Here's an article on John Flowers who seems like a sincere guy who loves football. Naturally he's a longshot to make the team, but like he said with specials and injuries you never know.
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Although the summer is just getting under way, I am definitely counting the days till the football season starts. This year I plan on catching a lot more college football games. Don't get me wrong, I love watching the NFL, especially New England Patriots and New York Giants games. But college ball is awesome, and the last few years I haven't really watched much.
This year, I'm going to make sure I see the BC Eagles play, Michigan State, Florida St, Iowa, LSU, USC, and Penn State. Another couple NCAA games I plan on catching for sure are the Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl. A cool place to buy cheap NFL tickets and college football tickets, check it out.
For now, I am going to enjoy the MLB season and watch as many New York Mets and maybe check out a Broadway show too.
Here's a nice summary of all 4 NFC East team's offseason moves including draft picks and free agnets. Like any summary, there are missing details (like the Giants free agent DBs), but I learned something about the other 3 NFC East teams.
Here's an article on Eli Manning's leadership qualities. It's not a bad read - but this isn't exactly a new topic either.
For something new (not so new if you read ESPN) answer the following question: Would you watch a chess boxing match?
In this Giants.com article, Seawright is quoted saying he wants to get down to 325 or 330 and the Giants coaches saying that speed is more important than size in today's NFL.
With Joseph a projected starter, it look as thouh the Giants want a four-man rotation at DT: "We've got Fred [Robbins], William [Joseph], Jonas, and [Damane] Duckett," said Lewis about the players competing for playing time at defensive tackle. Maybe the coaches don't expect Cofield or any rookie undrafted free agents like Sir Henry Anderson to see any real playing time.
The Giants seem to have a solid defense. In some ways their set up like the Colts - they ahve an offense that can put points on the board which pressures opponents to pass.
With Strahan, Osi, Arrington and a few other pass rushers that can come in on obvious passing situations (Tuck comes to mind and possibly Kiwi) the Giants should be able to come up with the occasional big play.
The real question is what the secondary can do. We have to hope that Webster and Madison will make some interceptions on poorly thrown balls (there should be a few since we'll be getting pressure on the QB). And since we'll probably see RW McQuarters and Deloatch on the fiel in nickle and dime situations we have to hope they hold their own as well. Finally since depth is limited, we need our CBs to stay healthy.
Vinny DiTrani wries about the Giants D, which Tim Lewis says will be "funky". Better still:
"When I watch clips of the old Giants' defenses, with Lawrence Taylor yelling and screaming up and down the sidelines, they were such a swarming group," he said. "Very few people got up and down the field on them. I'd like to see us play like that, play smart, play aggressive, play fast. I think we're good enough to dominate, but we'll find out."Giants.com doesn't share my concern with the Giants CBs. Well, I agree that madison is a good fit for our defense but I did like Will Allen's tackling. Anyway, our safety pair of Wilson and Demps should be hard hitting and strong vs. the run. I'm not positive they'll be excellent against the pass, but few safeties are these days.
A few reports from the Giants mandatory minicamp day 1:
Inside Football - I still can't copy and paste their URLs and I'm still too lazy to type it all in by hand. Everytime I try to copy and paste their URL, my copy and paste function stops working and I ahve to restart my computer - highly annoying but they do have some decent stuff on Anthony Mix.
Arthur Staple's blog (not much of a blog really since things aren't posted regularly) covers quite a few things including Moss.
Michael Eisen has a bunch of quotes that are worth reading.
Mike Garafolo also contributes something to the discussion.
Mike Garafolo lists a few questions that the Giants hope to answer during the minicamp such as will the defense learn to work together, will Seawright be the starting nose tackle, and will Manning be on the same page as Burress and Shockey.
Paul Scwartz also mentions Shockey and Burress but his tone is very optimistic.
Hopefully Manning isn't too distracted to practice by images of a Paris Hilton striptease.
Chris Snee and Eli Manning got honorable mentions in Gil Brandt's under 25 ofense team. No Giants made it on defense though.
The QB who was chosen, ben Roethlisberger, is a guy many Giants fans say we should have drafted. You know the argument: We should have traded down, grabbed Big Ben, he's better than Eli, etc.
I'm sure you've heard by now that he's in the hospital and of course we all hope he is OK, but his recent 7 hour surgery after a motorcycle accident makes you wonder: how many NFL teams automatically drop bikers down their draft boards?
On Tiki Barber, Coughlin says, "We tell him he's 25," Coughlin said. "That way he doesn't realize how old he is." Who knew Coughlin had a sense of humor. Here's a nice article on why he's optimistic about next season.
For those of you with ESPN Insider there's an article on Will Peterson possibly making a comeback in 2007. He won't get surgery on his back but may somehow be able to strengthen the lower back. I doubt he'll be coming back as a Giant though...
The Giants signed Boo Williams who, if he comes all the way back from his injury, is a good receiving tight end with the size (265 pounds) to be a good blocker. They waived Matt Kranchik.
Here's a pretty good article with lots of quotes from O'Hara. He's a team leader, but has no problem with Shockey, Burress, and Joseph working out in Miami. They'll be back soon for mandatory three-day mini-camp next Wednesday.
"Here's the way I look at it," O'Hara said. "I feel fortunate that I live here year-round and I can go work out at the stadium. Some guys live other places. You know what? If I had a place in Miami, you bet your [butt] I'd be down there."The coaches just want to see you. There's guys who go into the stadium and don't do [bleep]. They're not even lifting, they're in there screwing around, they don't do the workout, but they're not catching heat because they're there. When I was in Cleveland, we had 100 percent attendance at the offseason program and that year we led the NFL in guys on injured reserve and the team didn't do [bleep]."
These rankings are based on fantasy football stuff.
The linebackers are ranked 7th in the NFL, best in the NFC East. I think this is a fair ranking though I hope we end up better (which we will if Arrington plays the way we hope he will).
The defensive line is ranked 9th with Strahan and Osi obviously leading the charge. Some nice things said about William Joseph as well. I agree with this ranking. It's tru that we don't know who will play nose tackle, but we have several possibilities.
Tight ends are ranked 11th behind Washington and Dallas. In fantasy terms this makes sense because Dallas will be using two tight end sets (with Owens and Glenn that's a potent offense) and Cooley is a go-to-guy for the Redskins.
The Giants' receivers being ranked 19th is lunacy. The Chargers, Dolphins, and Titams are all ranked higher. Oh and even the Vikings?
Ranking the Giants running backs at number 16 is even crazier.
The Giants QBs at number 15? I don't understand. Seriously if you were a fantasy owner would you be looking at the Redskins before the Giants?
Jamaar Taylor is seriously considering retirement because of all the knee injuries he's had. His retirment could open up a roster spot for one of the lesser known Giants wide receivers such as Michael Jennings or Anthony Mix. With Tyree, Burress, Toomer, and Moss getting spots and Tim Carter proabbly getting a spot (he does need to stay healthy through training camp) the Giants might also decide to keep Ponder although if he won't be used as a kickoff returner I suppose there's no point in doing so.