OTAs: 3 weeks of practices

Osi Umenyiora: "I feel explosive."

Gilbride speaks to Giants.com

Our fearless offensive offensive coordinator sat down with John Schmeelk of Giants.com for a video interview...

Giants.com:"Six out of the seven first picks are all on your side of the ball. That must have been pretty exciting for you!?!"

Kevin Gilbride:"It definitely is exciting, but maybe it's an indictment of where we were at the end of last year..."

To be fair to Gilbride, the Giants picked up Canty, Boley, Bernard and Brown in free agency, so we were not surprised that Reese was going to put more draft picks on the offensive side of the ball. But all humor is based in truth, and Gilbride KNOWS he has to answer the critics. Coughlin knows as well.

There will be pressure to get Nicks involved this year. And there will be a lot of pressure on Moss, Manningham, Hixon and Tyree to produce. As evidenced by Gilbride's admission, Steve Smith is the only player who is in a fairly clear position of having a sizeable role before camp starts.

When Gilbride discussed the RBs, it was clear that Ahmad Bradshaw was not going to get anything handed to him. Good. We may be the Bradshawlics, but Bradshaw needs to work for everything he gets, and that includes protecting the ball and earning those carries. If he takes care of business, he should earn that coveted #2 backup spot behind Jacobs and deliver dividends for the Giants. It will be his third year. No excuses.

Papa on Burress

Incredible. That noise you just heard is the sound of my jaw hitting the floor.

If Bob Papa is correct, then Burress is truly his own worst nightmare. For him to pass up a deal with 3 months jail time and only 2 months served was another sign that this man is an ignoramus. This was precisely the deal he NEEDED to get back on the playing field in 2009. The expert criminologists concluded he was not being offered anything like this. For him to pass that up was mind-boggling. He could have still been a Giant if he took the deal, and get this... he would practically be out of jail by the time you are done reading this post!

The Giants have gotten back to business without this sideshow. This revelation is yet more evidence that the Giants made the correct move in cutting ties. You can bring a horse to water but you can't make him drink. How do you deal with a person professionally when they behave irrationally ..all too frequently?! At a certain point you give up and move on. NEXT.

The best line from Papa: "He does not understand that he is not in any kind of position of leverage."

And there you have it, in a nutshell, why Burress is his own worst enemy. We said that he continually shows poor judgment. He never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Locker Room Voice

Q: Who is the voice of the Giants?

a) Antonio Pierce
b) Justin Tuck
c) Brandon Jacobs
d) Shaun O'Hara
e) Eli Manning

Well, this one is debatable. On any given day it may actually be any one of these people. Pierce is the spokesperson and onfield leader of the defense. Thomas George of NFL.com puts his vote here with AP.

But Pierce became noticably more quiet after gun-gate. And his unspectacular play has been less than leader-like. Jacobs is certainly the alpha male right now, the emotional pregame huddle guy who this blogger believes gets the nod.
Tuck is the young Pro Bowler who is speaking out more.

Don't sell Eli completely short, as he is gaining in seniority. ALL of his WRs, TEs and RBs have less experience than him. And only O'Hara and McKenzie have more years.

Without getting too nostalgic, Strahan was THE voice. But that is the past. Given how short the career life of a RB is, combined with Pierce having seen his best days, and Tuck could become THE voice quicker than any of us think.

Is this discussion window dressing? Leadership is critical for championships. Strahan joked how old he was, still playing football in 2007. Yet he was the one who was stomping them out in the pregame huddle. There is never enough good leadership in the lockerroom, sidelines or on the field.

Around the league...

Still clueless after all of these years

This story would be sad if it were not so pathetically embarrassing. Baseball is going down like the Titanic and they think it is the damn iceberg that caused the wreck!

WAKE UP!

Interest in baseball is eroding because:
a) we're tired of watching 38 pitching changes every inning
b) games last too long
c) the World Series ends at 1AM
d) steroids have made a mockery of the competition
e) you have to pay ridiculous prices to see overpaid athletes not run out ground balls
f) complete inequity between franchises
G) BUD SELIG IS TALKING TO FOX INSTEAD OF LISTENING TO THE FAN

We here at the Ultimatenyg NY Giants Football Blog will rip Roger Goodgrief just as soon as soon as we will rip Bud Sellout. Football, Baseball. The #1 important thing is to protect the quality of the game or else there is NO GAME. This is why we spent numerous posts bringing attention to fact that there is no free lunch in lengthening the NFL regular season. DILUTION is the cancer.

