The drought is over. As much as I enjoy it, there is only so much poker I can watch in June and early July at the WSOP to get through to football training camp. (Spoiler, here are the Main Event’s November Nine.)
The NY Giants embark on the 2016 season with two glaring weaknesses as I see it. They are at Right Tackle and Free Safety. This conclusion operates under a few assumptions which we make in reference to the 10 questions we posited this past Spring. In the past month, the Giants made a run at T Eugene Monroe, who (at the right price) would have answered one of the two major questions we have. They couldn’t work out a deal. As George Young succinctly reminds us, “It’s about the money. And when they say it’s not about the money, then it is DEFINITELY about the money.” We are big fans of George… here are some more quotes from the former Giants GM. Back to Monroe, he passed on all deals, and officially declared retirement. He cited his health and his family as reasons for retirement. My view is that one does not negotiate in July and then a week or two later retire. You are a million or two apart on a contract and then all of a sudden it is health and family? Perhaps his calculus implies that indeed he would need a ton of money to keep playing. So if Monroe has saved properly, then God bless. Some Tackles will get hurt in various NFL training camps. Then someone will come knocking on Monroe’s door with a decent check in hand for a one year deal, which he can sign at THE END OF CAMP. Veterans tire of the monotony and drudgery of camp. They are rich, and yet they are busy living in a dorm room for weeks. At this point, if he waits another month he gets the same contract without the camp. So stay in shape, Eugene. You’ll barely have to unpack, you can keep your family in Baltimore and work in NJ for 4 months.
Michael Strahan strategically missed camp in his final glorious send-out year. He was all broke up about missing Camp Coughlin. Not. Minute 6:40 of the 2007 Super Bowl Champions from America’s Game: “If I did want to play, I didn’t want to go to training camp.” So it is nice to be a veteran in the position of having a few teams with interest, but not being so motivated that you have to be there in camp to necessarily get a job. If Monroe truly wants to play, he’ll get offers.
Back to the NY Giants at Right Tackle, it is still important to remember that Monroe is a Left Tackle. As I understand it, the Giants probably told him that Flowers is their LT, and that Monroe would be looking at playing RT unless Flowers got hurt. That makes players less motivated. The Giants were the ones who looked like they were the most serious negotiators, however wide apart they were.
Marshall Newhouse is a liability. Some believe that Bobby Hart, who was drafted in Round 7 by the Giants in 2015, will be the guy to win the job in training camp/preseason. Maybe. Hart is listed at Guard. He played RT for FSU, where the QB was Jameis Winston. Let’s see how that goes. At this point, this is the Giants current plan, to have Newhouse and Hart compete. It’s Newhouse’s job to lose, and many are quietly rooting for Hart to take the #1 position on the depth chart. If the Giants aren’t happy with the progress of either, I would expect the name of Monroe to surface again, retirement or not.
At Free Safety, everyone believes that 3rd round draft pick Darian Thompson is going to win the job over other oft-injured players (Cooper Taylor, SS Nat Berhe and Bennett Jackson). In minicamp, Steve Spagnuolo spoke well of Thompson, pleased that he was not afraid to assume a vocal leadership of presnap assignments. Once again, it is pretty barren at FS for the Giants, where they had to sign (slower veteran) Meriweather in 2015 to patch things up. Meriweather was cut after 13 games. At least this year Landon Collins is in his second campaign at SS, so that will help the FS.
Collins was the only player on Defense to start all 16 games last season. Read that and weep. Yes, another question mark for the Gmen in 2016 is what impact Aaron Wellman will have on the injuries. My answer to this question is that a broken clock is right twice per day… even if Wellman has just a pulse and half a clue, the team rates to improve. There is simply no possible way that the Giants can be so far off the grid on (excessive) injuries without a change improving matters somewhat. I am not implying the injuries will improve so much that the Giants become average (where do we sign off on that?!), but a different regimen cannot “hurt” more than things previously. If there is no noticeable improvement in the next 2 seasons, then Barnes (and Wellman) surely has to go.
Cruz? We will find out how he is doing fairly quickly, as the gloves come off and we get to see what we have.
Speaking about gloves, I want to see that special glove for JPP. $10M is too much to play for one hand in a cast. We better have two.
In all my years, I have never seen a Round 2 player as hyped as Sterling Shepard. Everyone has been raving about him so much, it is a question of how he was even there at 40. “He’s going to be a phenomenal player,” said all-world Odell Beckham Jr. Let the hyperbole begin. If he is half-phenomenal in his rookie year, the Giants can go very far in 2016.
Talk is cheap, play the game. Where did we hear that from? Oh right, the ex-coach. Glad he has stopped talking and trashing the Giants in the offseason. Maybe the fact that Coughlin received very little interest from the other 31 teams helped him to realize that the Giants offer of an advisory job plus the Ring of Honor is not such an unreasonable end to a 12 year stint inside of a distinguished career.
Let training camp begin. It is football season.
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