Dragon

Never had a problem with having a new member. Welcome to SW.

Giants Article Too lazy to copy and paste it.

Welcome back fbomb.

ESPN.com The New York Giants reached a contract agreement with first-round cornerback Aaron Ross on Thursday. Ross will sign a five-year contract with a maximum value of about $13.5 million. Ross, the 20th overall prospect chosen in the draft, should quickly compete for significant roles on both defense and special teams. Despite being just a one-year starter at Texas, Ross is viewed as an impact defender, and he dramatically enhanced his stock at the predraft combine workouts. Ross was timed at 4.44 seconds in the 40-yard dash, one of the fastest times of any of the players in Indianapolis, and also had a 34-inch vertical jump. In addition to his speed, Ross has prototype cornerback size (6-feet-0½, 193 pounds), and scouts feel he can gain another 10-12 pounds without sacrificing any quickness. Beyond his coverage skills, Ross is considered a tough hitter who will not shy away from supporting the run, though some teams felt Ross didn't always play as quick as his 40-time indicated. For his college career, Ross totaled 205 tackles, five tackles for losses, 10 interceptions, 33 passes defensed, three forced fumbles and two recoveries in 51 appearances, with 15 starts. The bulk of that production came in 2006, when Ross started all 13 games and registered 80 tackles, six interceptions and 19 pass deflections. Ross also averaged 11.8 yards on 76 returns in college and scored three touchdowns. Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. That means that all rookies are signed and WILL be in camp on time.

Helluva game, but I missed the part where tied it up.

But is it a surprise that they did?

I know it wasn't directed to me but I'm answering it anyway. Tiki doesn't need to talk about anything going on with the Giants unless he's covering it in a news report. However, it's not like he's saying anything that's untrue. I don't like Coughlin being the HC of this team. He has a "Do as I say and not as I do" mentality and that is far from good. A good example is when Shockey called out the coaching staff after the Seattle loss and he said we need to keep everything in house, but then after the Titans loss he threw Manning under the bus. I think that's complete garbage. Also it took him until the final game of the season to get rid of Hufnagle when people had been saying that he needed to go for the whole year. His Hitler comment was completely out of line as well. So even though I think that Tiki shouldn't be commenting on a situation that he left and has nothing to do with anymore, more often than not the criticism that Coughlin gets is deserved. I think that it was Mark Schlereth (I think that's how you spell his name) that said it best. "Coughlin wants his team to shut up, then he should lead by example."

That was one amazing catch... and to think that I was pissed about him going 0 for 6 before that.

Seph, let them doubt. It'll be that much sweeter when Jacobs makes them all look retarded.

This is retarded. I came home last night, turned the game on, looked at the score, and turned the game right back off. WTF is wrong with this team?

Jeez man! What the hell!?

He did. I saw Jacobs running in minicamp and he had the ball high and in tight just like Coughlin had Tiki do.

That has more to do with the fact that on 3rd and 1 or 3rd and 2 we'd send Jacobs out on the field and without any thought we rush him up the middle. Now in the beginning, that worked, but Coughlin's OC wasn't smart enough to know that eventually the opponent was going to catch on... and btw if he converted 62% that means he was stopped 38% of the time. Not 48%. Aside from the fact that he used the names of real NFL players, nothing in the article is a true telling of how good Jacobs and Droughns are. He said that Droughns was a product of the Denver system (not in those words), but failed to note that Droughns rushed for 1200 yards behind Cleveland's poor line. He said that Jacobs only has a 3.9 YPC average, but fails to note that Jacobs was primarily used as a short yardage back... and STILL averaged close to 4 YPC... not to mention that he has 16 TDs while being the second string RB. As far as how the coaching staff feels about Jacobs goes, consider this... If we are truly going to go to a power running game you have to look at another power runner in the NFL now... Larry Johnson. Would you want Jacobs carrying the ball the way Johnson does? Hell No! Jacobs is a beast, but he's still human and you don't want to render him useless. Droughns will be there as INSURANCE and as a guy that can come in and give Jacobs a series or two off. This guy did no research whatsoever. He took a look at Jacobs' stat line and tried to make an assumption about it.

