New York Giants: Offseason Analysis

My good pal and Giant fanatic Joe Z was kind enough to analyze the offseason plans for the New York Giants.

“Most wondered at the time of the Plaxico Burress shooting whether or not the New York Giants would be able to focus, and block out the immense distraction that the situation provided. 

In hindsight, the immense media scrutiny paled in comparison to the actual loss of Burress on the field.  

Not only did Eli Manning lose his top target, but defenses were able to play an extra defender up in the box to stop the run game.  

With Burress’s future being cloudy at best, coming up with a way to ease the pressure on the run game should be the Giants primary offseason goal. This will also allow Steve Smith and Domenik Hixon to be secondary receivers as opposed to go-to guys.

The first person to potentially fill the gap is Burress himself.  While its uncertain whether or not he’ll face jail time, or how long a potential suspension would be, the Giants have publicly stated that they have not yet closed the door on him. 

While he has been a distraction in the past, many teammates have said that they would welcome him back.

This would not cost anything additional other than already reserved cap space, and might be the easiest option for the Giants going forward. 

This was assuming that Burress would come back to the Giants on his hands and knees begging forgiveness, which, given how he let his teammates down, would seem to be the logical emotion. 

However, a potential roadblock popped up in the form of Drew Rosenhaus, who sent out a league-wide e-mail stating Plaxico was one of his clients desiring a trade.  

If clarity comes with his legal situation, and it's certain that he’ll be playing in Week one, I still can’t see a team being willing to give the Giants enough that they’d want to give him up.   

If the Giants determine that they have to move on, the only rumored names that could truly represent an upgrade for the Giants are Anquan Boldin and TJ Houshmandzadeh.

Neither will be easy to acquire. 

All rumors of Boldin’s availability have come out of Boldin’s camp, not from Arizona. 

As much as Boldin wants out, he is signed at a bargain price for Arizona, and it would take a bounty to acquire him. 

Given his production and bargain cap number, Arizona might not decide to trade Boldin until after the Giants need to make a decision on their offseason intentions. 

The free agent market only offers one receiver that could potentially provide No. 1 receiver production. 

TJ Houshmandzadeh is the anti-Burress in terms of attitude and distractions, but even if he were interested in leaving, he seems to be a candidate to be franchised by Cincinnati.

They are under the cap and probably won’t be able to attract many marquee free agents until they start winning. 

It's also very rare to draft a receiver and receive premium production. It will be even rarer to get that receiver at the back end of the first round, after Michael Crabtree and Jeremy Maclin are long gone. 

Before they resolve their receiving situation, it's likely that the Giants will have locked up the services of Brandon Jacobs to a long-term deal. 

Last week, they franchised Jacobs, a move so rare for the Giants that you have to go all the way back to Jumbo Elliot to find the last time they did that. 

The Giants want Jacobs back, and Jacobs wants to be back, so it would be surprising if they can’t find middle ground on a long-term deal. 

Given that, it likely means that Derrick Ward will move on to another destination. 

While the Giants loved having Ward, someone will likely offer a starting spot and more dollars than the Giants can, given that they have in-house candidates to replace him. 

Most fans would logically think Ahmad Bradshaw will be the guy, but reports are that the Giants are very high on Danny Ware, so an interesting battle for that lead backup job could develop in training camp. 

The Giants also appear to be close to locking up Eli Manning to a long-term deal. 

The structuring of his bonus will be a key factor in whether or not they end up with the ability to pursue any free agents beyond Brandon Jacobs. 

Giants fans have watched Eli go through some significant bumps in the road, and he’ll never be as good as his brother, but Eli has proven to be a top-10 quarterback.

Many teams would kill to have the stability at the quarterback position that Eli provides the Giants.   

The offensive line received praise throughout the season and looks to return intact next season. 

The Giants will also evaluate the long-term future of young linemen such as Kevin Boothe, Guy Whimper, and Adam Koets to determine whether they pursue some veterans.

