NFL-Giants: NY Giants football news

Walter Football’s 4 round mock draft has the Giants taking:

1) Brian Price, DT
2) Chad Jones, S
3) Anthony Dixon, RB
4) Sean Lee, MLB

I think the positions make sense, but maybe a little too much sense. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Giants pick the same positions we fans think they need most in the early rounds.

The Giants this off season will be monitoring the heart rates of 15 players as a kind of test study to see if they can identify when players overtrain and stuff. Apparently runners and other track and other endurance athletes have been doing this a while – a lower heart rate at rest indicates better conditioning and there are implications for how much recovery time is needed.

Surprisingly, no NFL team has yet to do it according to a quote in this article. Let’s hope it helps cut down on injuries.

The uncertainty of the future salary cap means that even if we have an uncapped year, a signing now will impact future capped years:

Can’t a team just front-load a contract to take advantage of the uncapped year?

No, this would be difficult to do. That is because, according to the CBA, any salary decrease of greater than 50% from one year to the next becomes signing bonus and thus is spread out over the life of the deal. For example, if the Patriots signed Vince Wilfork to a deal with a $20M salary in 2010 (uncapped) and a $4M salary in 2011 (capped), then that is a decrease of more than 50% ($10M), that $16M difference would become signing bonus and pro-rated over the life of the deal; if it was a four-year deal, then it would count as $4M/year, so the 2010 cap charge would reduce to $8M ($20M – $16M + $4M), and the 2011-2013 charges would increase by $4M.

And here is the link:
http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/10/313167-uncapped-year-faq.html

So the Giants (nor any NFL team) can’t simple give Dansby 20 million this year and then a few million per after that. They might be able to give him a one-year deal for a bunch of money but that’s not how you build a team and I don’t see the Giants doing it. Players like longer term deals anyway for the security (which is why they don’t like the franchise tag).

The New York Giants are parting ways with Antonio Pierce who had one more year remaining on his contract (due to earn $4.75 million in salary in 2010).

Anyway, thank you to a guy who spent five years with the Giants, led the team in tackles three times, was team captain three times, and was voted to the Pro Bowl once. He’ll be remembered as a good Giant although there have been complaints about his performance and the fact that he was with Plax when the dude shot himself.

According to Pierce this cut wasn’t about his health (he ended the season on IR) or his play:

“I was shocked at first, but I’m not the one up there up in the office, and they said they felt they needed to go in another direction,” said Pierce. “They said it wasn’t my health, or the way I played, but just that – that they were going in another direction. We left everything smooth and peaceful and I’m happy about that – I felt like I said everything I needed to say to them. I’ve loved my time in New York and won’t have anything but good feelings about being with this team.”

I’m guessing that other direction means younger and faster. Giants fans will be fine with that, I know I am, but I still appreciate what Pierce did while he was here.

This article has an encouraging quote from Kenny Phillips regarding his knee:

“It’s fixable, very fixable. A lot of guys have had it,” Phillips said, though he was told it’s rare for a younger player to suffer from it. “It should be a full recovery.”

Interestingly, and I’m not sure it’s encouraging, further down the article they talk about why Phillips play improved in 2009. Scarily it’s because he stopped listening to the coaches and “just played”. Maybe I’m reading too much into this but shouldn’t the coaches be putting guys in the best possible position?

He’s a good QB, no doubt about that. He’s gotten into the big game twice and he’s in his 30s. I’d guess he has at least 5 good years left.

In the regular season. The question is do you trust him to come up big over and over again in the post season? Some would say that Peyton is still looking for his first good post season run from start to finish because of that pick he threw (and the almost pick a little earlier).

So is Peyton clutch and will he get another chance to show it?

On a WFAN interview, Osi said he would quit football if he’s not a starter next season. This could mean that he’ll work his ass off to make sure he earns a starting spot.

Or it could mean that he’s feeling entitled and attention-starved and willing to do crazy stuff (like give up millions of dollars)…

We’ve also got articles on this from Mike G and Ralph V. Seems like he just wants more money and knows as a backup he won’t likely get it.

Here’s an article on Shockey getting to play in the Super Bowl. I’m happy for Shockey because I think he brought Giants fans more good memories than bad and I hope he does well. Part of me wants to root for New Orleans anyway because the city was so down and out after Katrina. I certainly want to see a full recovery so i can hit Mardi Gras another time or two.

On the other hand, Peyton is Eli’s brother so I could root for the Colts too…

Doesn’t really matter I guess. No matter how you look at it there are no teams I love or hate in the big game…

Congrats to Michael Strahan, one of the best Giants players ever. Comparing Strahan to the rest of the DEs on the team:

Indianapolis’ Dwight Freeney
Carolina’s Julius Peppers
Miami’s Jason Taylor

Strahan is clearly better than Freeney because of Strahan’s strength against the run. Against the other 2 guys it’s a bit harder to decide.

Richard Seymour is not on the list as DE but he is on the list as a tackle.