Not only rushing behind Barber, but Jacobs came in during obvious rushing situations and mostly short yardage and still averaged nearly 4 YPC. They knew he was coming and STILL couldn't stop him! The league is gonna come to know and fear Brandon Jacobs this season.

Link to Article Now Tiki Barber is my favorite Giants player ever (I grew up when LT was nearing the end of his career, so I wasn't fortunate enough to see him play in his prime), but even Tiki Barber would agree that this is bullshit. I really lmao when he said something about reassessing why we are confident in Jacobs.

The only call I've seen that was worse than Reyes just getting caught stealing was the last play of the Giants-49ers playoff game. Dale Scott is blind. Never seen Reyes this pissed off.

297

We'd be so much better if he didn't suck so much.

A few weeks ago the NBA Finals hadn't even started yet. Lebron and the Cavs were trying to make a comeback against the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals and the Spurs were trying to relax themselves as they awaited the winner in the Finals. However, the main news wasn't about the impending matchup of the Cleveland Lebrons and the San Antonio Spurs. It was about Kobe Bryant demanding to be traded and then taking his statement back and then demanding to be traded again. I guess it was for good reason since the finals provided nothing more exciting and news worthy than Eva Longoria running onto the court after the sweep to hug her fiance, Tony Parker. I am one of the many who are wondering what the Lakers will do with Kobe. Ever since the first basketball game I ever watched, (Game 5 of the 1991 NBA Finals when Michael Jordan's Bulls defeated Magic Johnson's Lakers) I have never lost love for either team or organization... until now. I call myself a Bulls/Lakers fan but my love of the Lakers is wavering as I watch and hear about the (for lack of a better term) bullshit that the Lakers Front Office pulled regarding Shaquille O'Neal after the loss to the Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals. It's no secret that Kobe and Shaq weren't the greatest friends and that Kobe wanted to be the one to carry a team to a Championship. I can understand that. A player of Kobe's caliber will always want to be the center of a championship team. However, his lack of a buddy-buddy relationship with Shaq didn't mean that Jerry Buss and Mitch Kupchick along with the rest of the Lakers FO could make it out to be all Kobe's fault that the team traded Shaq. Kupchick came out and said to the media that if he had to make a choice between Kobe and Shaq that he'd always choose Kobe. Kinda messed up to hear this coming from someone in the front office. Jerry Buss said that there was "no way in hell" that he would pay Shaq the kind of money that he wanted and then he and the rest of the FO proceeded to feed the media a bunch of garbage saying that Kobe was the cause. I blame Kobe for not making it known that he wasn't responsible at that time, but I understand his reasoning. At the time that the Shaq trade happened, Kobe was trying to decide on his future. He was a free agent and was being courted by the Clippers and the Bulls among a host of other teams. He wasn't sure if he wanted to stay a Laker or not and if he stayed he didn't want to have an issue with the FO. Problem is... now he has one. The other issue was the promise that Buss and Kupchick made to Bryant at the time that has yet to be fulfilled. Buss and Kupchick promised that they would rebuild the team as fast as possible and have Kobe back in the Championship picture in a few years. Three years later, the Lakers still haven't won a playoff series and Kobe feels betrayed by the organization. As much as I would love for this to be resolved, I want Kobe to get into a better situation. Kobe is one of my favorite players and he deserves better than what he is getting. Unfortunately the Lakers are going to ask for a King's Ransom in return for Bryant. The first offer I've heard so far has been to my Bulls and the Lakers were asking for Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, Ben Wallace and the 9th pick in the draft. Now as much as I would like to see The Black Mamba in a Bulls uniform, I'd personally travel to Chicago and kick Paxson in the nuts if he makes that trade. After that I heard something about a three team deal involving the Lakers, Bulls and Wizards, but I haven't heard any specifics aside from it sending Kobe to Chicago. Again, Kobe deserves to be a part of an organization that actually wants to put a team on the court that's capable of winning, or at least competing for, a championship. As much as I'd love for him to stay in Purple and Gold and have all of the fences mended, unless the Lakers Front Office is truly committed to putting a great team out on the court I believe that Kobe needs to be moved to another team.

