take over for Seubert down the road. Although Giants O-line did very poorly last year, again if he is not an immediate starter I really think the Giants would be better served drafting this spot as a “need” spot in one of their second round picks. Maybe a 3rd....
Joe Haden: Although a lot of big boards have had him free falling I can't see him falling to 15. The Knock on him is that his 40 time at the combine was less than impressive. I think he dominated in the SEC and frankly game speed is way more important then combine speed. It would be interesting if he, Earl Thomas out of Texas or Kyle Wilson out of Boise were still available if the Giants would draft a corner to shore up the secondary.( Earl Thomas can play safety or corner, which may be a nice safety if Kenny Phillips knee is a chronic problem).
Brandon Graham: He is one of those hybrid lineman/linebackers. He played on a Michigan team where he had no help but still showed dominant games. He supposedly has a great work ethic and great locker room leader type. I would love this guy, I am just not sure he really fills the biggest need. The same thought applies to Jerry Hughes of TCU and Sergio Kindle of Texas, both look like studs; just may not be filling the biggest need. (They say draft talent not need , so who knows)...
Dan Williams: This is the mammoth tackle the giants desperately need. This would allow Tuck to more freely move and stay outside, and I think take a lot of pressure off of him. As well if the Giants grab a guy who can really plug up the run game, it would allow Osi to only worry about being a straight pass rusher which seems to be his true skill set. Mayock thinks there is a lot of Tackle talent later in the draft, so maybe it is better value to take a tackle at a later spot?

The defensive players-picks to look out for: (early second rounders?)
Sean Lee- injury problems, he is a perenial pro bowler waiting to happen
Brian Price- One of those other big tackles who present great value..(won't be on board by their second round pick.
Sean Witherspoon and Ricky Sapp- dont know much about them other than some blogs have mentioned the Giants may try and move up early second round if they are still on the board...
Terrence Cody- Another mammoth tackle, you can't teach size like this. That said, supposedly takes off a lot of the time.
Brandon Spikes has fallen drastically, but on the field in college was a beast, and is likely on steroids, that or he has the craziest natural rage I have ever seen. May be worth the risk in a later round...

As a side note: This may be the most fascinating draft we see in a long time. Between waiting to see where Tebow is drafted and seeing if there are going to be any big trades go through( more rumors than I have seen in recent years)

ALSO: I heard a great point , dont remember who...The teams that normally draft really well and make great draft day trades as a result of being quick on their feet, lose some luster because the draft is broken up over 3 days and gives the poor drafting teams time to re-evaluate the board and who is available...

Comments anyone?

Giants: 2010 schedule

When last year's schedule came out, there were certain aspects of the Giants schedule that appeared very good to me - few west coast trips; late bye; easy early part of the schedule to get rolling and get the young WRs some experience as well as a few other things I can't even recall right now. We all now how it turned out, so often there's no real follow through on analyzing the schedule and figuring out if it is favorable or unfavorable. From the big picture point of view, the Giants are playing the NFC North this year which is a tough division. Last year they had two teams that made the playoffs in the Packers and Vikings, one of whom was a Brett-Favre-interception away from going to the Super Bowl. (Deja vu - Brett Favre's last pass of the season in the NFC conference championship game is intercepted, giving the opposing team a Super Bowl berth and championship!) Besides these two playoff teams, there is a third team, the Bears that seemed to have gotten their strong armed QB Jay Cutler straightened out towards the end of last year. They also went on a spending spree in the FA period this off season signing DE Julius Pepper, RB Chester Taylor and TE Manumaleuna in a clear effort to upgrade the team and try to win now. The fourth team in that division is the Lions who are still rebuilding, but 3 out of 4 tough games in that division makes that part of the schedule hard. Making this segment of the schedule more difficult is that the easier teams from this division, Bears and Lions are home games for the Giants, while the tougher games, Vikings and Packers are on the road.

Giants also play the AFC North this year, including the Colts in Manning Bowl II in a week two prime time game. Titans played sparkling football in the second half of last year when Vince Young replaced Kerry Collins as the starting QB. They won 5 games in a row and 8 of their last 10 while actually making a run for the playoffs after starting out 0-6. The Jaguars are kind of up and down from year to year and its hard to predict how they will play. The other two teams in that division are the Texans and the Ravens, both very solid football teams.

Giants also have 6 games within the NFC East of course and the two random games against other NFC opponents are the season opener against the Panthers and on the road against Seattle.

The opponents were determined at the end of last season, so there are no surprises there. The only variable that was announced yesterday is when the games are played. The odd things about the schedule for the Giants is that they play 6 games against non-division opponents before they play an NFC east rival. The first such game is a Monday night game on October 25th against the Cowboys in Dallas. The Giants have a relatively late bye, coming after week 7, which is good, followed by the road game in Seattle. In terms of travel, I guess this is a minor advantage - the Seattle game is the only west coast road trip and it comes after a bye, so the Giants will be well rested for the trip. But it seems to me that the last 8 games on the schedule are very tough, including 5 of the 6 NFC East games. The other 3 of those last games are against the Jaguars at home and the Vikings and Packers on the road, making the home stretch really rugged. The NFC East games are always very physical and draining on the teams and could sap a team's strength for a playoff drive. Throw in the NFC champion Vikings and a December 26th road game "on the frozen tundra" of Green Bay and you have a brutal home stretch of the season.

Here's the summary that makes the Giants schedule very difficult. Of the Giants' 16 games, 8 are against teams that made the playoffs last year (Cowboys x 2, Eagles x 2, Colts, Packers, Ravens, Vikings); 4 other games are against teams that are good and appear on the rise (Bears, Texans, Jaguars, Titans) and the opener is against a Panther team that destroyed the Giants in the final home game of the season last year. Add on top of that a very difficult last 8 games when the team is trying to gear up for a playoff drive and this is the most difficult schedule I can remember for the Giants.

At the end of the day, all of this analysis goes out the window, because of the old NFL adage: it's not who you play, it's when you play them. There are so many injuries, ups and downs and other variables in the NFL season, that teams that look strong can have stretches of a few weeks where they play poorly. Conversely, a mediocre team can step up and have a period of life in their season. The team's outcome depends often on when you catch these teams; whether you get them when they are hot and playing well or if you catch them when they have an injury or a problem or two to iron out.

Final food for thought.....the intriguing thing to me is what the NFC East teams will look like: did the McNabb trade help or hurt both teams? What will the Cowboys do personnel-wise as they get further away from the Parcells era and his player evaluation skills? Is Jerry Jones right when he said in his bar room brag that Parcells was unnecessary and a pain in the a$$? Can GM Jerry Jones make the right draft moves without Tuna's leadership? How will the Cowboys replace Flozell Adams at LT?