The Giants will need eventually need linemen to develop and take over for Shaun O’ Hara, Rich Seubert, and Kareem McKenzie, as they each now have eight-plus years in the league.   

Defensively, the Giants will receive a huge upgrade when Osi Umenyiora returns to his place in the lineup. 

While Mathias Kiwanuka did a nice job moving back to replace Umenyiora, the dropoff was noticeable. 

The defensive stats don’t show any true problems, but at no time was the pass rush anywhere near the level that it had been when Strahan, Tuck, and Umenyiora were harassing opposing quarterbacks. 

Fred Robbins had a Pro Bowl-quality year, but getting Osi back will be wonderous for this team.  

The secondary also will return intact minus James Butler. 

2008 first-round pick Kenny Phillips proved to be ready to replace Butler going forward. 

Corey Webster, in his fifth year, will be the elder statesmen of the starting secondary, so there is nowhere to go but up for that unit.  

Any drafting to the defensive line or secondary will be done solely because the person picked provided too much value to pass up at the position they were selected.  

The Giants do have major concerns at linebacker. 

They spent the entire year with below-average starters on the outside, and by the end of the year Antonio Pierce had become a liability in the middle. 

The Giants face a difficult decision with Pierce, as he is clearly the quarterback of the defense and probably can’t be replaced intelligence-wise in one year. 

However, the sight of Brian Westbrook, DeAngelo Williams, and Adrian Peterson flying past Pierce has to haunt every Giant fan as they reminisce back to 2008. 

Luckily, the draft and free agent classes are deep at linebacker, so the Giants should have opportunities to upgrade. 

Throw in the fact that Kiwanuka could conceivably return back to the linebacking corps, and the team should have no trouble getting the unit back up to par. 

One angle to watch would be whether the Giants are able to clear the cap space after the Jacobs and Manning signings to pursue Karlos Dansby out of Arizona. 

Ohio State’s James Laurinaitis or USC’s Clay Matthews could be targets for the team with their first-round pick.   

Knowing that wide receiver and linebacker are the two areas of need for the Giants, it's important to note that they have extra second and fifth round picks from the Jeremy Shockey trade. 

This depth could allow the Giants to trade up in the draft, or to potentially package some picks to a cap-starved team to help fill needs.   

Overall, General Manager Jerry Reese hit a home run with his first draft in 2007. 

However, he has not yet acquired a marquee player via free agency or trade in his tenure, and this is the offseason where his creativity to do so is needed and up for judgment.”

KFFL Free Agent Tracker:

Pos	Player Name	FA Status	Previous Team	Current Team
QB	David Carr	Re-signed	New York Giants	New York Giants
QB	Andre’ Woodson	Re-signed	New York Giants	New York Giants
QB	Anthony Wright	UFA	New York Giants	Free Agent
RB	Reuben Droughns	UFA (Cut)	New York Giants	Free Agent
RB	Brandon Jacobs	Franchised	New York Giants	Free Agent
RB	Derrick Ward	UFA	New York Giants	Free Agent
RB	Danny Ware	RFA	New York Giants	Free Agent
WR	Amani Toomer	UFA	New York Giants	Free Agent
TE	Martrez Milner	Re-signed	New York Giants	New York Giants
PK	John Carney	UFA	New York Giants	Free Agent
C	Grey Ruegamer	UFA	New York Giants	Free Agent
DL	Jerome McDougle	UFA	New York Giants	Free Agent
DL	Michael Strahan	UFA	New York Giants	Free Agent
DL	Renaldo Wynn	UFA	New York Giants	Free Agent
CB	Kevin Dockery	RFA	New York Giants	Free Agent
CB	Sam Madison	UFA (Cut)	New York Giants	Free Agent
CB	R.W. McQuarters	UFA	New York Giants	Free Agent
SS	Sammy Knight	UFA (Cut)	New York Giants	Free Agent
FS	James Butler	UFA	New York Giants	Free Agent