Giants.com Story EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Giants’ mandatory mini-camp and veteran offseason conditioning program concluded last Friday with the team’s three coordinators holding question-and-answer sessions with reporters who cover the team. The following are exceprts from the media's conversation with Kevin Gilbride. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and special teams coordinator Tom Quinn will be posted later this week. Kevin Gilbride: Q: What did Eli Manning do differently this spring (under new quarterbacks coach Chris Palmer)? Gilbride: “I would say that there are different drills that have been used to try to get him to accomplish the same goals that we’ve always had, which is being in balance when you throw the ball, having your feet underneath you so you get the weight distribution, so you get the weight transferred from the back to the front, just the basic fundamental things. But there are just different ways to do it, so he’s done that. He’s always going through the different cut-ups, trying to examine what was good, what was bad so he makes better decisions. He usually makes great decisions, but it’s been those occasional bad ones that have really hurt us. So those are the ones we are trying to stay away from.” Q: How is he throwing the ball so far? Gilbride: "He is throwing the ball well. The problem we have is there is a lot of new stuff we threw at them. Some guys have been here all the time, so we’ve gone through it and continue on as if everybody has been here, which hasn’t been the case. So sometimes you get some different reactions that are a little bit unexpected and therefore it doesn’t always look like he is throwing the ball well. But when the guy has done what he’s supposed to do, he’s thrown the ball well." Q: What are some of the questions you have entering training camp? Gilbride: “Obviously, the left tackle position is a big one. I think when you look at when we lost Luke (Petitgout) and we lost (wide receiver) Amani (Toomer) last season and then all the sudden we went from one of the best offenses in the league to one that’s in the middle of the pack, which is something you’d like to avoid. Then you add on that you lost an outstanding football player in Tiki (Barber, who retired), so the challenges are obvious - just finding the personnel, seeing who can do what, seeing if some of those young receivers can come up, what can they do, what do they do that we can count on in the crunch time. Then I think certainly the running back position, seeing who can do what. You’re not going to replace the same type of guy (as Barber). We don’t have that kind of guy here, but we do have some backs that can do some different things. And very few people have the kind of physical presence that we are going to have in the backfield now (with Brandon Jacobs and Reuben Droughns). So we’re hopeful that with our style with the different backs we have, pounding it a little bit, maybe we’ll get a different response from the defense, which allows us to do some different things. It all really is predicated on the players, who’s going to play, who is going to do well, who can you count on, who’s going to step-up to the forefront and fill some of those voids and that will determine what we do offensively.” Q: Is David Diehl going to move from left guard to left tackle? Gilbride: “It definitely has not been determined that he will. He is ahead right now because of experience, but we are certainly waiting to see if Guy Whimper can be the guy. That gives us a little more stability inside, a little more flexibility with doing some things with Rich Seubert, moving him around, but David’s way ahead. We’re hoping that Guy catches up. Then it gives us some options that right now I’m not sure we are able to do.” Q: How has Kevin Boss (the tight end from Western Oregon drafted on the fifth round) performed in the spring drills? Gilbride: “He has made as much improvement as anybody. I’m not sure he has been asked to do the things that will be required from him if he plays the tight end position for us, so Mike (Pope, the tight ends coach) has done a nice job with him technique-wise and I think he has been exposed to some things he hasn’t learned before. He is a big, strong kid and he’s got some natural punch to him. So it’s just a matter of utilizing the techniques, so the size and the explosiveness he has can be best utilized.” Q: This is a critical year for Eli Manning. Do you think he will rise up this season? Gilbride: “Hopefully, you’ll see that in training camp. The thing that’s difficult is that we’ve put a lot of stuff in. You spend the whole offseason seeing what you did, seeing what areas you did well in, what areas are voids in your offense that you’d like to experiment with so we do some new things. We’ve got some guys that maybe haven’t been here the whole time, their reactions aren’t always what they are supposed to be just yet. When we get that resolved, then we’ll see if he can make the step that we all want. It’s not like we don’t see glimpses of it, because we do. We see performances that are as good as anybody’s. We just need to see the consistency.” Q: Is your success tied with Manning’s? Gilbride: “I don’t know if I can help him, but he can certainly help us. His performance is one that we are counting on to help replace the things