Reread the linked WSJ article at the top. FRIGHTENING! "Fox Sports spokeman Lou D'Ermilio confirmed network executives will head to Milwaukee next week to strategize with Commissioner Bud Selig about reversing the downward trends." Strategize?! Are these guys kidding?! THIS IS OUTRIGHT DENIAL. Go tell Fox that the commissioner needs to rebuild the integrity of the game. That he needs to cut out all of the timeouts and speed the game up so that it lasts 2:20 minutes instead of 3:00. Fox? They would have a canary. They are part of the (Bud) Sellout a long time ago. In order for baseball to reverse this sinking ship they will need to do something radical... true bonafide acceptance of a problem. The headline says it all- "mysterious ratings slump." Mysterious. Well, that is logical. How can two entities find a solution if THEY ARE THE PROBLEM?!

More odds and ends

The cost of obtaining Haynesworth may yet exceed 100M for the Redskins... possible tampering charge being investigated by the NFL.

Syracuse Orange play Big Red Cornell today at 1PM in the Lacrosse Championship. (Yes, this is what happens to football fans in May.) Cornell shocked UVA. (Automatic audio.)

Odds and Ends

Coughlin did not say anything particularly new in this video, but it does review the state of the gmen. (Audio kicks in automatically.)

Injuries? A longer NFL season? Here is reason 23b for why lengthening the NFL season is without foundation.

You know ticket price increases are coming. Better for the Giants to get revenue this way than raising tickets prices any more than they have to.

The NFL Network and Comcast

8 games.

Yes, the NFL Network has plenty of news coverage all year round, but in terms of original programming content, it has 8 games. So for the NFL Network to ask for 50M households to pay 75 to 80 cents per month is EGREGIOUS! Do the math.. that is $465M. This was going on for FIVE YEARS. Finally Goodgrief seems to have come to his senses and capitulated, getting 40 cents per household per month from 10M people on a digital classic subscription, which is $48M. This is the first sane move we have seen Goodgrief make. He came back to reality and realized that a fraction of something was bigger than 100% of nothing.

Corey Webster, Elder Stateman. The dynamics of the Defensive Line.

Mike Eisen of Giants.com writes an article on Madison and McQuarters no longer being with the Giants. But the story ends up being all about Corey Webster as the senior member of the backfield. Nothing like turnover of players in the NFL. Youth is served.

An interesting item from DL Coach Mike Waufle: “The thing that I believe is that in the National Football League it is too difficult to play the schedule and to play that many games and not get physically beaten up,” Waufle said. “If you watch film of everybody, you see that there is more physical hitting in September than there is at the end of the season. Because guys just get beat up. It is fact. I told the players that if we can do this, if we can remain unselfish, then we can be more durable at the end of the season. The plays that you do play, you should be more productive. Those three things – unselfishness, durability and you get a chance to more productive -- then it is a good thing. All three of those are good things; positive things. When you are unselfish and a team player – that is what Coach (Tom) Coughlin preaches all of the time.”

If you want to get simple about 2007 and 2008: in 2007 the team had superior DL depth and was able to survive the loss of Kiwanuka, in 2008 the team did not have superior DL depth and could not survive the loss of (Strahan and) Umenyiora. I had an interesting conversation with a local friend who happens to be a Jet fan. I was able to articulate something that really crystalizes the NFL in 2009 more than ever... This game is not about 22 starters and your reserves. It is about 26 starters and your reserves, where the 11+11 starters also have 4 DLinemen who ARE going to see significant playing time throughout the year. ALL EIGHT DLINEMEN SEE PLENTY OF TIME.

UMENYIORA
KIWANUKA
COFIELD
ROBBINS
ALFORD
CANTY
BERNARD
TOLLEFSON
TUCK

Without getting too carried away, you could "start" two squads from here. GOOD. Because essentially these guys are ALL starters anyway, IF NOT IN NAME. Tuck, Cofield, Robbins.. these guys wore down last year. I'd carry all NINE of them on the roster if I could. ALL STARTERS.

