NFL-Giants: NY Giants football news

The Daily News thinks Warner is coming to New York for about 3 million. They also give a nice rundown on his career and talk about his wife a bit. Others are still talking about other teams who may offer Warner a contract. No names though. USA Today also expects to see Warner become a Giant but raises serious questions about his ability to play. Still, like they say, the Giants don’t have many options and Warner has even fewer if he wants a good chance to start.

ESPN compared the Giants offseason this year to their one in 2000 and to the recent New England Patriots, because the Giants have not been overpaying for veterans. The Tampa Bay Bucs are the only other team adhereing to the New England model according to this article. ESPN expects the Giants to get 7-8 new starters from the acquisitions but not a trip to the superbowl.

The Giants signed Brent Alexander, who has had 4 interceptions in each of the last three years playing for the Steelers (where he played under defensive coordinator, Tim Lewis). His experience should be an improvement of Ryan Clark, who was cut. Although his speed is questionable according to this highly critical article. The only nice thing they say about him is that he’s link an on-field coach. He may be slow, but brains must be worth something; his 12 interceptions in the past three years sure beats Omar Stoutmire’s 1 interception in the past 3! Shaun Williams has 6 in the past 3, exactly half as many as Brent Alexander. In fact Stoutmire has only 5 carreer picks, Williams 11. In three years, Alexander has done more than either of our starting safeties have done their entire careers.

As usual this time of year there’s not too much news to report but you might be interested in Jim McNally who may have a harder time this year than last because the Bills offensive line was as bad as the Giants’ line last year.

Most writers still expect the Giants to sign Warner, and most think it’s a smart move. However, there may be some competition from the Chiefs.

NFC East news: This NFC East off season review is nothing special, but there’s not much in the news these days.

Everyone who says the Giants have a franchise QB for the next ten years in Eli Manning may have to rethink that when his initial contract expires. If Eli Manning becomes a star and if these NFL QB predictions are correct, a franchise tag might cost around 14-15 million/year pretty soon thanks to the precedent set by Peyton Manning’s contract. It might be getting more important to have a star QB but it’s getting more expensive also.

Another article about how Palmer may not be a Giant when the season starts. This one is from 1010wins and has a few amusing lines from his teammates.

Not that there was any doubt, but Warner’s not participating in Rams camp means he will certainly be cut. Bartelstein, Warner’s agent, claims that 4 or 5 teams are interested. Considering how little interest there seems to be in Kerry Collins (who comes with fewer health concerns than Warner) that would surprise me. Plus he has only met with the Giants…

Len Pasquerelli at ESPN predicts an interesting competition among Giants defensive tackles and has some nice things to say about our new guy, Glen Steele.

And the Giants have to pay for their sins. The players get a two day paid vacation.

This rundown on some minor free agent moves suggests that signing Kurt Kittner (who beat only the Giants last season) might mean the end of Jessie Palmer’s career in New York. As I wrote before, I won’t cry if the Giants bachelor gets no rose from Tom Coughlin. As expected, Kevin Thompson was released. Our QB depth chart might look something like Warner, Manning, Kittner or Van Dyke (I’ve already written about how I like Van Dyke), with J-Load on the practice squad.

Clarence LeBlanc, Ryan Hoag, Lewis Moore, Beau Fullerton, and Keylon Kincade were also released while we signed James McKnight, JaJuan Dawson, Jason Doering, Glen Steele, Jerrmaine Green.

An excerpt from Phil Barber’s offseason analysis:

New York Giants. If the players are having a hard time adjusting to coach Tom Coughlin’s minicamp schedule, just wait until training camp. This is a team undergoing massive upheaval, moving from a proven veteran quarterback (Kerry Collins) to a rookie (Eli Manning) and replacing six starters in the defensive front seven, all under a new coaching staff. New York hasn’t found a suitable replacement for defensive end Kenny Holmes, and simple math says new linebackers Carlos Emmons and Barrett Green, while good players, can’t compensate for the loss of an entire second-level trio — Dhani Jones, Mike Barrow and Brandon Short. Grade: D

Fist of all, I don’t remember Kenny Holmes setting the world on fire. To say that the Giants aren’t solid with Keith Washington and Osi on one side and Strahan and Bromell on the other side seems like pure insanity to me.

I do agree that the linebacking corps is still a question mark but it could be addressed in free agency or with a strong showing by Nick Griesen.

David Diehl is happy. He doesn’t mind working with Coughlin and offensive line coach Pat Flaherty. He doesn’t mind working at guard and right tackle. He doesn’t mind that the Giants drafted another Guard, Chris Snee.

What’s the best case scenarios for the Giants offensive line? It certainly involves a healthy Petigout who seems to be healthy (but back problems are somtimes chronic) at left tackle. It would be nice if Seubert could play left guard (but his injury is still healing and his return is no guarantee). O’Hara seems to be the center although Lucier might compete for a starting job. If Snee turns out to be an immediate force, he could play right guard. In this scenario, Stokes and Diehl would compete for the right tackle spot.

By the way, I did a Google search for Barry Stokes. The first two results (from NFL.com and ESPN) have him listed as a tackle. The third result was more disturbing and involved adult pictures and vidoes. No, I did not visit this site to check if they were authentic).

Anyway, back to the offensive line, we *could* be very solid if Petigout and Seubert are healthy and if Snee quicly adjusts to the NFL. Clearly Petigout is the guy we need most. It is possible to play with the current depth chart: Petigout, Stokes, O’Hara, Diehl, Ian Allen. However, Allen is a liability (as he proved last season). We would need either Seubert to come back or Snee to play well (allowing Stokes or Diehl to play right tackle).

Recap of the best case scenario: If we get Petigout and Seubert back and Snee plays well we’ll be in good shape in terms of quality and depth. There’s also talk about June 1 cuts and free agent acquisitions. We have some cap space but we also need to consider a veteran QB and a proven MLB. We’ll see what happens to the free agent market soon enough…

This overview of the many question marks various NFL teams have points out that in the NFC East, only the Eagles are set at QB. The Giants still need a veteran for Eli Manning. The Cowboys have Quincy Carter and Drew Henson. Henson may be the QB of the future, but it’s hard to believe he’ll be ready to start this season. The Redskins have Mark Brunell and Patrick Ramsey. Brunell seemed to be losing his stuff when he lost his starting job and we’ll have to see if he can buy it back with the 43 million dollars the redskins are giving him.

The most annoying (and dumbest) article I’ve read today is very misleadingly titled “Coughlin’s Playbook” but has nothing to do with football plays. Instead, it’s all about the spat between Coughlin, a few Giants, and the players association. The bit about Strahan and Barber being in danger of getting cut for salary cap reasons was interesting (but wrong for Barber if he stops fumbling and wrong for Strahan is he plays at the same level he always has). The line about not watching games because the off-field politics was more interesting earned this article my “most annoying” label. Subscription required to read this drudgery.