The stresses of keeping together a Super Bowl winner are immense. Reese has the cap room. The players know this. Reese cuts players he does not feel are worth it, so now that he has a bunch of players that are all (on the surface) worth it as 'champions,' he will have to sort through the ones he thinks want to be champions AGAIN.
Between UFA's like Wilson and Mitchell, and guys under contract like Strahan, Umenyiora, and Burress, you have to know Reese is juggling a lot of issues. He'll figure it out and make work whatever needs to be done. At this point he certainly has earned himself the benefit of the doubt on his decisions.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Burress et al
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6 comments:
Hey, great blog, man. Question: What's the story with the Giants' cap? Where can one get information on this?
I actually read it in a random article that they were ~21M or 22M under the cap, which was the lowest (and best) as compared to the rest of the NFC East.
Here is a site below. I cannot vouch for its accuracy, but it seems to have good/updated info.
http://www.askthecommish.com
there is a link which leads to a list for all teams. It has the gmen at ~23M under.
Nice link, thanks. There used to be this great site called Giantscap.com, but I think it became defunct after 2005 or something.
On another topic, do you think we can get Kawika back on the cheap like we did last year? Do you know what Torbor's status is? It doesn't seem like we'd miss Kawika much with Torbor and Wilkinson (and possibly Dan Connor or one of those other pretty good OLBs available).
I guess much of the answer depends on what happens with Kiwanuka, and by extension, Strahan. But I'm with you on Kiwanuka: he was pretty dissappointing at OLB.
It is not that Kiwanuka was 'bad' going into coverage. For starters, he was getting better at it before going down at midseason. It is just a philosophy that your impact players should be put in a position to do their thing and let others work around THEM. I understand full well that the Giants are somewhat greedy in wanting Umenyiora, Strahan, Tuck and Kiwanuka on the field on as many downs as possible. None of these players are 'built' for coverage. They are built for taking QBs heads off.
Mitchell will certainly not come as cheap as last year, but the early word is that the Gmen will have a decent chance of re-signing him. The more plays of 2007 I saw in review, the more I saw Mitchell making A LOT of plays. The defensive line made him look better, but to be fair to him, he did get his job done. If Spags like him enough he will be a Giant, if not he will not. That summation is not the case for Wilson. The Giants like Wilson a lot but he may want (and get) too much money from someone else.
Whenever Torbor comes in, the defense seems to hold together. In that sense, if his price is okay he is a cog in the team. But you have to get better each year, so I want our LBs and secondary to improve to make us a dominant defense. Torbor does not make our defense dominant. Neither does Kiwanuka as a LB. If we can upgrade at LB, the Torbors of the world will ultimately lose their spots on the roster.
I have expressed my confusion about Wilkinson on Friday's post. He seems to have speed. He seems to get less playing time. This will be his third year- time to shine or get dropped from the roster.
Re: Wilkinson, I think his preseason injury caused him to fall behind Torbor on the depth chart, which explains Torbor's ascension to the starting spot after 'Nuke went down. One has to assume that Wilkinson's lack of burn had more to do with the time missed because of the injury, coupled with Torbor's experience/half-decency, than it does with talent. At least one hopes...
Re: Torbor, I think you might underestimate the value of a low-cost placeholder. The key to success in the Age of the Cap is determining which guys are worthy of big contracts and which guys are glorified placeholders. With all due respect to Kawika Mitchell, who had a surprisingly awesome year, I'm not sure the difference between him and a number of other guys (Torbor comes to mind first) is worthy of precious cap space.
Re: Kiwanuka, it will all depend on Strahan. If he retires, 'Nuke is our third end, which Tuck showed this past year is a pretty valuable full-time role. In that scenario, Tuck would slide over to DT (at which he's probably a better pass-rusher) on passing downs.
If Strahan doesn't retire, we'll try the OLB experiment with 'Nuke again.
Great blog, by the way -- I'm glad to have found it!
thx Greg. The best way to thank me is by simply telling other Giants fans about the site. Btw, where are you in the US? You can find me at Giants games in the 8th Row of Section 307.
Your remark about Torbor and his cost is a decent one. But this is where the team, if successful, drafts a special strong side LB at the end of Round 1, and then Wilkinson and Pierce and this new one combine with the defensive line to shut down opposing offenses TOTALLY. This defense has the foundation to do it big time. They will lose Wilson but they can get even better. EVERY defense loses someone each year, the Gmen will youth making them stronger... guys like Ross and Johnson and Alford and Kiwanuka and Tuck (24!!!) and Umenyiora and Cofield and Webster are all babies!
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