Zelmo

I know what you're saying but this really got under my skin.. and seeing Lug's post.. $4M for one year.. $2M guranteed is too much for a guy who may not even play.. the Eagles have the cash to burn.. and consider it an investment in Steve's future with them.. and I'm sure they loved sticking it to the Giants.

 

Oh I'm in the same boat as you and everyone else emotionally. This hurts. You though Steve Smith was gonna be a Giant for years to come. He was with us for the SB. Great player, hard worker. And to see him leave to the Eagles. It kills.

 

 

 

-Z

They could have locked him up.. first year not so much money since he won't be ready till midseason anyway... and if he doesn't pan out they can always cut the guy.. Reese did drop the ball here..

 

Nas that's exactly my point. They COULD have locked him up, but DIDN'T, which means they DIDN'T REALLY WANT TO. Believe me Jerry Reese is not spending his days watching reruns of Frasier. He's spending his days figuring out the Giants 53 man roster, and clearly he didn't find Steve Smith's presence to be an overly important matter.

 

Why? You'll have to ask him. But this didn't happen because Reese was busy playing golf and not working on the team.

 

 

 

-Z

Now that I'm over the shock of this, I'm starting to like this. Gives some extra spice to an already bitter rivalry. Gotta love tough division games against the Eagles. I'm excited.

 

 

 

-Z

As treacherous as this is, and it is incredibly treacherous, am I the only one who happens to really trust Jerry Reese, and I trust that if he was more optimistic about Smith he'd have locked him up?

 

 

 

-Z

Talent, they do but have a lot of weak spots. They are strong on the d-line and secondary but their linebackers are up the air. Before the offseason, I thought this offense would be a force but not really much depth at WR and the TE's are a bunch of scrubs. Yes lets get excited for a bunch of undrafted free agents.

 

I hear ya there are definitely weak spots on the team. Specifically LB and TE like you mentioned. But there also happens to be a tremendous amount of talent. We have some some truly outstanding players at RB, WR, DE and in the secondary.

 

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, kills a team more than offensive line problems. The most unheralded move of this offseason may very well be the signing of David Baas. Everyone can get in a hissyfit about Boss and Smith and Burress and this and that, but at the end of the day if Jerry Reese and the Giants FO are right about Beatty's readiness at LT and managed to instantly give the OL a huge facelift in one year without significantly weakening it, he deserves a prize. Football is won at the lines, let everyone else have their flashy players. Football is won at the lines.

 

If the OL gels, and one or two young guys step up at LB or DT, we are a dangerous team.

 

I just wish we still had Spagnuolo designing the blitz packages.

 

 

 

-Z

Whudda ever thunk?

 

 

 

-Z

After the first time in so many years, I pretty much have no expectations of this team. I am not excited at all.

 

Why? Putting aside the emotional impact of certain things that happened or didn't happen this offseason, do you think our roster doesn't have talent?

 

 

 

-Z

NFL.com did this whole video about him...

 

 

 

-Z

This has absolutely nothing to do with Osi's miniscus...

 

 

 

-Z

This is def the right move. Kiwi at LB, get JPP in there, and let this defense rip....

 

 

 

-Z

Agreed mostly (not about the drops). I liked the guy but he's not worth 4 mil a year for the role he played on our team.

 

I think sentimentality is inflating perceived value here. We all liked him, he was around for the SB win and had a role in it, always gave it his all. But not such a big loss.

 

 

 

-Z

Sad to see him go...

 

 

 

-Z

I'm no fan of ESPN, but when I saw they had created a new stat for measuring QB performance I was curious to see how it would judge Eli....

 

The quarterbacks under consideration broke down as follows:

Top tier: Brady, Peyton Manning, Matt Ryan, Michael Vick, Rodgers and Drew Brees.

Well above average: Josh Freeman, Eli Manning and Philip Rivers.

Above average: Ben Roethlisberger, Tony Romo, Joe Flacco, Matt Schaub, David Garrard and Kerry Collins.

Around average: Matt Cassel, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Mark Sanchez, Carson Palmer, Colt McCoy, Kyle Orton and Jon Kitna.

Below average: Shaun Hill, Jason Campbell, Jay Cutler, Matt Hasselbeck, Chad Henne, Donovan McNabb, Sam Bradford and Alex Smith.

Poor: Derek Anderson, Brett Favre and Jimmy Clausen.