that we’ve lost, so we are all depending on him.” Q: What are his impressions of the new-look backfield? Gilbride: “We are waiting to see. Can Robert Douglas play the fullback position (in place of Jim Finn, who is out for the season after shoulder surgery)? Do we have to go to (rookie free agent tight end) Mike Matthews and move him back there, do we have to play with two tight ends? I really don’t know. Now we’ve done both. We’ve done a lot of two tights and taken the backside tight end and moved him around as if he was a fullback, but so much of it is really going to be once we put the pads on who plays. So we will certainly be scrutinizing and seeing if somebody can play the fullback position. I thought Jim Finn did some things very well for us and his loss will be felt.” Q: Wide receiver Sinorice Moss missed most of his rookie season. He is healthy now. Will there be a role for him? Gilbride: “I am certainly hoping that that will be the case. I think we see, like with a lot of these young guys, moments where we say that’s what we are looking for. But certainly missing last year really slowed him down in terms of knowing what do to and how to do it. I’m not even talking about plays, I’m talking about being able to escape corners that are bump-and-run. Those are the things that he missed. He missed (almost) the whole year, so he’s really like a rookie all over again. We’re hopeful because you do see some moments where he’ll explode and he gets off the line of scrimmage - we see the explosiveness that we really need to see. We’d like to be a little bit more explosive offensively, but there are a lot of things in life that you’d like to do that you can’t do if you don’t have the resources or the people to do it. So we need him, Sinorice, (second-round draft choice) Steve Smith - someone has to step up.” Q: Have you thought about moving Reuben Droughns to fullback? Gilbride: “We’ve talked about it. I think we’d like to stay away from it and see if somebody else can be that person. His size is not the prototypical fullback size, so if you do Denver’s style running game, you can get away with it. That’s not necessarily our style of running game and we’ve been pretty successful running the ball. We’d like to be able to do it and we think the guys we have, Brandon and Reuben and Derrick (Ward) and Ahmad (Bradhsaw, a rookie) can all do the things we need to do if we have a certain kind of fullback. And that’s a big, strong, power-driving, physical type of guy. And that is why it may be a tight end. Without pads on, I can’t tell if any of those guys can even do it, because it’s easy to say that guy is big and strong enough. But more often than not in my experience, that big tight end doesn’t have the same feel as the running back does to get through the line of scrimmage to find his blocking assignment. It’s a whole new world. You think it’s the same game, but for an on the line of scrimmage-type player, to all the sudden put yourself in the backfield, it’s completely foreign. Linemen are darting in and out, half the time they know who to get to, they just don’t have the ability to get to that person. We are anxious to see.” Q: Will you use some single back formations? Gilbride: “Yeah, we can do that. I don’t really know what we are going to do, because it’s all predicated on our players. Our best 11 has a fullback, a tight end and two wideouts, or does it have three wideouts, or does it have two tight ends and one back? Obviously, when you have one back in the backfield that modifies some of the things you can do. Some of our best runs, our most successful runs, have been with two-back runs. If you don’t have someone who can play that position, that’s okay, you make adjustments and move on, but you are taking away a very successful portion of what we’ve been doing over last few years.” Q: is it fair to say you won’t radically change the offense that’s been used here, but will tweak it instead? Gilbride: “Very fair. Tom (Coughlin) has got his hand in it and he sets the parameters for which you can explore and do different things. Plus, some of the things that have been going on was stuff that I brought in. A lot of those plays were stuff that I had done. A lot of those plays were plays that I brought with me, so it was a hybrid, a mixture of a lot of different thoughts and philosophies. So it will be some subtle changes, but more of it will be determined by the players than anything else.” Do you think defenses will have difficulty dealing with Brandon Jacobs? Gilbride: “I think he’s a special guy. There are a lot of big guys, but he is exceptionally big and strong and physical and I think he is going to wear people down. My concern is whether he can stay healthy, because even though he is administering a lot of the hits, he is taking them, too. Tiki was special with his improvisation ability. I don’t know that Brandon will have that. But he is a physical guy and I think if he can stay healthy, after a period of time in every game, he is going to start wearing people down and hopefully that will pay off for us two-fold. One, it will force that safety to come down, so we get some one-on-one isolations that your guys have to be good enough to win and then secondly, in the fourth quarter, when you are trying to hold onto a lead, it’d be nice to think that the guy can do that. And I think he can.”

