Back in March of 2005, Burress' agent tried to make an arms race between the Giants and a few other teams. Burress shows up at Giants Stadium. The agent does not accompany him, meaning that a deal is not likely to get done. This maneuver by the agent pissed the Giants off big time. The Giants told his agent that once Burress left them their interest was done. In an unusual move, the Giants then went out of their way to tell the media and the world that they no longer had interest in Burress. This was a way of telling the agent that they were not letting him shop their interest. It served to tell other teams that they should be wary of the agent's gaming tactics. And lastly, it directly undermined the player's value. After Burress went to look at the Vikings, he fired his agent, got Drew Rosenhaus and got a deal done with the Giants. The date was March 17, 2005, and Plaxico Burress took jersey #17 for the day of the contract. Three years later he is a Super Bowl champion wearing Giant blue.
The story reminds us that the Giants will not be leveraged. They go one and one, but once you leave you are done. And as they have shown so many times, they will go the cheaper route if they have to. It is interesting to note that Accorsi signed THREE BIG PLAYERS that month: Antonio Pierce, Kareem McKenzie and Plaxico Burress. Nice haul. ALL THREE WERE A BIG FOUNDATION FOR THE 2007 YEAR AND SUPER BOWL WIN. Reese still must respect that element of the front office. He is a scout, and wants to win with the players he drafts. That is great, but you need to go after a special player once in a while because he is a proven source who can help a need and win you a championship. Reese is not Accorsi, but he has to respect that Accorsi was a part of his success last year when he did not chase the next round of free agents. He had others from Accorsi's years to fall back on.
Summary- using cheap replenishments in free agency exclusively only works when you already have a great deal of talent and are very successful in the draft. There is too much talent lost in free agency for a team to reasonably assume that it will not need to use this player pool to improve the roster.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Burress, Accorsi and Reese
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Good comment. I would add that although I respect Accorsi's body of work, and a SPECTACULAR line on his resume will be having the guts to pull the trigger on the Manning trade, his overall grade should be very good, not great. No SB wins as a GM. Fell in love with guys like Tim Carter, gambled too much on potential guys like Sean Bennett and Brian Alford. TRUE, the 2007 team had his prints all over it, but his final team, the 2006 team, finished 8-8. With MANY INJURIES to older players. Reese came in, cut Petitgout, Emmons and Arrington on his first day, added Ross, Smith, Bradshaw, Boss and Alford in the draft, picked up Huixon off the wire.
Another credit to Accorsi: he said the other # 1 pick he left the Giants was Jerry Reese. The GM is probably the most important person in any organization, including the head coach.
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