Giants: draft thoughts

I keep hearing that the Giants are very interested in C.J. Spiller, the outstanding RB from Clemson. He has great speed and is supposed to be a real game changer. The Giants RBs certainly had a bad year last year, both in production and in health. Jacobs had a season long knee injury and Bradshaw had two bad ankles and bad feet. They both had surgery to repair these injuries. If you were running the Giants, you could certainly be concerned about the long term health and productivity of both RBs. Furthermore, since Tiki Barber left the Giants in 2006, the Giants have not had a great passing threat out of the backfield. Derrick Ward was pretty good as a pass catcher, though he was not a real game breaking threat, and he is of course gone now. The Giants have weapons at WR and TE. In the running game, the RBs are good if they are healthy, but they are not real burners and they are not good in the passing game. A runner like Spiller would be attractive. The problem is - taking him at slot 15 goes against one of my draft philosophies: Never take a RB in the first round. There is way too much talent at RB that can be gotten in later rounds and there are way too many 1st round stud-can't-miss RBs that turned out to be disappointments or outright busts. Jacobs and Bradshaw were 4th and 7th round picks and were good enough to carry the Giants to a Superbowl. Derrick Ward, who disappeared last year in Tampa behind a poor OL was good enough to gain over 1,000 yards for the Giants in 2008, which proves another aspect of the RB-drafting philosophy. Giants picked Derrick Ward off the scrap heap and signed him off the Jets practice squad. Not only can you get top RBs in later rounds, but behind a good OL, even a slightly above average RB can be very productive. Just off the top of my head - Terrell Davis of the Broncos was a 6th round pick. While there certainly were some very good 1st round RBs, it is not necessary to find the great RBs in the first round. If that's the case, and if you believe in inflating the draft value of players based on the importance of the position they play, drafting RB in round 1 is usually a waste.

A few years ago, Texans were thinking about drafting Reggie Bush but ended up with Mario Williams. They were roundly criticized for the move, but even though Reggie won the Superbowl this year with the Saints, he has been far from a dominant player at his position. He is certainly an important player, but Williams is a star DE and is more valuable to the Texans than Bush is to the Saints.

The fact that the Giants are publicly dropping leaks in the press that they are interested in Spiller but are concerned he may not be there at slot 15 probably means they are not going to take him. Reese is very cloak-and-dagger-ish when it comes to the draft, always concealing and providing disinformation about whom they will draft. One thing that seems interesting - Reese has said again that the Giants may not draft a MLB because he thinks the answer to that position may be on the team right now. He was referring to young players on the team that have not played much - Gerris Wilkinson, Bryan Kehl and Jonathan Goff. Was this more disinformation or was he really sending a message to the coaches that he wants those guys tested and not sitting on the bench.

My opinion remains the same - the Giants need a stud in the front 7 and it almost doesn't matter what position it is. Giants remain very high on Clint Sintim and he is the type of player that can provide them with great flexibility in configuring the front 7. He is currently slotted as LB, but played DE in college. He can be a pass rusher with his hand on the ground or standing up at LB. If Giants get the chance to get a stud DE, they can trade Osi and fill in some holes at MLB. If instead they draft MLB, Sintim can keep playing LB.

Giants: off season musings

Jets look like they will be a powerhouse next year. Even though they had a mediocre regular season and got into the playoffs only because their last two opponents, Colts and Bengals, laid down and let them win, they still had a very impressive run in the playoffs. Looking back at their regular season, most of their mediocrity and their losses came from uneven play from the rookie QB, Sanchez, who made questionable decisions with the ball and turned the ball over way too often. It is certainly understandable and almost predictable that a rookie QB will struggle, especially with a rookie HC and young OC that, though he is creative and has good experience in the job, had only coached veteran QB's in his career prior to Sanchez. In the playoffs, when they played a little more conservatively and when Sanchez had the benefit of having an entire year of experience under his belt, he played much better. The Jets crushed the Bengals and had a really good win against the Chargers before giving the Colts a good game in being booted from the playoffs. With Sanchez more seasoned, with a great OL, and now with the acquisition of Santonio Holmes for a 5th round draft pick (a steal based on his ability and production) they are very well situated offensively to have a great year. Rex Ryan was very creative on defense and the and the Jets had the number 1 defense in football. In addition, now it looks like they have the horses on offense. Ladanian Tomlinson looked like he was slowing down the last few years, but if he still has a little tread left on those tires, he should be productive behind that excellent OL. The Jets have all the weapons they need on offense: two excellent WRs in Edwards and Holmes, a good possession WR in Cotchery, a good looking young TE in Keller, a tough young RB with a veteran behind him in Tomlinson and an emerging QB. Not bad.

I am worried about the Eagles. They beat the Giants badly twice last year (after beating them twice in a row the previous year including knocking them out of the playoffs). They got very young last year and now have gotten even younger by getting rid of their QB. In addition, they surely have lots of financial flexibility, because McNabb was by far the biggest contract they were carrying. Even though there is no salary cap this year, there surely will be one whenever football resumes with its collective bargaining agreement and the Eagles will be in prime position to pay handsomely for the few FAs they may need to push them over the top. In addition to their quality and the youth on their current roster, they are well primed to get even better and even younger. They have 7 draft picks in the first 4 rounds in what is judged to be one of the best drafts ever. If anything, the Eagles need some improvement in the OL and DL and this draft is particularly strong in those two areas. Eagles are set up to be a real strong contender for the next several years in the NFC East as well as overall in the conference and the league. Of course, a lot depends on how good the QB play is. If Kevin Kolb proves to be the answer at QB, the Eagles will be very tough.

For a contrary view, from someone who thinks that the Eagles killed themselves with the McNabb trade and are heading to a 6-10 season, take a look at Gary Myers article in the Sunday Daily News.

I am still puzzled about the Cowboys cutting Flozell "the hotel" Adams. They had a very good season last year and won their first playoff game in a decade. They have been very quiet with changes this off-season, not doing so much as even tinkering with their roster, signalling that they are content with their team. A big part of their offense is their running game which is greatly helped by their massive OL, the most massive of whom is Adams. He is a dirty player, having ruined Justin Tuck's season last year with a dirty trip that injured his shoulder. He also went after Tuck and took a cheap shot at him on the last play of the half in the other Giants-Cowboys game. Because it was the last play of the half, the penalty would not carry over to the next half, so he had a "free" whack at him. But that doesn't bother the Cowboys - they have other players (G Leonard Davis is one) that also take their share of cheap shots. I just can't figure out why they cut Flozell. In my opinion, his play has declined slightly over the last few years and maybe they feel he's done. But you shouldn't cut your starting LT when you don't know what you're going to do to replace him. I know Jerry Reese cut Pettigout in 2007, but that was Pettigout and this is a real NFL caliber LT. In fact Flozell is a five time pro bowl selection. Maybe some of those pro bowls came from the hype of playing for America's team, but he was undoubtedly a strong player. He's also apparently hard to coach and doesn't have the best work ethic. But.... five pro bowls???? Someone tell me why they cut him and what they will do at LT in 2010.

Giants: McNabb trade

It was really a surprise to see McNabb get traded from the Eagles; doubly so to see him traded within the division to the Redskins. McNabb has been such a fixture in Philadelphia for 11 years, it is going to be really hard to see him in another team's uniform. That's why the trade was shocking, more than on its football merits, though certainly there are some surprises there too. While of course this is a Giants blog, this trade, involving two NFC East teams has enough of an impact to warrant some thoughts.