Giants.com Story June 19, 2007 EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – At the conclusion of the full-squad mini-camp last week the Giants’ three coordinators discussed the offseason progress of their units with reporters. Today we hear from Steve Spagnuolo, who is in his first season as the Giants’ defensive coordinator. On Monday, offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride had his say. We’ll hear from special teams coordinator Tom Quinn later in the week. Q: Are you happy with the defense so far? Spagnuolo: “Yes. When I talked to them before we went out to practice (Friday), I felt they really bought in to what we are doing. I’m not talking about schemes, I’m not talking about any creative anything, I’m just talking about how we play football. They have shown it out there. I showed them some clips on what they did the last few practices to prove to them that they were doing it. They don’t even realize it sometimes, but it’s becoming habit forming and right now we are happy.” Q: How has Mathias Kiwanuka developed after making the switch from defensive end to strongside linebacker? Spagnuolo: “He is getting there. It is baby steps now. I have been involved with many guys trying to make that transition from being down to going up and it doesn’t happen overnight. A lot of things are foreign to him now, but he is battling through it. The biggest thing and I posed this question to him the other day when it was just he and I – ‘Is this really what you want to do?’ And he said, ‘Coach, I really want to do it, I want to make it happen.’” Q: Were you pleasantly surprised by what you saw in the mini-camp? Spagnuolo: “Yes. It wasn’t all smooth. There were a lot of bumps in the road and we worked through those and we expected that. What I tried to get through to them was that if we could eliminate the repeated mistakes, we could live with that and we were getting somewhere. Then we had some repeated mistakes and then you’ve got to take the next step and get it ironed out. But for the most part, we threw a lot of volume at them because we are trying to find out who we are and what we are, with things they did last year, things they are used to and I thought they responded to those things well.” Q: Is it safe to say you offer more positive reinforcement than criticism on the field? Spagnuolo: “That’s just me, I’ve always believed in that. That is not to say that when there are mistakes out there, they don’t have to be pointed out and addressed in a certain way. I believe in the old saying a picture is worth a thousands words. For me to stand up there and praise, it’s better to just put it up and say, look at it, that’s what you are, that’s what you guys have become.” Q: What are your thoughts about Corey Webster? Spagnuolo: “Corey is still a little bit of a mystery to me because he really didn’t go that many practices - he just went these last couple of days. I did think I saw some positive things, but there’s a long way to go, there’s not enough reps there for me to watch Corey.” Q: Does he have to work his way into the starting lineup again? Spagnuolo: “We are taking the approach where, well obviously there are certain guys on this defense, good players that I can’t imagine some guys knocking them out, but I don’t consider anybody a starter right now. Now that is tongue-in-cheek, let’s be obvious. But there are some positions where it’s balanced out there and we wanted that. Jerry Reese created that, Coach (Tom) Coughlin has created it and we want to continue it and I think all the guys understand that.” Q: Is competition what you are going to need to be successful? Spagnuolo: “Yes. I think there’s enough guys there competing and I think there’s mutual respect there and guys with talent. We just keep working out there and keep pushing them, I think we will be okay.” Q: Do you envision having Michael Strahan and Kiwanuka rushing the passer from the same side? Spagnuolo: “There is no question about that (being huge) and those guys understand that, so if we can piece it all together and all 11 are doing their job, then it makes each individual position’s job a little easier.” Q: Can the other linebackers help