Kenny Phillips

The early returns are in from rookie minicamp. Manningham has shown flashes, although he did get hurt. Thomas seems in the mix. The Goff/Kehl LB tandem seems like a smart and savvy set. But Phillips impressed the most.

New York Giants 6th Round Draft Pick Andre Woodson, UFAs signed

Andre Woodson, QB from Kentucky. Value or cigar butt? Wonder was not upbeat. His slow delivery seems to be the issue with making it as a pro. The Giants see it as an oppty, and at the 6th round the price is right. Now if Barrett becomes a good safety for the Broncos (he went in the 7th), then the gmen went for the wrong value.

For the record- the New York Giants have signed 7 UFA's from/after minicamp. Their names are in the link.

John Clayton of ESPN reports on the NY Giants

1) John Clayton says that despite all the talk about Shockey, he is going to stay. The Saints were the only ones to offer anything serious for him. They offered a 2 and 5, the Giants wanted a 1. The draft is over and the Giants did not draft a TE. Despite some of the talk from Shockey and the trade ideas, no trade is going to get done so Shockey is going to remain a Giant.

2) John Clayton says that it looks like Strahan is leaning toward retirement. A lot of players Strahan speaks to have left them as confused as all of us. Strahan spoke with Tuck yesterday and even Tuck is confused. At this point Strahan's head simply is not in football and the speculation is (see Antonio Pierce remarks from Thursday May 8) that he is not going to be able to summon up the desire to do battle when he has gotten his prized ring.

I think that Clayton has a good and unbiased sense of what is there and what is NOT there for these players. At this moment in time it looks like Strahan will not be in uniform on opening day and that Shockey will be.

The other half of the Jeremy Shockey question...

resides with the offensive coordinator, Kevin Gilbride. We have been arguing since the beginning of December when he went down (and even before that while he was mired in lack of pass production) that the Jeremy Shockey question was shared with his coordinator. Kevin Gilbride, with notable exception in Game 9 (Week 10) vs the Cowboys after the bye, repeatedly did not feature the starting TE in the passing game. Indeed it seemed that stonehands rookie Matthews got more passes at times than Shockey. Yesterday Gilbride talked to the media a little bit about our starting TE, and it does not sound good. While I am the first person to admit that you cannot have a player dictating to a coach how he should be played, I have been saying all along that that use is flawed. So what now? It seems that Shockey does not want this rift to go away because he wants to be used more than the Giants can commit to. Shockey is under contract- he needs to support his team until they as managers can make it work. They did not make it work until he went down and Smith/Bradshaw came into the offense. Shockey for his part has to realize there are more weapons than ever in this offense and that he can help this team win with just a few more touches than he has been receiving. Stay healthy. Celebrate touchdowns. Block for the running game. Have Gilbride not waste your receiver talents. Show up for camp, shut your mouth and play.

New York Giants rookie minicamp

A look in on the first day of Rookie Minicamp

Streaming reports from Garafolo of the Ledger

Kenny Phillips interviewed at Minicamp

Terrell Thomas interviewed at Minicamp

Mario Manningham interviewed at Minicamp

Bryan Kehl interviewed at Minicamp

In Praise of the best New York Giants Defensive End of All Time- Michael Strahan

I started to comment to Cody in the previous post and it quickly became obvious that this two sentence reply to acknowledge #92 was becoming an ode to a living legend. Like it or not, even though Michael Strahan was going to Canton in a limousine before the 2007 Championship run, now he is going to get even more recognition for the accomplishments AND the ring.

What started this out was the reminder from Cody about Strahan's unheralded skill in stopping the run. Sacks are an easy stat to measure for the ability of a pass rusher. True, they do not include pressures, which as we all know was as important a reason for the beating of Tom Brady in Super Bowl XLII as anything else accomplished that evening. But how do you really quantify the ability of a lineman (or LB or CB or S, for that matter) to play the run? In short, it is next to impossible. Looking at tackles made is insane because the defense may be set up for a NT to take on two men while the LB is free to get the RB unencumbered. Similarly, a Safety can have lots of tackles, but perhaps that simply implies the LBs were shoddy tacklers lacking in speed who let it get to that point where a tackle should not have even been necessary. THE ONLY WAY TO APPRECIATE THE ENORMOUS SKILLS OF MICHAEL STRAHAN AS A RUN DEFENDER WAS TO WATCH HIM AT THE STADIUM. There, you could focus on what he did WELL BEFORE THE BALL WAS EVEN GOING TO HIS SIDE. Just like RBs like Barry Sanders and Gale Sayers could see the field and make a cut effortlessly to find a hole that was not there a second ago, Michael Strahan would CONTINUOUSLY over and over again make all the right moves and find the hole that the runner was going to before he knew where he was going. Strahan's ability to use leverage and technique in pass rushing has been analyzed and dissected by many over the years, but he uses that same technique to shed blockers on runs. He is rarely out of place and wonderously has not lost a step in enabling runners to go around him... if they do, he always forces them to go so wide that the rest of the defense is given that extra split second it needs to come up in support and make the tackle.