I have posted occasionally about McNabb and have not been shy about saying that I always thought he was an overrated player. When he first came into the league he was a poor passer, not very accurate and not comfortable sitting in the pocket. His passing has certainly improved over the years and he has become a good (but in my opinion not great) passer. He does throw a fairly nice deep ball and has a strong arm to throw hard, short and medium range balls fairly accurately. His mechanics do occasionally break down and he will hold the ball too tightly, releasing it late, which causes him to throw more than a few balls into the dirt. Worm-burners is what we like to call them. His main deficiency as a pure passer is his intermediate balls which require some touch - a pass to get the ball over the LBs and drop it in front of the DBs. I think Reid recognized this and did not call on McNabb to throw that type of pass too often. Eagles used a west coast style offense which required McNabb to throw short quick slant routes, out patterns mixed in with deep balls. His intermediate routes were off of in-cuts, where the WR cleared the defender running across the field and McNabb could use his arm strength to squeeze the ball in to the opening. McNabb's great strength, of course is his athleticism, his running ability and his escapability in the pocket. Over the years, he made more plays escaping the pocket, running outside and throwing on the run than he did sitting in the pocket. Everyone remembers the Giants-Eagles playoff game at the end of the 2008 season, when the Giants had McNabb sacked on a play early in the second half, but he escaped and completed a clutch 3rd down pass to move the chains on the way to a TD drive that changed the game. The Giants strategy in his early years was not to blitz him too heavily and not to flush him from the pocket. Instead, they would rush in very disciplined lanes, keeping McNabb in the pocket and forcing him to beat them with his arm. This worked early in McNabb's career, but over the last several years, McNabb and the Eagles have improved and he has a good record against the Giants.

On the surface, this makes life much tougher in the NFC East for all the teams, particularly the Giants. Giants have beaten the Redskins 4 times in a row and generally have dominated the match up for the last several years. This certainly makes the Redskins a better team and a tougher game. While it is a risk for the Eagles, depending on how well Kolb and Vick play, there is no doubt that they are a very talented team. DeSean Jackson is a star at WR and the other WR, Maclin also is a threat with great speed. They could use an upgrade at RB, but their OL seems pretty solid and a decent pocket passer could do very well with that offense. Add to the fact that this is purportedly one of the deepest drafts in memory and the 2nd round pick that the Eagles acquired from the Redskins at pick number 37 overall, is almost like another first round pick. If the Eagles draft well, they could add two first-round-talent type starters with these picks and will have lots of young talent on their team. While it is shocking to see McNabb in another uniform, it is almost easy to understand why the Eagles traded him. They have a history of trading players a year too early rather than a year too late. McNabb certainly has a great record, having taken his team to the NFC Conference Championship game 5 times in 11 years. Placing this load on Kolb is a risk, but I think he will probably do well. In fact, if he is an accurate pocket passer, maybe the Eagles will be better. McNabb's contract being up at the end of the 2010 season was surely the motivator.

In that context, it's almost hard to understand why the Redskins made this trade. Certainly I understand that they have upgraded their QB situation and that Jason Campbell apparently does not have the talent to take a team to the promised land. However, the Redskins finished 4-12 last year after making the big free agent signing of Albert Haynesworth at DT. They were an old and often injured team, particularly on offense. Portis is showing signs of age at RB and their entire OL was battered and bruised. They fired the coach, hired a new GM and gave him lots of authority to rebuild the team. They cut several OL-men from last year's team and had one, Chris Samuels, retire. In fact the Redskins don't have a LT signed on the current roster and are rumored to be interested in recently released Flozell Adams. They even have made attempts to trade Albert Haynesworth and wanted to include him in the McNabb trade, with the Eagles declining that offer. With all that rebuilding necessary, why would the Redskins take a QB who is an eleven year veteran and give up draft choices to get him. The Redksins should have the outlook to rebuild, not to try the same old Snyder formula of acquiring veterans and trying to win now. Especially this year, where there seems to be so much talent in the DL and OL in the draft, would be a time to acquire draft picks, rather than shed them. Nevertheless, it certainly makes the Redskins a better team now. Maybe McNabb is the kind of QB that can upgrade a poor team and make it mediocre, but is not the kind of players that has the skills to take a good team and make it superior. A QB who has finely honed passing skills is needed against the dominant, elite offenses in the league that you are likely to come up against in the playoffs. But a team that has a mediocre OL and exposes their QB, needs a QB that can elude the rush and make plays while scrambling.

McNabb is probably considered a border-line HOF candidate. If he hadn't upchucked (literally) in the huddle in the SB against the Patriots and had won that game, his stock would certainly be higher. Furthermore if he had won a few of those other conference championship games, and had gone to, say, 3 Superbowls instead of just 1, surely he would have been thought of more highly. In a way, therefore, it might also be surprising that the Redskins gave up so little to get McNabb. The way to evaluate what a player is worth, however is not just by his career accomplishments, but also how many years the player is under contract for and how many years the team has control over the player. McNabb's contract is up in 2010, so this was more of a rent-a-player for a year rather than acquiring a player for 5 years. Redskins could sign him to an extension, but they could have signed him as a FA after the 2010 season also. So they are giving up two draft choices for one year of Donovan McNabb's services. Especially now after this trade, McNabb will surely shop himself as a FA after the 2010 season and the Redskins may get nothing more than the one year of his career.

Bottom line is that the NFC East got much tougher. Cowboys and Eagles have lots of talent and are both coming off playoff years. Redskins improved themselves with this trade and the teams in the NFC East will beat each other up again this year, making it harder for more than just the division winner to make the playoffs.

The only explanation for why the Eagles traded him within the division is that: (1) the Redskins made the best offer and (2) Eagles don't fear McNabb as a player. If it makes the Eagles better and they're still not worried about the Redskins led by McNabb, then why not do it. The Eagles had all three QBs on their rosters with contracts expiring after 2010. They had to do something. Time will tell if they got rid of the right player.

Giants: upgrading the secondary

What everyone saw last year but the GM refused to (publicly) admit was that the S play in the secondary was very weak. Although we'd like to blame it all on coaching and injuries, you have to put some of the blame on the front office for not stocking the secondary with good S players behind the starters. I posted earlier that Darren Sharper was available for the Giants in the last off season at about the same price that the Giants paid to get C.C. (can't cover) Brown. Darren Sharper played superlative football and helped the Saints win the Super Bowl. C.C. Brown played poorly and had his contract tender rescinded when the Giants signed another S this week. You have to put that down as a big miss for Reese. I guess the Giants think that the good safeties are in the NFC West, because after signing Antrel Rolle from Arizona, they signed a S who had played for the Seahawks and became a FA, Deon Grant. He is a steady, solid, though unspectacular player. He has played 144 consecutive games, so he is definitely sturdy. He is certainly the quality of a starter in the league, so if Phillips is a little late coming back, Giants will not be hurt at that position.

Giants also signed Feagles and another punter, who was an Australian football player, Jy Bond. He is purported to have a huge leg, something that clearly slipped with Feagles last year. It is not clear whether Bond knows which direction to kick the ball, but presumably that is what the coaches are for. Bond was signed before the Feagles contract negotiation was done, so he may have been an insurance policy against Feagles not signing or leverage to manage the numbers in the deal. Nevertheless, I have to assume that it is Feagles job to lose. Unless Bond knocks their socks off with booming punts, or Feagles leg strength continues to decline, the veteran will keep his job. One thing Feagles has going for him is that he is one of the best holders for FGs that I have ever seen. He saves numerous bad snaps and gets them down for a good kick. This is very important for Tynes, whose timing is easily thrown off.

The biggest news that we need to hear coming out of the off season conditioning program is the progress from injury of some of the key DL-men. I am very anxious about Alford and Canty in particular and hope they come back strong. No news yet, however.

Giants: Wilkinson / Linebackers

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone (Godfather III): Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

Wolfman (re. the SBBR blog, with apologies to Al Pacino): Just when you thought you could avoid reading the SBBR blog during the off-season when nothing much is happening, I pull you back in with a nugget that turns out to have some legs to it.

