Sinorice Moss

Kevin Gilbride on Moss:

Q: What makes you think Sinorice Moss will flourish?

A: Because I think last year he had his best year and again, I said to him a couple of times at the end, “We are sitting you down but it is not because you are not contributing.” Because I think he was playing pretty good football. And every time we threw him the ball – I may be off by one – but I think every throw we made to him, he made; he made the catch. And there is a place for his speed and his quicks that I thought he did a much better job last year. And he always, for a little guy, gets after people blocking, which helps in the running game; he does those things. So I think his confidence is a little bit improved. I think our confidence in him is a little bit expanded. So I think it is reasonable to think that he can maybe take one more step forward as he did last year and become a guy that gets a chance to play. Last year it really just came down to the kicking game. We wound up just sitting him down because he wasn’t contributing as much as some other guys were on special teams.

I am still puzzled. This is my problem with KG. He leaves me puzzled more often than not. If it were one player I would be fine, but the problem is that Smith, Boss, Bradshaw AND MOSS all could have helped this offense a lot more and all (except Boss, at the very end) were denied more involvement. So when it is 4 players I start thinking lack of adjustments and lack of leverage of personnel.

I was of the wrong opinion after 2007 that Moss was headed to the dreaded “bust” tag, but he really played well in limited appearances in 2008.

vs SEA: “Moss! This praise for one player after another is going to get tiresome. Limited snaps obviously went way up this game and he made the most of them, with 2 TDs and a lot of fine play.”

vs MINN: “Moss looked very good. He has the speed to stretch the defense, not as big a target as a Boss for that long reception, but use him to keep the defense honest.”

The reason why I am so confounded is that obviously there is something there, we see it, even Gilbride sees it. I am at a loss to explain why he could not help us more last season. Obviously he can help next season, and if he has a strong camp he can step out of the shadows and make an impact. The exciting thing about camp is that without Toomer and Burress, there is tremendous OPPORTUNITY for a lot of players to get more reps, to step up their game. We saw Hixon take advantage last season, right before our very eyes in preseason. He missed the Toomer toe, then practiced it and a week later was making great grabs and getting those (two) feet inbounds. For Moss to play the slot now and step up, I do not see why (other than his height, a problem for Eli, who tends to throw high on a good day, nevertheless a bad one) he cannot exploit that and then go deep just when the defense is thinking short.

Extras:
Coughlin mic’d for rookie minicamp (remember, he was a WRs coach for Parcells back in the day)
Kevin Boss .. what a load! 6’6″ and now he weighs 270?!! If he still has decent TE speed, he can be an animal! You have to figure Manning is going to be MOST comfortable going to this BIG target.