Kiwanuka’s transition during a game? Spagnuolo: “I never thought of it in that context, but that’s a good point. I think the guys playing in front of him who have been in the league - and AP (Antonio Pierce) is a very intelligent football player and does take control - I think that’s very helpful. On the flip side, if there is a rookie MIK linebacker who is trying to get some guy who has never played there before, that would be tough. I think there is a comfort level with that and I think it is a huge advantage.” Q: Re: Strahan Spagnuolo: “I’ve got a lot of respect for Michael Strahan. I mean that guy, playing against him, we had him three times out at the Pro Bowl, he’s a class act and he assured me the other day he’d be ready to go. I’m not really worried about Mike.” Q: Did William Joseph play defensive end in the spring camps because of the injuries at that position? Spagnuolo: “Right now, it’s a need thing. It’s nice to have a guy that is versatile like that and he basically has done both in this camp, playing a little bit of tackle, too. Whenever you have down guys that can do both, that’s a big thing.” Q: Is your vision of the defense taking shape now? Spagnuolo: “I think it almost has to. We are at that point right now, it won’t be long now before we will be going to Dallas and playing in that game (the Sept. 9 season opener). But having said that, nobody hits the panic button, it’s a natural progression, we will take it as such and we will be smart about it. If the volume of the defense gets to be so much, we will just cut it back. We want guys to play. This is probably not 100 percent true, but if you lined up in one defense and one coverage and did everything perfect, you should be able to be okay. Now I’ve got a lot of respect for the offensive coaches in this league and they figure out how to attack things, but there is some truth to that. I look at it as a great challenge and we are excited about it. I’m just glad we got this part under our belt, because the unknowns I had before with not knowing some of the personnel, I feel more comfortable now.” Q: Do you have a good handle now on the defensive personnel? Spagnuolo: “Yeah I do, but some guys didn’t practice, so those guys I don’t know as well. One thing we have to remember is the games are played with pads on and guys change. Sometimes you think a guy is a really good football player, then you get the pads on and it’s different. So I’m preparing myself for both ways.” Re: Linebacker depth Spagnuolo: “I’m not (concerned). I’ve got confidence in (linebackers coach) Bill Sheridan coaching Kiwi into what he was to do. I really am impressed with AP and how he handles things, I think Chase Blackburn is a great backup MIK linebacker and I thought Jerry getting Kawika Mitchell in here was huge. He has done some real good things. Gerris (Wilkinson) has shown me some things, Reggie Torbor…they have shown great effort and a great hunger to want to be good and what more can you ask for.” Notes: The Giants today announced the signing of linebacker Zak DeOssie, their fourth-round selection in this year’s NFL Draft. DeOssie was the 116th player taken in the draft. In 36 games at Brown, DeOssie started 29 contests. He recorded 315 tackles (187 solos) with 10.5 sacks for minus 59 yards, 36.5 stops for losses of 126 yards and five quarterback pressures. DeOssie is the second Giants draft choice to sign a contract. Last week, defensive tackle Jay Alford, the team’s third-round selection, agreed to terms. *The Giants today waived three rookie free agents: linebacker Jason Mitchell of Tennessee, defensive back Darren Barnett of Missouri State and offensive lineman Gabe Hall of Texas Tech.

Excellent game! 8-1 and would've been more had it not been for some amazing defensive plays by the Twins. Let's keep it going!

YES! Bats are waking up! 7-1 Mets!

Mets up 4-0 in the bot. of the 6th! :worshippy:

I feel really bad right now. I wanted to see Arrington succeed with us. I played with his little brother in high school and he was always talking about Lavar and proud to see him going to the NFL (I played with him during the 1999-2000 season when Lavar was at Penn State). I really wish him well.