Permit me to explain. In an item I posted on March 25, I went into a brief analysis of the LB position, specifically mentioning the interesting case of Gerris Wilkinson. The Giants tendered Wilkinson a contract as an RFA to keep him on the roster, even though he has shown little more than just potential in his tenure with the Giants, with his playing time significantly curtailed by injury. He was drafted in 2006 in the 3rd round and impressed the coaches with his athletic ability, speed, size and football IQ. He played in all 16 games in his rookie year, much of his playing time coming on special teams. He even started the playoff game against Tampa Bay in 2007 in place of injured Kawika Mitchell, but in each of his seasons after his rookie year, he missed significant playing time due to injury. Because of the amount of time he has missed, if the Giants had not tendered him a contract, making him a UFA instead of RFA, it seemed unlikely that some other team would have signed him. Further, I said in yesterday's blog post that GM Reese tends to hold players with high injury rates in disfavor and replaces them with players that can stay on the field. (Of course this is not something unique to Reese's world football view, but the Giants GM has acted aggressively on this philosophy in the past.) Therefore, I found it interesting that the Giants would even tender Wilkinson a contract. It speaks quite highly about how athletic he is and how much capability he has. Giants have upgrades to make at LB, particularly at MLB and apparently, they do not want to give up on Wilkinson and they want to keep his talent in the mix. Parenthetically, I will tell you that I always loved Wilkinson's speed and size combination. I remember him playing in the last game of the 2007 season - the "perfect season" game against the Patriots - a game I attended. I saw him on a few plays get matched up with Randy Moss and run 20-30 yards down the field with him step for step, keeping him covered. Those are plays you wouldn't see if you watched the game on TV and weren't at the game, because the ball didn't go to Moss on those particular plays. Wilkinson is 6'3", 230 with great speed - a perfect prototype LB for today's game.

Here's the exclamation point to that innocent analysis that I posted yesterday. In Brian Costello's Giants Notes article in today's NY Post, with the headline about Brandon Jacobs eager to have a great 2010 season, there are two innocent little sentences buried in the last paragraph that read as follows:

Gerris Wilkinson said that the team is moving him to MLB. He played mainly WSLB in his first four years.

(You can read the entire article by clicking here.)

Many feel that the Giants starting MLB for 2010 is not currently on the roster. Maybe he is and it is Gerris Wilkinson. If the Giants draft McClain in the 1st round, maybe they want a veteran to start, shepherd the player along and keep the position warm until McClain is ready to step in and start full time. Alternatively, perhaps the Giants are not planning on drafting McClain or realize they may not get him, leaving the starting MLB position wide open, so the Giants want to put as much talent at the position to create competition and hope that they do in fact find a starter on the current roster. The fact that they have kept Wilkinson at all shows that they still have hopes for him emerging as a player. The fact that they have shifted him to MLB shows that he is not just training camp fodder, who is unlikely to make the team. They are shifting him to a position of great need for the defense and investing coaching and training time in him, no doubt, in hopes that he will emerge as an important contributor.

Perhaps nothing at all will come of this. Maybe Wilkinson gets hurt again or performs poorly and doesn't even make the team. Maybe it is just moving players around to have the right mix of players at each position in training camp so practices can run smoothly. I just find it very interesting that there is some action going on with a player nobody is focusing on, who is well under the radar at an important position.....and that I posted about him yesterday.

Giants: Off season news

It's been very quiet in Giants world for the last month or so, since the signing of Antrel Rolle, but now that the Giants have reported to the voluntary off season workout program, there is a little bit of news. Tom Coughlin, in the coaches breakfast at a recent NFL meeting, said that while S Kenny Phillips rehabilitation from his microfracture knee surgery is progressing, it is far from certain that he will be ready for the start of training camp, at least without restrictions on his practice habits. Kenny Phillips himself remained optimistic and upbeat, but realistically, he has not been cleared to start running yet and it is reasonable to assume he won't be completely ready. If he is restricted from participating in two practices per day and can only do one, or perhaps needs to take a practice off once in a while, that would not be terrible, because it probably means he could get ready for the regular season. The key really is not when he will be ready, but if the microfracture surgery has been successful and his speed and tackling ability returns. Phillips is a hard hitter and sure tackler for someone his size and that is something that is separate from how hard you run. It's not just a matter of physics applying Newton's first law: F=ma (Force=mass x acceleration), because then the only things that would matter would be the speed and size of the player. Furthermore, the player that delivers a big hit is also absorbing a hit from a player that may be bigger. However we have all seen players that are very physical and hit harder than what it seems they should based only on their mass. Giants seem to have another player on their team that fits this category in Ahmad Bradshaw that can seemingly take a hit from bigger players and keep going. I saw an interesting article that asserted that the muscle and skeletal structure of the player and his ability to tense his body muscles up in a tight central core precisely at the moment of collision, while accelerating through the hit, is what gives some players the ability to be bigger hitters than would seem possible from their size. If Phillips loses some speed and somehow his base and balance is affected by this injury, his ability to tense his muscles and explode through the collision, accelerating at the precise moment of impact with perfect timing might be affected as well. No reason to obsess about these things - we'll have to wait and see.

The drama from this camp will certainly come from the Osi Umenyiora situation. He was demoted to situational pass rusher last year and accepted it gracefully during the season, but whined about it in the off-season. He even said that he would retire or demand a trade if he was not returned to the starting lineup. Osi made one probowl but realistically was never a great run stopper. He is a speed player and when in top form is a very good edge pass rusher. In previous years, with Strahan on one side, with outstanding DT play in the middle of the DL, with Pierce and the other LBs playing well behind him, any actual weakness in run stopping ability was masked. However, last year, with Osi coming off a knee injury, with Pierce slipping, with poor DT play and an overall decline in the entire defense, Osi's run stopping weakness was exposed, or perhaps even was exacerbated. The question is: what is Osi's true overall level of play? Did he appear worse than he actually is last year because of the factors that I mentioned. Conversely, did he appear better than he actually is in previous years because of the overall quality play of the players around him. Coaches have to assess this and make accurate evaluations.

Making these questions more interesting is what the Giants do in the draft. With the departure of Pierce, there is a huge hole in the middle of the defense at MLB. The Giants have several players at LB that they were high on in past years, Ryan Kehl, Brian Goff and Gerris Wilkinson, but there is a strong feeling that the starting MLB for the 2010 season is not currently on the roster. Goff played last year replacing Chase Blackburn, who had replaced Pierce earlier and showed some ability, but also did not blow anyone away with his play making talent. This is reputed to be one of the best drafts ever and is particularly strong in the DL and OL. There are a few good LBs, but the draft is deeper in the DL. The Giants do not like to draft for need and will always lean to pick the best player available. They also weigh players heavily by position, meaning a great LT will be more valuable than a great interior OL-man. If the Giants are able to pick up a great DE in the draft, perhaps they will be motivated to trade Osi to a team with a surplus of LBs and a need for a speed rushing DE. (Giants co-residents come to mind as a team that might fit this bill - Osi for Harris?) If they draft Alabama LB Rolando McClain, that everyone seems to be very high on, the situation is changed, and perhaps Osi stays.

