The Giants retained two of their own players, while plucking another from a division foe.
On Tuesday, the Giants re-signed cornerback Terrell Thomas. Thomas, an emerging defensive star, suffered a season ending knee injury in the preseason. This torn ACL kept him out for the entire 2011 season. Prior to this injury, Thomas was on the cusp of greatness. From our August game recap, here is our take on Thomas.
Terrell Thomas is the best cornerback on this team. Not only is he good in coverage, out of all of the cornerbacks on the Giants, he is their best tackler. As a matter of fact, last season, Thomas LED the team in tackles with 81. (SURPRISE, he led the team in tackles in 2009 as well.) Besides being a very good tackler, Thomas is an effective blitzer. Ironically, on the play in which he got injured, Thomas was blitzing off the edge. Furthermore, over the last two seasons, Thomas led the Giants secondary with FIVE interceptions. Sadly, like Jason Sehorn 13 years ago in another preseason game, the Giants lose their best cornerback to a serious knee injury. Although Sehorn did make a comeback, he was not the same player. We can only hope TT can recover from this injury and upon his return play at a high level.
The Giants are banking on Thomas for a full recovery. But his recovery may take time. Think Osi 2008 and Kenny Phillips 2009. Both Osi and KP did not ascend to their optimum playing levels until the following year. Nevertheless, the Giants structured his contract based on performance. Newark Star-Ledger’s Mike Garafolo has Thomas’ contract in detail. The Giants are hedging on Thomas coming back from his grave injury. If Thomas struggles, the Giants can choose not to pick up on his 2013 option. In the meantime, Thomas’ return will only bolster the Giants defense. As mentioned, he is a superb tackler, blitzer, and can guard a slot receiver. Neutralizing a slot receiver is pivotal to shutting down a team’s offense. Because of his size, arm span, and physical play, Thomas matches up very well against slot receivers. A few days ago on the NFL Films Blog, Greg Cosell examined the importance of Saints Marques Colston’s importance to the Saints offense. Colston, a slot receiver, inked a lucrative contract to remain with the Saints. Let us hope Thomas can regain his pre 2011 form.
David Carr will he holding the Giants clip board for another season. The Giants and Carr agreed on a one year contract.
When the Giants trailed the Cowboys by 12 points late in their December match up at Texas Stadium, then Cowboys TE Martellus Bennett must have been taking notes. If Eli Manning can make undrafted TE Jake Ballard look awesome, he can then make Bennett into the next Kellen Winslow Sr. Bennett, a huge disappointment with the Cowboys, looks to revitalize his career with the Giants. Bennett signed a one-year 2.5 million prove it deal with the Giants. If Bennett was worth his salt, he would have put up better numbers in Dallas. According to the Dallas Morning News’ Brandon George, Bennett is a great blocking tight end who never came into his own in the Cowboys’ passing game. He had too many drops when given chances. At least Reese addressed this issue immediately. The immediate signing of Bennett indicates the recovery times for Jake Ballard and Travis Beckum are going slower than anticipated. As Bill Parcells would say, you need hold down the fort guys. And Bennett fits this bill. If he exceeds expectations and blossoms with the Giants, it would be gravy.
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