NFL-Giants: NY Giants football news

Not much real Giants news, so I bring you this book review for America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation by Michael MacCambridge from Random House, 552 pp., illustrated, $27.95. It does briefly mention the Giants:

…football didn’t really begin its ascent to widespread popularity until 1958, when the NFL Championship game between the New York Giants and Baltimore Colts stopped the nation’s sports fans in their tracks. With the explosion in the popularity of television, that thrilling contest settled in overtime and known to football history as ”the Greatest Game Ever Played” was seen by more Americans than any other football game before it. Yet two years later, when the owners of the NFL’s 12 teams elected Pete Rozelle to succeed Bert Bell as commissioner, baseball fans still outnumbered football fans by a wide margin.

The New York Post is reporting that the Giants are one of the worst off teams in the NFL – we are 5.5 million under the 2005 cap. I hope they are wrong, because 5.5 million isn’t going to do much in free agency.

A list of available free agents from Sportsline. If you ask me who I really want there are two main guys I’d love to see in Giants blue:

1. Ed Hartwell – I’m not as down on Keven Lewis as a lot of Giants fans, but if you want a dominating defense Hartwell would be a huge step in the right direction. We need to be tougher against the run than we were in 2004 and I don’t blame the defensive line.

2. Donovan Darius – Much better than Shaun Williams and probably won’t be as expensive either. We would then have some leverage in forcing SW to restructure. If he does, we could consider cutting Stoutmire (though I do like Omar on special teams).

There. I think that would give us a really good defense. As for offense, I can’t see the money a premeir tackle would cost being worth it for us. What else do we need? A receiver.

What would also be nice – While I’d love to see Taylor and/or Carter become reliable threats and have one playing opposite Toomer, and while Tyree and Ponder work hard, I’d like to see the Giants get a reliable but not too expensive receiver (and cut Ike Hilliard). Maybe Baltimore’s Travis Taylor, New England’s David Patten, Houston’s Corey Bradford or Tampa Bay’s Joey Galloway would come cheap.

Seeing as how we’re expected to be 10 million or more under the cap, we could possibly sign Hartwell, Darius, a receiver and have a bit of money left for our few draft picks, resigning Lance Legree, Nick Greisen, and maybe Jim Finn and a role player or two (like a fullback if we don’t resign Finn).

Paul Schwartz writes that Stokes’ agent is very confident that Barry will come back stronger than ever in 2005. He is expected to add depth if Seubert can return or compete with Whittle for a starting job if Seubert does not return.

Fox sports says the Giants are looking for a receiver:

The Redskins and Giants are in the market for a big-play wide receiver. Two wide receivers should be especially appealing to Washington: Muhsin Muhammad (Panthers) and T.J. Houshmandzadeh (Bengals). Muhammad performed impressively this season, but he’ll be 32 when the 2005 season begins. Houshmandzadeh has the speed to get downfield and also might be a good choice for the 5-yard out patterns Joe Gibbs likes to call. The Giants also might consider Houshmandzadeh, as well as the Steelers’ Plaxico Burress and the Raiders’ Jerry Porter.

Personally, I don’t see any of those guys coming at a reasonable price. I think their respective teams will try to keep them (Cincinatti and Houshmandzadeh want to stay together and where would the Panthers be without Muhammad’s 93 catches, 1,400+ yards, and 16 touchdowns?) and I think the Ravens have to get one of those guys. Having said that, all of those guys played better than Toomer last season so they are worth substantial money.

That didn’t stop Jon Heyman from arguing that the Jets should trade for Moss because none of the free agent receivers are very good. He mentions that the Ravens are interested in Moss too, and if the traded for him the free agent receivers would probably get a little cheaper.

Luke Lawton was a strong blocker and runner in college but hasn’t been able to make an NFL team.

Jim Finn is an unrestricted free agent that the Broncos web site calls “one of the game’s unsung heroes“.

What does this mean for the Giants? I think the Giants still have to resign Finn or another veteran fullback because it is not clear that Lawton can start in the NFL.

That’s how much the Giants want a sponsor to pay for getting Giants stadium named after them. This would help the Giants pay for a new stadium with more luxury boxes and the like.

Watching the road to the superbowl, basically ahighlight reel, I noticed that the Patriots seem to go deep a lot. I know Eli Manning and Jamaar Taylor hooked up deep a few times, but I think that to be successful on offense the Giants need to go deep more often.

The questions as I see them:

Is Jamaar Taylor a real deep threat?
Will Tim Carter ever stay healthy for an entire season?
Are any of the free agent wide receivers worth the money they’ll want?
If we draft a wideout, what are the chances they’ll contribute in 2005?

The importance of going deep also tells me that the Giants need a better pass rush. A defensive tackle that can rush the passer would be nice…

Noting that the Patriots are winning with guys who couldn’t start in college and receivers in the secondary, Dan Pompei argues that corners are not all that important.

Sure you have to ahve them, but they don’t have to be Champ Bailey’s. Your Randall Gay’s can handle a zone too. This brings up some questions for the Giants:

1. Should they play less man to man?
2. Man to man is a strenght of Will Allen’s. In the zone he’s less effective and and he can’t catch. And we’ve all seen him (and every other corner in the league) get torched on occasion in man coverage. Should we trade Allen? What can we get for him?
3. Are Deloatch and Walker good enough?