One of my favorite plays of the season for Michael Strahan was against Tampa Bay in the playoffs. Going up against the wily veteran in Jeff Garcia, Strahan was sucked in to pass rushing but quickly set his feet and adjusted to deflect a pass to the RB just above the line of scrimmage. It was part of a key defensive stop in taking away and controlling tempo in the game. His presence on the field is a menace to the opposition because he shuts so many things down and makes it so much easier for the other 10 players. The statistics of the team for wons-losses the past 3-4 seasons when he is starting vs the games where he is out is so gaudy that it is almost embarrassing for the hard work and efforts of the other 21 starters (and coaching staff). In 2006, for example, the Giants had just beaten Atlanta and Dallas on the road and were arguably the best team in the league. The team started losing players to injury but when Strahan went down that was it.

No one will replace Strahan when he leaves. We can hope he gives the team adequate warning this time (last year's training camp saga one of the few blemishes on an otherwise storied career) to his intentions so that Kiwanuka and the LBers are able to get the reps in training camp at whatever positions they take in the regular season. At this point we have almost as much confidence in Spagnuolo to get the defense ready as we do in Strahan to close down the left side. However long we havehad Strahan, it has been a great ride. I think I can speak for Cody and everyone else that "(we'll) miss him when he's gone."

Will Michael Strahan play another year?

Antonio Pierce chimed in with his view on whether Strahan will play another year. I do not believe that anyone really 'knows' or not... I truly do not think Strahan has made up his mind. I think he wants the money because his ex-wife took a chunk of money out of the divorce. No, he does not NEED the money, but he wants to maintain a lifestyle and will not make nearly the money in broadcasting that he is making as a player. He can play just one more year and perhaps make more than any other year he has played. The thing that gives me a small bias that he will return is that sometime in March his agent did make preliminary inquiries with the Giants. In case anyone here thinks it is so simple, contrast Pierce's take on Strahan with Toomer's. Two people, two views. Who REALLY knows?

How many of you out there think the Giants would have won the Super Bowl without Strahan? That is how important he is. We can win without him if a healthy Kiwi steps in and gives us the healthy rotation you need in order to spell linemen in a 60 minute game. (... you have to assume SOMEONE gets hurt during the season.) I thought Strahan was about as effective as he has ever been in his career, once he got past those first 3-4 games because of the lack of camp. That was why he still had gas left in the tank on February 3rd. He really needs a different set of rules in camp if he does return. I think that the new Coughlin understands that.

If anyone out there in ultimatenygland has a strong opinion and a strong reason why he retires or returns, pls comment. It still feels like a coin toss.

Strahan speculation, Diehl contract extension

Here comes the parade of players wanting contract extensions, including Snee and Burress mentioned. Diehl deserves an extension because he was getting Guard money for Tackle time. Also, with no OLinemen drafted and Whimper the only remote possibility of threatening his job security, Reese has to pay the man. Not mentioned was Umenyiora; thankfully he is not going to hold out but he will still want to get an extension.

Radio Interview with Terrell Thomas from WFAN 5/1/08

Richard G., one of the charter members of this blog, has been an advocate of getting the best football players from the best programs. That mantle used to belong to Miami and now he is now focusing more on the players from Pete Carroll's USC program as the new source of NFL-ready talent. Terrell Thomas talks about coming out of that system and how it gives him confidence that he can and will contribute to the Giants.Sometimes it is simply reading between the lines, but when you listen to Thomas talk about what he expects of himself it sounds like he is ready. Two USC guys from Round 2 in a row? That feels like a good niche for the Giants.

Do you start in your first game as a rookie?

With the exception of QB, ultimatenyg believes that the question a franchise should ask itself when picking that first rounder is- WILL THIS PLAYER START GAME ONE AS A ROOKIE? Some players are shot out like a cannon. They enter into the league and instead of fighting for a roster spot or playing time, they start game 1. And then they never leave. If it takes time to get settled into the league and a rookie takes a few games or a full season to break into the starting rotation, that is not a stain. No shame. But your #1 pick is different. This is one of the ~32 best players in the country by your own evaluation. Considering there are almost 1700 players on the roster for NFL teams, if you cannot find a player that can break in as a starter, then something is probably wrong. (DE is a second position next to QB that is extremely difficult for 22 year olds to physically manage, thereby making drafting one in the first round a true test of whether the choice is merited.)

This is not an ironclad rule. Matthias Kiwanuka is a good example of a very good pick at #32 in the first round. At DE, he was not expected to supplant two players (Umenyiora and Strahan) who went to the Pro Bowl the preceding year.

Here is a list of starters in Game 1 of their rookie season for the New York Giants in the past ten years.
2006 Cofield
2004 Wilson
2003 Diehl
2002 Shockey
(If you can comment on a player I may have missed, appreciated. My database does not give granularity, so a mistake is possible here.)

