NFL-Giants: NY Giants football news

This interesting article on drafting players with existing character concerns is pretty interesting and has a quote from Jerry Reese:

“A lot of us have done things in our past,” says Jerry Reese, who for 11 years worked in the New York Giants’ personnel department before becoming the team’s general manager after last season.

“These are young kids. They’re impressionable kids. So you can’t absolutely kill a guy because he went out and had a beer after a party and got into a scuffle or something. A lot of these kids get parking tickets. Some of them get speeding tickets. But we get all that information. If a guy’s got a blotter, if he’s got a long list of character flaws, you have to take that stuff into consideration.”

Personally, since good teams are built through the draft, I think you have to draft as few busts as possible. Salary cap issues make that especially important in the first round. This makes draft picks like Kiwanuka relatively safe (although good guys can also be busts like Tim Carter).

Anyway, in the first round I think you need a high character guy, but how do you define that? Brandon Merriweather interviews well but has that on-field incident and got into a shooting incident. But he was using a licensed handgun and defending a friend who had been shot. That doesn’t sound so bad so is he really a character concern?

Here’s an interesting New York Times article on Tony Ugoh’s visits (to the Giants and other teams).

Jon Beason also came for a visit. The article mentions Jessie Armstead, another Miami linebacker and tries to draw some similarities. Of course beason is expected to go about 7 rounds earlier than Armstead did…

Beason seems easy to root for:

“If someone based it just on character, he’d be a top-five pick,” said Beason’s agent, Marty Magid of MRM Sports in Conshohocken, Pa. “I’ve had teams text me and tell me ‘This kid’s unreal.’ He’d be the poster child of what the NFL’s image should be.”

“Just give me the opportunity, show me where the grass is, show me to the meeting room, give me a good position coach who wants to teach you and I’ll be fine.”

I just returned from a little vacation in Cebu (in the Philippines) to find that I didn’t miss any real Giants news, only a garage sale.

There are a few old (new but without new information) draft articles. Reese said the Giants would get someone good at #20. The Giants also need to do well in the second round.

The Giants might not be done in free agency either.

The Giants signed Marc Hickok to compete with Josh Huston in training camp. Better than nothing I guess but it’s hard to get excited about a guy who couldn’t make an NFL Europe squad. At least he’s a Giants fan.

We’ve also got an article on David Diehl who talks about switching positions and power running.

Giants sign QB Anthony wright, defensive tackle Marcus Bell and defensive back Michael Stone. Wright is a mobile QB with a strong arm and accuracy problems. That makes for a good backup because you don’t have to change the playcalling for him (he has the arm to make any throw unlike Hasselback) and he can buy time when things go wrong (and they often do go wrong when the backup QB is in).

Marcus Bell is a nose tackle who can’t really get to the QB much (86 games with 21 starts in his career and has recorded 165 tackles and 6.5 sacks) but holds the point of attack. He’s not an every down player, especially because coditioning is a concern.

Michael Stone has played in 52 games (17 special teams tackles for Arizona in 2004 and then again for the Patriots in 2005). I’m not sure what this means for Jason Bell who is a special teams guy / DB much like stone is. Can the Giants have two DBs on the roster who don’t really play in the secondary much but who are good special teams guys? Stone is sort of a Safety/CB tweener who did have one decent season as a DB with the Patriots in 2005 (46 tackles in 13 games, 3 starts).

It’s interesting to see Reese make a fairly risky move in cutting Petigout and then make a number of smaller, safer moves like trading Carter for Droughns, signing Kawika Mitchell, and now these new guys.

We don’t see many articles on the Giants these days (but there are lots of copies of the schedule floating around. Here’s one.

Droughns says he’s ready to do some winning now that he’s not in Cleveland while Cofield says the schedule can’t be as bad as last year.McKenzie said he’s never been to Europe so he’s looking forward to the Giants vs. Dolphins game in London.

If I made the money that NFL players make, I’d be in Europe pretty often but whatever. Here are some travel tips for the Giants who have never been to England. Let’s just hope they saty away from Amsterdam which is pretty close…

Anyway, lots to do in England. Tourists could do some ghost hunting in Pengersick Castle (in Cornwall in the United Kingdom), or do some movie tourism (DaVinci Code tourism or Robinhood or Harry Potter). Here’s a more in depth England vacation itinerary.

I know the Giants won’t really be vacationing in England, but I have to blog about something and there’s not much going on as far as Giants news…

This article on falling draft prospects says Alan Branch is a top 20 pick but probably won’t make it to the Giants. Of course we all know how well the reporters did guessing when gabe Watson would go last year. He was also a first round lock but went in round 4.

If the Giants don’t get a tackle early, there’s the big but raw, Walter Thomas. In this article on rising prospects, they say some nice things about the quick 6′5″ 370 pound DT from NW Mississippi CC. Who was it that said there are only so many big football players and youw ant more on your team than the other team? There’s always Quinton Echols as well.

And here’s a good article on the Patriots draft habits. Seems like we could learn a thing or two from those guys.

Happy Easter! Enough with the nicities. This idiot says the Giants are setting up Coughlin for failure by doing only one thing to improve the team (trading Carter for Droughns).

The Giants did sign Kawika Mitchell. And they are looking at guys like Jay Fielder and Kris Jenkins. They tried to work out somethign with Al Wilson.

This other idiot says that unless the Giants trade up they won’t get a starting left tackle in this draft. Show me a rookie who can come in and beat out Diehl at left tackle. Look at Robert Gallery – did he win the starting left tackle job right away?

They also say we need someone to replace Barber’s receiving skills. Our backs might be big, but they can catch.

I think it’s clear that the Giants will go BPA early although they could trade up to get someone in a need position or down if there’s no one in a position of need. In later rounds where grades are fairly equal on different players they will draft for need. Since the reporters are idiots, what do the Giants really need?

Keep in mind that you draft guys to compete for starts and back guys up – not many draft choices start and have an impact in their first years so you don’t count on drafting an immediate impact player / starter.

I think the Giants need a tight end. Last year we had two and noe Shiancoe is gone via free agency. This elaves us with Shockey who never stays healthy for an entire season.

The Giants need a speedy receiver. We have Sinorice Moss as our #3, but don’t know if he’ll amount to anything. Who’s our #4? Tyree? Anthony Mix?

The Giants need a free safety who can cover. Show me Gibril Wilson and Will Demps in coverage and I’ll show you a Giant fan crying or throwing his remote. James Butler didn’t put them on the bench…

The Giants need a DT. Who wants to sign William Joseph?

We need an OLB. Wilkinson might not be ready to start and we have no one behind him at WILL.

The Giants need a corner, preferably a fast one. Sam Madison is solid but will need to be replaced. Corey Webster has to improve but it doesn’t look like he’ll turn into a number 1 corner.

I continue to wonder about cutting Luke. There was the injury risk, but he was a good left tackle and those are hard to replace. The Bucs seem happy (probably unrealistically happy) they got him.

While we dream of trading our #20 for Lance Briggs or drafting a stud linebacker, ESPN guys talk about our all-time favorite linebacker, LT.

And if you’ve got time, come give my Squidoo sports tourism lens an awesometastic (5 star) rating. If you’re not sure that I deserve the 5 stars, watch the video of the Japanese woman throwing out the first pitch. I’m sure that after seeing the video (wait for the slowmo) you’ll be very generous with your ratings.