 

I don't think Eli is an elite quarterback, but I've always thought he gets way too little respect from people and is WAY better then a lot of people give him credit for. Especially the last three seasons. So I was happy to see this.

 

 

 

-Z

We won it in his first year.

 

I miss Spags.

 

 

 

-Z

If we didn't have Tuck and JPP obviously it would be a different story.

 

 

 

-Z

Yeah you do in today's NFL....it'd be a big mistake to bust the cap on him.

 

 

 

-Z

We should get rid of him. We have depth at the position. Get rid of him for the best offer we can get. This is a no-brainer. If he were as talented as he is plus clutch, a baller, a leader, a guy who'll take over a series when we really need a stop in the third quater, then I'd say to try to keep him. But he's none of those things, and we have other talent at the position. GOODBYE!!!

 

But like Tree said for God's sake trade him out of the division!

 

 

 

-Z

Eh...shouldn't have responded.

 

 

 

-Z

I know this is a completely random time to post this on here but I also know if you guys are anything like me then our SB victory in 2008 is something you can't get enough of. Frankly I'm certain it will be the high point of my life as a sports fan. Everything else is downhill from there. Nothing any of my teams will ever do will match up, in emotion, to what the giants did that year. The feeling around that team from the Cowboys game on was something really special. I'm certain I'll never see anything like it again.

 

Anyway,

. The video itself isn't so special, but the song selection is great. In fact I can't think of a better song to sum up that Giants season, and really the life of any sports fan that roots for a team that is never quite elite, but plays hard.

 

The moments that get me in this video are the shot of Tom Coughlin's face as he's waiting for Eli's pass to Burress to drop safely into his hands, and the shot at the end of Strahan manhandling Coughlin.

 

 

 

-Z

Contrast this to the Titans who have armed gaurds turning players away...I've always been proud that the Giants are such a classy organization.

 

 

 

-Z

Where are they?

 

 

 

-Z

Terry Kinard was a hell of a safety for us back in the 80s and we also had Mark Collins and Perry Williams who where both very good corners. Reyna Thompson also played some corner and was an absolute demon on special teams.

 

Kinard went to the pro bowl I am pretty sure. Collins should have.

 

 

also fwiw to the guy out there who wants to bash my man Collins over the Flipper Anderson OT play in '89 all I can say is we would not have seen OT in that game without Collins stunning int in the 4th quarter.

 

 

Lol I'm only 22 and only been watching the Giants since the Danny Kannell era...so was commenting on my personal experience.

 

 

 

 

-Z

For the first time since Ive watched the NYG, going on 14 years now, this is the first year that we play 2 pro bowl caliber safeties every time our defense comes on to the field. It amazes me what a difference it makes. Especialy when you have a D-line thats able to stop the run and pressure the QB the way we have been the last couple weeks. Its hard enough for a QB to handle pressure like that, only to look down field and find that our entire secondary is in a possible possition to make a play on the ball. Its suddenly very hard to find the open man. Last year we had 2 of the worst safeties in the league, and it was the worst Giants defense Ive seen in my life time. This year we got Phillips back, and signed Antrel Rolle and Deon Grant, and in 5 weeks have become the best defense in the league. Sure its early yet, but now that these guys are getting comfortable in the new system, I think this defense is gonna be lights out. And our safeties will be a huge factor.

 

Agreed. I'm fairly accustomed to our front 7 having talent but I've never seen a Giants team where the secondary wasn't average at best and in most cases it was a liability.

 

To actually see our safeties not just not screwing up the game, but being a positive force, is very refreshing. And it makes a big difference.

 

 

 

-Z

I really don't get Romo...dude has a WORLD of talent, and I mean a world. He just can't seem to pull it together.

 

 

 

 

-Z

Nicks' second touchdown of the game, which put the Giants up 21-0, was something that Giants didn't really work on in practice. But it is an example of how Manning has the ear of his receivers.

 

"I got all the receivers in the film room on Friday and I said this is what's going to happen. The safety is going to bite down on the (running) back. I told the back to get out and get that safety's attention. I gave a little pump fake and I found Hakeem wide open in the back of the end zone," Manning said.

 

Good find. After that TD you could see from the interaction between Gilbride and Eli that they had just exposed something that they'd talked about before. It hit me like a ton of bricks during the game, I just wasn't sure what it was they had exposed.

 

Now we know. Good stuff.

 

 

 

-Z