Speaking of the LBs currently on the team, it's unfortunate that we didn't see enough out of Kehl and Goff to know if they are good enough to be starters in the league. We also didn't see enough from Sintim to know if he can play LB. (Perhaps he can be the situational pass rusher that the Giants will need if they trade Osi.) Wilkinson might be the most talented LB, as measured by size, speed and athleticism. His problem is that he can't stay on the field and is constantly injured. If he can get past the injury bug, he might be a contributor. I did find it interesting that the Giants tendered him a contact. Reese has showed an inclination in the past to move away from players that are often injured and goes for younger, healthier players. I found it interesting that he tendered a contract to oft-injured Gerris Wilkinson. It must mean that they still hold out hope for him to become an NFL caliber player.

Giants: sign Rolle

By now you all know about the signing of Antrel Rolle who became an unrestricted FA when the Cardinals cut him. It's hard to understand what the Cardinals are doing - they have now lost 4 important players from their team last year. Three of them are: Antrel Rolle to the Giants; Karlos Dansby to the Dolphins; and Anquan Boldin in a trade to the Ravens for essentially a middle round draft pick. That's three important players - don't forget that they also lost Kurt Warner to retirement. Why did the Cardinals let all these players go? There's no salary cap this year, so that can't be the issue. They definitely were losing Warner to retirement, so they knew his salary was coming off the books (reported to be $4M). Boldin was traded for a middle round pick to the Ravens and his $3M salary came off the Cardinals books. I can understand why the Cardinals might not have an inclination to sign both Rolle and Dansby, but it's hard to understand why they let both go, with (at least) $7M reduction in salary that will accrue to them with the departures of Warner and Boldin. One possible answer is the long rumored tight spending habits of the Bidwill ownership of the Cardinals. No reason to look for another answer. It looks like they are going with Leinart as the qb and perhaps they want to wait and see whether they have a franchise qb in Leinart before they ante up and spend money on an expensive supporting cast around him to push for contention. Cardinals have a relatively new stadium and have made a good playoff push the last two years, making the Super Bowl in 2008. The ownership may feel that they have established enough credibility with the fans that they can afford a down year, where they save money on payroll and still maintain fan support and loyalty.

From the Giants perspective, this is a great signing. Rolle is an excellent player and the S position has become very important in today's game, perhaps even surpassing LB in its criticality to the defense. Average LB's can be compensated for by a great DL in the running game and great S play in the passing game. But with the NFL now a pass-centric league, the S position has become critical and you can't hide them. More than sitting back and covering the occasional deep ball, safeties need to have great range running sideline to sideline in coverage and with the very common 3 and 4 WR sets, they are thrust in a role of man-to-man pass coverage very often. We all remember what a disaster the Giant S position was last year, with Phillips out, with Michael Johnson having a bad year and with CC Brown (CC stands for Can't Cover... thanks for my brother for pointing this out to me) having to step in and try to be a factor in pass defense, a role for which he is not well suited. Rolle is a perfect match. he is fast, is a very tough hitter and has strong coverage skills, having spent his first few years in the league as a CB. If Phillips comes back from his injury, the Giants S position will be strong and their DB-field, with Webster, Thomas and Ross at CB should be a strength, rather than the weakness it was last year.

Giants still need to figure out what to do at the LB position. They also need to figure out if the players on the DL who did so poorly last year will come back from their injuries and perform well this year. There are a lot of question marks for the Giants defense this year and these will probably not be answered until the season gets going.

Giants: more off season stuff

There have been some very interesting developments in the off-season NFL FA market this week. Arizona Cardinals confirmed that they will not put the franchise tag on MLB Karlos Dansby. Carolina Panthers announced that they will not put the franchise tag on Julius Peppers. In perhaps the two most interesting moves this week, the San Diego Chargers cut Ladanian Tomlinson and the Philadelphia Eagles cut Brian Westbrook. These last two moves are no doubt an indicator of the importance placed on speed and play making ability at every position on offense including RB. More than that, it is indicative of the declining skills of these two once-dynamic players due to age and injury. I think it also may show that the Giants are slightly out-of-step at the RB position and need to upgrade the position to make sure that they have fast play makers at the position. I would almost never draft a RB in the first round and I think that is true now more than ever. You can pick up these speed type players in later rounds, but they are definitely needed. Jacobs is a nice player to have on the team and it may be good to get him 40-50% of the carries, but you need a breakaway and pass catching threat at RB. Bradshaw has shown flashes but was hurt in both the 2008 and 2009 season after his sparkling rookie-year showing in the playoffs. I am not sure he is the answer at the position. I think the Cowboys have the best model at RB, with a bruiser in Marion Barber, a burner in Felix Jones and a good all purpose RB in Choice. Comparing the two backfields, Jacobs is bigger than Barber, but not quite as elusive, explosive or as good a pass catcher. Bradshaw is not as big a threat as Jones, not as fast or dangerous.

If the labor contract is not renegotiated before March 5th and 2010 is in fact an uncapped year, as it certainly appears that it will be, there will be many fewer free agents than in a normal year. While no salary cap seems like it would be a boon to the players, there are several other rules that restrict players movements. Specifically, players that would be unrestricted FA's after their 4th year will instead be restricted. Only players with 6 years tenure in the league become FAs and this affects approximately 200 players around the league who will not become unrestricted FA's becasue of this change. With so many potential FAs off the market, there are very few attractive FAs, Peppers and Dansby among them. This also happens to be two positions that the Giants could use. I think Dansby is a very good player, but his performance slipped a little bit last year. Giants need speed at that LB position and once a player loses some speed, he doesn't get it back. An intriguing possibility for the Giants would be to sign Peppers and to trade Ueminyora for a LB or S. I am sorry - I know this sounds like one of the callers on sports talk radio proposing some ridiculous trade and it is extremely unlikely that this will happen, IMHO. This scenario is remote for several important reasons: Peppers would cost a lot of money; he has the reputation of being a little bit of a head case who takes some plays off and only really gears things up on passing downs where he can make ESPN highlights with a sack; Ueminyora still has time on his contract at a very reasonable $3M or so per year; it is not a good idea to trade a star player after an off-year when his value is diminished; Giants just don't like to throw money around at overpriced FAs.

While the Giants do not like to sign the big ticket FAs, the labor situation and inability to make other more moderate FA signings might encourage them to change their approach this year. Players are more likely to be traded this year because of the stale FA market and teams may feel that trading is the only way to retool the roster. However - the biggest reason that the Giants are unlikely to sign Peppers or Dansby is that by all accounts this is one of the best drafts in recent memory. Apparently there is a lot of talent at the top end of the draft and worthy first round talent all the way through. What makes this draft particularly interesting and beneficial to the Giants is that much of the talent is in the DL and OL, with some strong players at LB as well. The Giants like to build a team through the draft and will probably decide to accumulate players that way in order to upgrade the team. Aside from DT N Suh from Nebraska, the consensus best player in the draft, there are several other studs at DT and DE. Making the draft even deeper is that fact that a rookie salary cap is almost certain to be part of the next labor agreement, encouraging 3rd year college players with a year of eligibility left to come into this year's draft, before the rookie salary cap is imposed.

If anything, with the draft so deep, perhaps the Giants will trade a player or two for additional draft picks. This is not the year to trade in order to move up in the draft, because there is so much depth and talent available all the way through.