Separately, Cutler. Ya think he could throw the ball in Dec and Jan in the Meadowlands?!

Over/Under for 2009

Here is a look at the 2009-2010 over/under numbers for team totals.

Giants 10.5
Cowboys 9.5
Eagles 9
Skins 8

My initial reaction is to buy the Eagles and sell the Cowboys. Sure, Owens was a circus distraction. But who does Romo throw to? Roy Williams and Jason Witten? They lost enough players, and as long as Wade Phillips is around, he provides more questions than answers. As we mentioned here before, Maclin can provide an immediate boost to the Eagles' specials. I'll bet that spread and take the Eagles +0.5 over the Cowboys.

This is the first time in recent memory seeing a number this high for the Giants. I think what impresses the professional bettors (remember, this Vegas line is about balancing the money, and that means the professionals who dominate this, NOT us the retail* money ) is that the Giants have been able to handle prosperity. Winning 12 games last year despite losing Shockey, Strahan, Wilson, Mitchell and Umenyiora.. AFTER a Super Bowl WIN.. got a lot of attention. So for a team that was one and done in the playoffs after a 12 win season, the professionals have to expect that the Giants are going to be competitive week-in-week-out.

If we walk through the Giants' schedule, it is simply too early to map out wins and losses. There are too many players who have yet to get injured in preseason (for us and/or our opponents). Plus, the Giants play a total of 8 games vs teams who went to the playoffs last year and another 4 games against teams that were in the hunt. Too many variables. The only forecast we'll make right here is the Eagles +0.5 over the Boys. We'll check back on that when preseason is over for any updates.

Btw, did you see the Week 1 lines are already out?! (Click through the above link to find all 16 games.) The Giants are -5.5 over the Redksins.

* speaking about retail, perhaps the Boys are higher than we think because as "America's Team" they get sufficient retail money bet on them from an inordinate amount of fans relative to other franchises.

David Diehl at the Comix Comedy Club TONIGHT

David Diehl will be at the Comix Comedy Club TONIGHT in Manhattan. A portion of the proceeds will go to Project Sunshine, a charity which helps children who have cancer and other illnesses. Come out and support Dave and this charity.

Sinorice Moss

Kevin Gilbride on Moss:

Q: What makes you think Sinorice Moss will flourish?

A: Because I think last year he had his best year and again, I said to him a couple of times at the end, “We are sitting you down but it is not because you are not contributing.” Because I think he was playing pretty good football. And every time we threw him the ball – I may be off by one – but I think every throw we made to him, he made; he made the catch. And there is a place for his speed and his quicks that I thought he did a much better job last year. And he always, for a little guy, gets after people blocking, which helps in the running game; he does those things. So I think his confidence is a little bit improved. I think our confidence in him is a little bit expanded. So I think it is reasonable to think that he can maybe take one more step forward as he did last year and become a guy that gets a chance to play. Last year it really just came down to the kicking game. We wound up just sitting him down because he wasn’t contributing as much as some other guys were on special teams.

I am still puzzled. This is my problem with KG. He leaves me puzzled more often than not. If it were one player I would be fine, but the problem is that Smith, Boss, Bradshaw AND MOSS all could have helped this offense a lot more and all (except Boss, at the very end) were denied more involvement. So when it is 4 players I start thinking lack of adjustments and lack of leverage of personnel.

I was of the wrong opinion after 2007 that Moss was headed to the dreaded "bust" tag, but he really played well in limited appearances in 2008.

vs SEA: "Moss! This praise for one player after another is going to get tiresome. Limited snaps obviously went way up this game and he made the most of them, with 2 TDs and a lot of fine play."

vs MINN: "Moss looked very good. He has the speed to stretch the defense, not as big a target as a Boss for that long reception, but use him to keep the defense honest."

The reason why I am so confounded is that obviously there is something there, we see it, even Gilbride sees it. I am at a loss to explain why he could not help us more last season. Obviously he can help next season, and if he has a strong camp he can step out of the shadows and make an impact. The exciting thing about camp is that without Toomer and Burress, there is tremendous OPPORTUNITY for a lot of players to get more reps, to step up their game. We saw Hixon take advantage last season, right before our very eyes in preseason. He missed the Toomer toe, then practiced it and a week later was making great grabs and getting those (two) feet inbounds. For Moss to play the slot now and step up, I do not see why (other than his height, a problem for Eli, who tends to throw high on a good day, nevertheless a bad one) he cannot exploit that and then go deep just when the defense is thinking short.