The point is that guys like Ronnie Lott and Lawrence Taylor, two notables who started their first game as a Pro and never left, cannot be held back. They move at a different speed and the pro game almost adjusts to them and not the other way around. Shockey was the same way, knocking over bodies in 2002's preseason like bowling pins en route to an easy Pro Bowl selection. (...which is why I still maintain to this day that he is a resource which is woefully mismanaged.)

Will Kenny Phillips start for the Giants in Game 1? This will go a long way to determining whether he is a good pick for the Giants. The Giants have the following coming to camp at this position:
1) Butler- a starter noted for his efficient tackling but slow speed
2) Johnson- a #7 rounder who started a handful of games as a rookie after others got hurt, plays with aggressiveness (a polite way of saying that he is playing hard but does not necessarily make all the right decisions yet)
3) Knight- a smart veteran who plays strong up at the line yet (because of age) can get beat by a TE in coverage

The logic is that this is not a particularly deep set of incumbents. If Phillips is any good he should be starting against Washington on Thursday night in the Meadowlands.

ESPN's McShay reviews the NFC East draft

I usually pay little attention to these draft recaps. What was of note is that McShay said almost precisely what Wonder said about Phillips, that this was not a first rounder and that Tyrell Johnson was the better pick. Reese feels differently, and considering Reese's track record as a scout and GM in 2007, he will get the benefit of the doubt. The Giants rated Phillips not only as the best Safety in the draft but also very high on an absolute basis for talent, so that stands at odds with the evaluation of Wonder. If Phillips is the starter for the Giants in Game 1 that will be the first test to determine if the Giants did well.

Will the New York Giants be complacent defenders of their Super Bowl crown?

For any Giant fan able to remember the seasons following all three previous Super Bowl appearances, each following season was one to quickly forget. All three were asterisk seasons of one variety or another.

1987 The Replacements. While the Maras were toeing the line for the NFL against the players' union, the other teams were quietly giving unofficial contracts to the best of the replacement players in front of the lockout. When the strike was announced and teams could now speak to non-union players, the Giants found out that all the good replacements were mysteriously gone, having signed immediately after the strike began. The team went 0-3 during the strike and never recovered. Nice guys finish last.

1991 You owe it to yourself to read "Good to Great" by Jim Collins (see Ultimatenyg Book Club link on right side) for understanding this season's demise. Collins points out the "Level 5 leader," for whom the organization's success is more important than his/her own press clippings. In order for an organization to have SUSTAINED success the leader must groom a successor or multiple successors so that the business can continue to excel. We all love Parcells for giving us two championships, but his abrupt exit in MAY 1991 was NOT what Level 5 leaders do. In fact, if we look at the way Parcells left the Giants, Patriots and Jets, and if we look at the way he scorned franchises like Tampa Bay and Atlanta, it is all about Parcells and not about the organizations he works for. Indeed, many leaders of less than great companies are out to prove that THEY are the reason for the company's success. When they leave and the company subsequently stumbles/suffers, we are supposed to fawn over the exited leader for being the singular reason for the success of the team. THE BEST LEADERS ARE THE ONES WHO LEAVE STRUCTURE IN PLACE FOR CONTINUED SUCCESS AFTER THEIR DEPARTURE. Contrast Parcells to the way that Young and Accorsi each laid the groundwork for a smooth transition to a capable successor. Collins' book has zero to do with football but has everything to do with the implosion of 1991-1992.

2001 In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King. Ultimatenyg did an exposé on the myth of Jim Fassel. The era of his reign was marked by such poor coaching in the NFC East that it fostered mediocrity in the Meadowlands. Fassel could not ONCE orchestrate consecutive winning seasons because the 'players coach' and strength of schedule insured that the team could not handle prosperity. Even during the special 2000 season when the team went 12-4, it only had a non-division record of 5-3.

Where have you gone Giants Linebacker?

2008 Kehl4 Goff5
2007 DeOssie4
2006 Wilkinson3
2004 Torbor4
2002 Griesen5 Mallard6
2000 Short4 Jones6
1999 Childress7

*Are these picks weak? No.
*Are any of them particularly exciting? We obviously have to wait for the jury on Wilkinson, DeOssie (as a LB, not his good specials), Goff and Kehl.
*See a trend? No doubt about it.
*Are you thinking what I am thinking? Yep, another patch job.

Reggie Torbor/Brandon Short/Dhani Jones... these guys helped our team, but did any of them make you feel that they were going to help the defense impose their will on the other team's offense? They did their jobs, and once in a while they made a nice play, but that was it. Is that what we have in store for ourselves with one of the last lot? We certainly went for defensive help in the secondary by drafting a Safety in Round 1 and a Cornerback in Round 2. If these guys in the secondary can be big and strong and play the run big and strong, then the Giants by default become this 4-2-5 nickel defense, or even 5-1-5 when they rush that fifth man (remember Kawika Mitchell in the Super Bowl) to keep the pressure on the QB. LB gets outsourced.

Sinorice Moss, James Butler and Jared Lorenzen interviewed

New York Giants visit Bush and the White House