Giants cut Pierce

The Giants announced today that they have cut Antonio Pierce. It's not a big surprise, at least if you've been following this blog. However, the timing of the cut is very instructive, IMHO. Since this is an uncapped year, there was no risk for the Giants to bring Pierce to camp, see what he has left and cut him in August or September if they then saw he had nothing left or that they had a better alternative to take the position over. In the past, the reason to cut a player this early would be to make cap space available so you can sign free agents at the beginning of the FA signing period, which begins on March 5th. Since there will be no salary cap this year, clearing cap space to sign FAs before the draft is completely irrelevant. It is possible that Pierce had a roster bonus due as part of his 2010 compensation package; I am not sure about that. Nevertheless, the fact that the Giants chose to cut ties with Pierce now before they even see whether they have a better player available and without the motivation to clear salary cap space, shows just how much his play has declined in the team's evaluation.

Frankly it's hard to disagree with their evaluation. Pierce was never a great physical talent. He was average size, slightly above average speed and made his living as a capable MLB by being very smart, an excellent preparer and great at film study of the other team's tendencies. He was quick to the ball with his good reading of the opposing offense and slightly-above-average speed. However, when his speed clearly declined in the last season-and-a-half he became a liability on defense. He did pump everyone up, was a good emotional leader and was an on-the-field coach for the defense. But when you can't run anymore and it's your one distinguishing physical characteristic, it's time to pack it in.

I blogged during the playoffs about how much speed I saw at the LB position from the good defenses in the playoffs and how lacking that was on the Giants. This came even more into focus in the Superbowl on one critical play that turned the game in favor of the Saints. Colts had the ball at the end of the 3rd quarter right after the Saints kicked a FG to make the score 17-16. Their drive started at their own 11, they moved the ball out to the Saints 33 and it was now early in the 4th quarter - about 11:00 minutes left in the game. Colts had a 3rd and 11 from that spot. They had 3 WRs on the field and Manning read the Saints defense accurately as a cover-3, with two safeties covering the outside of the field and the MLB running down field and covering the deep middle. Colts called the perfect play - a seam route right up the middle, with young, speedy WR Collie matched up 1-on-1 against the Saints MLB. Manning threw the ball right down the middle, a very good throw giving the WR a chance to make a play on the ball. Running down the middle to cover the WR was MLB Jonathan Vilma and he stayed with Collie step for step for 35 yards and made a great play to break up the pass. The reason it was such a critical play is obvious - it looked like a sure TD for the Colts and instead, they were stuck with 4th and 11 and attempted a 51 yard FG which Stover missed. Instead of being up 8 or 4, they were up only 1 and you know how the rest of the game unfolded. Saints scored a TD to go ahead and then got the INT-TD to ice the game.

Vilma has speed at that position that the Giants simply don't have and that is needed in today's pass-oriented game. No doubt, the Saints defense expected a TE to run up the seam in the middle of the field, which would have given the average MLB a better chance to cover. The fact that Vilma ran up the field with a speedy WR instead of a TE, shows how fast he is and emphasizes how lacking the Giants are in speed at that position. If this had been the Giants defense, Collie would have cleared the LB 15 yards from the line of scrimmage and would have been open by at least 5 yards at the goal line. Instead, Vilma stayed with the WR 35 yards down the field. Giants need speed at the LB position and Pierce does not have it anymore. The problem for the Giants is - they may know what is broken on the defense, but do they know how to fix it. Even if they know how to fix it, will they acquire the right players to do so. They need 2 LBs, 1 S (two if Phillips does not come back healthy, and an upgrade at the DL, at both the DT and the DE position. Some of these players may already be on the team - maybe Canty and Alford come back strong from injury and Cofield returns to form helping the DT situation. Maybe Goff and Kehl are the answers at LB. I don't think all of these things will work out for the Giants and they need to upgrade the defensive personnel this off-season.

Giants: Coaching moves

There is some not-great news to report on the Giants coaching front. Chris Palmer has left the Giants to become the head coach of the New York Sentinel of the United Football League. As an aside, I think they play in Hartford and it's a bit of a stretch to call them "New York" Sentinel. I mean - the Giants play in NJ, but at least it's considered part of the Metropolitan area and is spitting distance from midtown Manhattan. Hartford is probably 120-125 miles away (I am sure someone will google-map it and find that I'm wrong about the mileage, but you get the point... it's not part of the NY metropolitan area.)

There are two pieces of bad news associated with Chris Palmer leaving. First - Palmer did an excellent coaching Eli since he joined in 2007. His credentials as a coach are excellent: he was an assistant to Parcells in New England and Dallas. As well, he coached for Coughlin in Jacksonville before rejoining Coughlin in he current tenure with the Giants. Palmer fixed Eli's mechanics, taught him how to go through his progressions more quickly, how to be a more accurate passer and how to be more secure with the ball without sacrificing the boldness required to try and make plays down the field. Eli has become a different qb under Palmer that he was when Gilbride was qb coach. Palmer had the longing to become an OC again - he was not happy being stuck as a qb coach. He was hanging around with the Giants hoping that Gilbride would leave and become a HC somewhere (Oakland?). The Giants were not going to fire Gilbride because he still has a year left on his contract. When it became apparent that Gilbride was staying, Palmer first retired and then was wooed by the Sentinel job a few days later.

Like I said, there are two pieces of bad news in this move: (1) Palmer is leaving. (2) All indications are that Gilbride is staying. I waver from week to week as to whether Gilbride is an awful coach or just mediocre. But here's the thing: even if you think that he is mediocre - you can certainly ask yourself why the NY Giants, with an investment of $100 million in a qb, with excellent WRs and a potentially big-time, productive offense should mute its development and its productivity by saddling it with a mediocre (at best) OC.

Giants: Lessons learned from the playoffs

What follows are some random observations from the playoffs and from the Giants performance of the past year.

In the modern era of passing dominated football, you still need to have balance in your offense. You need to have a solid OL that gives the qb time to throw. You need a sound running game, to keep the defense off balance and not to allow them to defend a one-dimensional offense. In the passing game itself, you need variety in your stable of weapons. By that I mean that not only do you need good WRs, you need WR of different types - speed guys that can go deep as well as players that can catch the ball in traffic and make a play after they catch the ball. But it's more than that - you don't just need a TE, you need one that is a threat to make a play down the field and you need RB's that are threats with speed out of the backfield, to make a big play in the running game and to augment the passing game. Look at some of the teams that are successful in this year's playoffs - Vikings have a good set of WRs led by Rice as the deep threat and a play maker in Harvin but they also have Shiancoe at TE who has blossomed as a real good threat and of course have Adrian Peterson at RB who is a threat to go all the way every time he touches the ball. Saints have Colston/Shockey/Bush. Colts have a variety of weapons at WR complimented by Clark at TE and Addai at RB who are dynamic weapons. Chargers have great WRs with Gates and Sproles who are dynamic threats. The Cowboys WRs are not great, but their offense started to hum when Austin stepped up and made some plays, becasue they have a playmaker Whitten at TE and Felix Jones is a speed burner at RB. By contrast, the Eagles are a one dimensional offense, relying only on the big play from their WRs. Of course this was enough to toast the Giants pathetic defense this year, but not good enough to do anything against a strong defense like the Cowboys. Even the Jets, who do not have a big time offense started to do better when Braylon Edwards actually caught the ball, when TE Dustin Keller made some plays and Shon Greene broke some runs from the RB position. I am not analyzing every team that made the playoffs, some had a slightly different makeup. But it's clear that the Giants need to get more dynamic and varied weapons on offense. You have to be very happy with the collection of young WRs that the Giants have and the qb that is getting them the ball. But this past year, that was the only component that the Giants had of the variety that is needed to have a powerful offense. Specifically, the OL took a step backwards and was mediocre this year, not opening up big holes in the running game and offering only moderate protection for the passing game. The running game was average, with Jacobs being subpar as the power-grind-it-out RB and Bradshaw mediocre as the speed back. Furthermore, neither was a threat in the passing game. Boss is a solid player, but is not a dangerous threat in the passing game. In retrospect, with so many components missing from the offense, it's a tremendous credit to Eli and the WRs that with such limited weapons on offense, they were able be as effective as they were and win as many games as they did. (Thanks to my buddy Ray who sent me an email that motivated me to analyze the offense this way.)