Extras:
Coughlin mic'd for rookie minicamp (remember, he was a WRs coach for Parcells back in the day)
Kevin Boss .. what a load! 6'6" and now he weighs 270?!! If he still has decent TE speed, he can be an animal! You have to figure Manning is going to be MOST comfortable going to this BIG target.

DC Bill Sheridan comments, so does the NFL Commissioner

Video from Bill Sheridan media interview last week.

No transcript was available. Summary:

1) Sintim: "Did well rushing the QB out of the nickel. Has a knack/natural pass rush ability. He's going to be a very good OLB. Big kid, smart, will do a good job over the TE."

2) Wright and Woodson: They are getting used to playing up front on the press coverage at the line of scrimmage, so them getting beat behind is not worrisome at all at this early learning stage.

3) Making a splash:
Maurice Evans ("quickness and explosion")
Calvin Smith ("plays his tail off")
Bruce Johnson ("smaller, excellent quickness")
Shareef Rashad ("more than ambitious in run support, good cover guy")

Separately, nfl.com reports that the owners WILL discuss lengthening the regular season. Note how Goodgrief refers to it as the "20 game framework." Another con artist! He's trying to mix metaphors. Goodgrief wants you to think there is linkage in removing 2 garbage preseason games and replacing them with 2 regular season ones. What really should happen is they should remove 1 or 2 preseason games PERIOD. But they will never do that, because they are too busy soaking the seasons tickets holders and making them buy those borefests. Since the 1st squad players only make token appearances in these scrimmages, their "contact" is not equivalent to the real McCoy, the regular season. Goodgrief knows this. THE PLAYERS KNOW THIS ALL TOO WELL. If the NFL passes this, which it will not (update: confirmed will not), it will get immediate objection from the players union and will add to diffulties in getting a new labor agreement.

"20 game framework." Who the brown does this guy think he is kidding? This should be a warning to all of you football fans out there- the NFL commissioner should not be trusted.

Rhett Bomar

1) Interesting piece from a week ago on Bomar. It is easier to understand why Wonder gets excited about a later round draft pick like this. Yes, there are going to be the Mannings and Elways who go from Point A to Point B in a straight line. They get a smooth ride to the pros w/o the blemishes and get picked in the first round. But as we all know, the round (pedigree) you were drafted in does not (in and of itself) determine success or failure in the NFL. William Joseph the pedigree is a bust. Antonio Pierce the UFA climbed to the Pro Bowl.

Bomar's path to the NFL was anything but a straight line from Point A to Point B. This is why the draft is intriguing year after year. The NFL gives you a 5th round pick every year along with that 1st round choice, so you leverage that opportunity. As we stated in an earlier post, the Giants have a successful organization that does well in the draft, averaging two starters from each draft class. That means that by the time you get to the 4th or 5th round, you can take a chance. Wonder likes his value, and you see why. Bomar could be a 1st round pick and still be a bust! He can be a 5th round pick and arguably have a better shot at making it in the pros because the Giants can groom him with good habits and afford him every opportunity to learn the offense so that he is in a position to succeed. Sometimes you have to be LUCKY ENOUGH to go to the NFL via Sam Houston State. The Giants are playing with house money on this one. The risk (minimal) vs the reward (always huge for a QB) is one of the reasons why the Giants had a very good draft.

2) NFL.com is conducting a chat with Aaron Ross. For those of you who want to ask him a question in advance, here is the link.

3) The NFL's Spring Meeting in Ft. Lauderdale takes place tomorrow and Wednesday. We are of the understanding that the league will NOT be discussing a proposal to expand the regular season. (FYI, I asked Aaron Ross: You have been hurt and lost playing time due to injury at the end of the season/playoffs in both of your years in the NFL. What do you think of ideas being floated to increase the number of games in the regular season?)

Special Delivery

Special Delivery

... and this one is great just for the scene with Calvin Johnson