Yesterday the NFL Players Union published a list of Unrestricted Free Agents.
Slim pickings. I walked through the list of Safeties and Linebackers with Wonder and he was summarily underwhelmed. “I love Karlos Dansby, but he’s the only one worth his salt. He can hit and he can move. My two prerequisites for a LBer.”
Wonder comments on the general tone of labor relations, given the impending impasse… “The players, owners, agents, Roger Goodell, DeMaurice Smith, they should all be castrated first and then shot in the head. Do you have to argue about divvying up $7B dollars? In this economy?!! The players would be flipping burgers if they weren’t playing football. Insane. And the owners are equally culpable for (building these palatial) stadiums that are trophies to their egos, now to have to finance the excess.”
Back to Planet Earth and the Giants’ needs at LB and Safety. We went through the entire list of UFAs for these two positions of glaring need.
>>Brackett is good but does not fit with the Giants, too small.
>>Bulluck is a man’s man, long in the tooth, he’s a stud but the Titans won’t let him go.
That is IT.
Those 3 (including Dansby) were the only ones of ANY note. Zero Safeties of any interest. The list may get updated with more people, but as of right now, none, nada, zippy. As a group, the Safeties are “totally hopeless, pathetic, very bad, mundane, cr*p. Giants will not get much help here.”
As for the RFA’s, Wonder’s Wet Dream would be if the Giants could somehow get DeMeco Ryans. But back to reality, the odds of Houston letting him get away are somewhere between slim and zero.
Which brings us back to the draft. Wonder has not studied all of the players yet but his first impressions are not upbeat. He’ll be watching the Combine to get clues as to how these players look. He notes 2010 is deeper than last year, but is not excited. Regarding Rolando McClain, Wonder notes that he is not as crazy about him as others. “I like him, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not sure he’s the be-all-end-all.” As a reminder, Wonder’s opinions do drift with some players leading up the draft, but most of the time they do not. He was not crazy about Moreno and Wells but warmed to them as we moved through April.
“What is this nonsense with TE Jermaine Gresham (Oklahoma) going in the 1st round,” Wonder asks with disbelief at these early mocks having his stock rise so heavily. “The guy had knee surgery in High School, knee surgery again in college. Yes, he has great talent, but he is one hit away from going straight into the toilet. Why do you bet a first round pick on that?!!”
UltimateNYG here. Well, Wonder was downright depressing. Ugh. He’ll get excited about more than a few players, especially those value gems at picks 51-100. But for now, as Free Agency begins there is not a lot to help us at our two biggest needs. The modus operandi of Reese has been to get some bodies where the needs were to allow for maximum flexibility at the draft. That way he could then be free to pick for value and not be held hostage by glaring holes. His UFA haul last winter did not produce. I’d expect Reese to go back to the 2007 and 2008 version of free agency- cheap, surgical need.
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