With this background, it's easy to see what needs to be fixed on the offense: a great OL-man, a real play maker at RB with great speed and an an upgrade at TE. On the OL, I am assuming that Beatty will move into a starting role this year, but I would like to see one more position upgraded. With Diehl able to move around to G or T, there is a fair amount of flexibility and it almost does not matter what position on the OL gets upgraded.

Defense is interesting also. I have posted before about how important team speed is on defense and how lacking it was for the Giants in the DB-field; how the Giants need to upgrade the LBs; and how they need to get tougher in the DL. But that is somewhat simplistic - football 101 - you need speed and size on defense. What I want to stress is that it is more important than ever to have speed and athleticism in the back 7 than it used to be. With the emphasis on the passing game and with the successful offenses putting pressure on the LBs and safeties with their TEs and RBs (see paragraph 1 of this post), this is a critical need.

There is one other observation I would like to make and it came from watching the Jets defense in the playoffs and from watching a DVD of the Giants-Steelers regular season game from 2008 (when Spagnuolo was still DC), which I did over the weekend. I was whining all season long about how creative the Jets defense was compared to the Giants, how their blitz package was so unusual and how they used their players so effectively. The Jets used DBs as blitzers very often. They would load up with 6 (or sometimes 7) DBs on the field in passing situation, and use them as blitzers, often having two overload one side and come from the edge. They would also occasionally have a LB coming between the T and G on the same side of the field as these edge DB blitzers or straight up the middle. This scheme relies on speed of DBs to get to the qb and with 6 or 7 DBs on the field, you still have some DBs back, able to cover. This was much more effective that the zone blitzes the Giants relied on as a staple, because the Giants would have a DE trying to run in coverage to guard the hot receiver instead of a DB. Th Jets scheme was effective, but I have to say that it is somewhat gimmicky. They had to do this because they did not have an effective pass rush from the DL. You saw what Peyton Manning did to this blitz package in the playoff game - if you block it, you can burn them. Of course, that is the best qb in football burning that defensive scheme, so it may not be as easy it seems. A baseball metaphor would be like analyzing how to get a certain hitter out... advance scout or pitching coach advises the pitcher: Mariano Rivera got him out with cutters. Notwithstanding how effective and creative this scheme may have been, in truth, the Giants were probably not equipped to use these kinds of blitzes this year for several reasons. They did not have the personnel to do it - they did not have enough fast DBs who could get to the qb in time. Mostly though, this scheme, with blitzing DBs puts an enormous amount of pressure on the S to cover man-to-man and the Giants safeties this year were thoroughly incapable of doing so. It exposes the safeties to cover and the Giants safeties were barely able to run up and down the field, much less cover a dangerous WR man to man. This brings me to the Steelers game I watched from 2008, which lends further substance to my assertion. Perhaps you remember the game - Giants were stopped at the Steelers goal line several times in the first half and were leading 9-7 at half time. In the second half, Big Ben hit one long pass play when James Butler looked absolutely stupid trying to cover a WR and Giants were down 14-9 going into the 4th qtr. Eli moved them down for a FG making the score 14-12, and the Giants defense stopped the Steelers, getting a sack to force them to punt from their own 15. The snap was bad, over the punters head, and Giants got a safety to tie the game. After that, Eli took the Giants in for a TD to win 21-14. The point is that the Giants used lots of creative CB blitzes in that game and completely confused the Steelers. They had CBs coming from the edge and LBs occasionally coming up the middle. Several times this forced S Phillips into 1-on-1 coverage and each time he handled the situation perfectly, either making the tackle in the open field, breaking up the pass play, forcing a bad throw that led to an INT and one time making an INT himself. Pierce was still able to run then and Kehl was playing LB, so the Giants even had some speed and athleticism on the field from the LBs. Perhaps the predictability this year on defense was not all Sheridan's fault. The Giants DB-field had terrible S play and did not have enough quality, fast players at CB to do anything much more creative than they did. Furthermore, with Pierce slowing down and Boley out and injured much of the year, the LBs were simply not able to help in these schemes.

I am not saying that Sheridan should have been retained, I am just saying that his hands may have been tied by the personnel limitations on the team. The Giants were thin in the DB-field to start the year. When Phillips and Ross went out and when Dockery's play slipped, it was difficult to dial up creative blitzes and defense. Add to that the decline of the LBs and the injuries in the DL and it's not hard to understand why the defense slipped as badly as it did.

Giants: Off season musings

Sheridan

It sure looks like Bill Sheridan's career has come down to earth after a recent, sudden rise. The Dolphins announced that they hired Sheridan as their Inside Line Backers coach. That's quite a step back from his job as DC with the Giants. The Dolphins are looking for a DC after firing Paul Pasqualoni and apparently Sheridan was not considered for the DC position. He wasn't even taken as the LB coach, but only the Inside LB coach. Retrospectively, we can probably assert that this was a terrible hire by Coughlin a year ago. First, Sheridan's job as DC with the Giants was the only time in his career that he ever had a job as high as coordinator and he did it in his first stint in the NFL, with the Giants being his first trip to the pros. Sheridan's career resume looks like this:

Bill Sheridan Born: January 27, 1959, Detroit High school: De La Salle, Detroit College: Played LB at Grand Valley State Coaching career:
1985-86: University of Michigan - Graduate Assistant
1987-88: University of Maine - Linebackers Coach
1989-91: University of Cincinnati - Linebackers Coach
1992-97: Army - Linebackers Coach (1992-95), Defensive Backs Coach (1996-97)
1998-00: Michigan State University - Linebackers Coach
2001: University of Notre Dame - Safeties, Special Teams Coach
2002-04: University of Michigan - Linebackers Coach (2002), Defensive Line Coach (2003-04)
2005-09: New York Giants - Linebackers Coach (2005-08), Defensive Coordinator (2009)
2010: Miami Dolphins - Inside Linebackers Coach

Sheridan was a college position coach for 18 years, from 1987 through 2004, never with one of the dominant national programs like Alabama, USC etc. He joined the Giants first as LB coach in 2005, two years before Spagnuolo came to revive the defense. He was LB coach for 2 years before Spagnuolo arrived and served without particular distinction. When Spagnuolo arrived and revived the entire defense, Sheridan was probably riding his coat tails and had his LB's play well because of the overall improvement of the defense. He then ascended to DC in 2009 with disastrous results. By contrast, Spagnuolo's apprenticeship began in 1984. He was defensive position coach and also defensive coordinator in several college programs. He served also as defensive coordinator for a few years in NFL Europe and in one year managed to coach 9 of his 11 starters on the Frankfurt Galaxy to graduate from Europe to jobs in the NFL. After fifteen years of experience coaching he returned to the NFL in 1999 as LB coach under Jim Johnson of the Eagles and served for 4 years as the DB coach and then 4 more as LB coach. His resume and seasoning was complete. I am not saying that the only way to become a DC in the NFL is to be a coaching lifer with 20 years of experience coaching, some at the DC level and a good portion of it in the NFL. But it sure helps.

Look at the Jim Zorn experience in Washington - he had never been a coordinator at any level in his coaching career and was hired to make a big step from QB coach to OC. Before serving as a day as OC, he made the double jump directly to HC. How did that work out for him? There's no substitute for experience.


A second look back at the Giants offense of 2009

My friend Ray sent me an email and made some excellent points about the Giants offensive
performance this past year. I have copy and pasted the mail below:

Offensively, the Giants executed a huge disinformation project all year long. For most of the year, they hid the fact that Jacobs, Seubert and Hedgecock were all significantly hurt. Hence, week after week, Coughlin preached running the ball, and Jacobs promised that he would get 100 yards next week, but, in fact, the only game plan they had available to them was to have Eli throw, which, week after week, they did. It is a credit to Eli and the receivers that the offense scored as any points as it did – enough to win several games at least. And one can hope that, if those three players come back to form (a big if, I admit), the offense will be OK.

Some very good observations, as always from Ray. Ray also says that, as much as we like Kevin Boss, the Giants could use a bigger playmaker at that position. I agree. I am also eager to see more speed and playmaking from the RB position. Even if Jacobs comes back, he has never shown that he is a threat to catch passes out of the backfield, notwithstanding the one 70 yard run that he made against the Cowboys late in the year. Bradshaw was hurt all year also, but I am not confident that he has the pure breakaway speed that you need at the position. Giants need to upgrade the speed and pass catching ability at the RB position. Giants should also do something to upgrade the OL - either at T or at LG or both. They have to get younger and more athletic.

The risk is that the Giants will sit tight and presume that the injuries are the cause of the 8-8 performance this year, but I am fairly confident that Reese will avoid that trap. Remember Reese's action in the first year he took over - he got rid of a bunch of aging players that were often hurt: Pettigout, Arrington, Emmons, Demp and a few others I can't recall right now. His philosophy is that injuries are part of the game and have to be managed as part of the personnel evaluations. When a player ages and starts to get injured, the pace of continuing injuries usually increases and simply has to be considered, as cruel and cold as that seems. I expect Reese to do the same surgery this year as he did in his first year with at least some of the aging veterans that were injured this year, including: Pierce, MacKenzie, Robbins and Seubert.

Giants: playoff review

A look back at the Cowboys Season

In the biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the nephew of Abraham, Lot, is saved from the destruction along with the rest of his family. When talking about Lot's wife, the bible says in Genesis, chapter 19, verse 26:
"His wife peered behind him and she became a pillar of salt."
Biblical scholars and moralists try to draw a lesson from this action of the wife of Lot implying that her looking behind at the burning cities, was taking pleasure or drawing satisfaction in the punishment and destruction that others received. Of course, far be it from me to ignore this moral lesson and take happiness in the failure of others, but in this case, I'll make a tiny little exception. It's different when you're talking about the Dallas Cowboys - their moral status is slightly below that of the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah and there might be a little window open for one to take some glee in their demise.

I said in a post earlier in the year that I am not sure what I am hoping for as a result for the Cowboys this year. What would be more painful to their franchise - a big hit this year, where they don't make the playoffs or a little bit of success this year and a longer, slower period of suffering made more bitter because it is built on the high expectations gained from some taste of success. Here's what I mean- it's always fun to see America's team struggle; to see Cowboys fans suffer... those fans who think that they are entitled to success every year and that in effect the Superbowl trophy really belongs to them and they are just lending it to the rest of the league in years where their team doesn't win. It's particularly pleasant to see Jerry Jones squirming at another Cowboys failure, going down to the sidelines near the end of the game so he can get on camera again, and instead of a victorious, triumphant, arrogant look in his face, to have the dazed look of someone who has suffered some great indignity. That's good, don't get me wrong, but there's another side to it. If the Cowboys would have missed the playoffs entirely this year and had not won a playoff game, then Wade Phillips would surely have been fired. That would have been bad. I like Wade Phillips in Dallas; he has shown himself to be a good DC but not a great HC. He's just good enough to keep the Cowboys and their very good talent competitive enough every year, but not quite good enough to get them over the top. Some other coach would have come in and cleaned house, restored some order and some discipline and perhaps would have been able to take these Cowboys to the next level, because they do have a lot of talent. I, therefore, would much prefer a period of long slow suffering for the Cowboys rather than a short quick hit. Pull that band-aid off slowly so it hurts for a long time rather than one quick yank. Wade Phillips had a winning December record, made the playoffs, beat the Eagles in week 17 to win the NFC East division crown and won a playoff game - the first playoff win of his career and the first Cowboys playoff win in more than 10 years. With all those accomplishments, how can Jones fire Phillips? In a year when the Giants don't make the playoffs and the Cowboys do, at least we can take some enjoyment in the (likely) continued reign of Phillips in Dallas. Remember the karma angle - Wade Phillips' father Bumm is the genius who drafted George Rogers as his first draft pick for the New Orleans Saints and let Lawrence Taylor drop to the Giants.

Having said that - the Cowboys are really good - their defense has really grown. The big key is the growth of Jenkins into a very good CB. Cowboys for the past few years had an excellent front 7 but had holes in their secondary. If you could block their pass rush just a little, you could make plays against their secondary. Having two good CBs changes the equation. Phillips is a good DC and improved their defense greatly. As a side digression, with the Cowboys defense as good as it was, they sure didn't seem to miss Canty. Even with Phillips as coach, they are going to be a tough out the next several years. Romo seems to be maturing and Felix Jones is a great threat at RB. Their OL is aging but still good and they found some weapons at WR even if Roy Williams was less productive than they thought. So - I am not writing off the Cowboys, but I don't think Phillips is a great coach who can push them over the top.

Giants Needs

There are two big observations from the playoffs and what it means for the Giants rebuilding their team for the next few years. The winning teams showed athleticism and speed that the Giants just don't have. That may sound simplistic and obvious, but I am drawing a distinction between speed/athleticism and size. It is probably true that the Giants have to get a little bigger up front, but they have to get much faster and more athletic everywhere. Look at the big plays made by RBs throughout the playoffs and you'll see that they were all made because of speed, not power. Felix Jones, Reggie Bush and Shonn Green come to mind as RBs that made big plays because of breakaway speed. Partly for this reason, I wanted to keep Derrick Wrad over Jacobs, but that is water under the bridge now. Giants need to get faster at RB and have a legitimate passing threat from the RB position. As much as I like Boss at TE, he is not that fast either. The biggest area that the Giants need to improve their speed, however, is in the back 7 on defense. It's obvious at S, but at LB the lack of speed may be even more glaring. During these playoffs, I saw LBs running down field, playing in space and sticking with WRs and TEs. This is something that the Giants LBs just can't do. Of course, they do have to be athletic and have some size, it's not just speed. They can't put a track and field sprinter in at LB. But speed matters a lot.

Notwithstanding this need to have better team speed, the Giants also have to add a little size and power on the OL and DL. Giants can't completely sacrifice speed and go to oversized, un-nimble players there, but they got a little too light on the DL and OL in the past few years and need to upgrade the size there a little bit. The teams that dominated in the playoffs are the ones that won the battle at the line of scrimmage. That battle was won with size and speed, not just speed.