Butler, Shockey are hot topics

by Ed Valentine on May 21, 2008 7:00 AM EDT in New York Giants News

The Giants made assistant coaches available to the media Tuesday. Mike Garafolo of the Star-Ledger came away with a couple of interesting tidbits. Here they are.

We have spent lots of time trashing safety James Butler here at Big Blue View. Well, yesterday safeties coach Dave Merritt made an impassioned defense of Bulter.

"You take just the Super Bowl itself and look at that kid's production in that game alone - the biggest game of his career, the biggest game of my coaching career - he played his butt off," Merritt said while pausing between each of those last five words to emphasize his point. "If you just go back and evaluate him - not from the TV copy - if you go back and evaluate the film we have here in Giants Stadium, you'll see James Butler made tons of plays."

Merritt can say what he wants -- you would expect him to back his player. I still see Butler as a weak link in the Giants' secondary.

Tight ends coach Mike Pope was, of course, asked about Jeremy Shockey. Here is some of Garafolo's report .

"I don't think he's any different than other players. Once the team gets back together and they get involved together, those things - whatever they have been - tend to become less of a factor and they eventually disappear," Pope said. "You start playing together, you start winning and the upside of the game is what you're looking at, then things usually run fairly smoothly."

As for the rumblings his teammates don't want Shockey around, Pope quickly dismissed them by saying, "I haven't spoken to anyone who hasn't texted him or talked to him. He's very close to several of our players. ... These guys are all about winning and if players are here that can help us win, they're usually favorably looked on."

And then of course there are the suggestions Eli Manning was better in the postseason because Shockey wasn't around. Not so, said Pope.

"That's demeaning to both players. To think that one player has to be out of the picture before another player can surface, that's ludicrous," Pope said. "Eli Manning has been on a constant scale of improvement; that's very obvious. ... (Manning's improvement) wasn't (the result of) the absence of anybody; it was the ascension of some other players. You'd have to be pretty narrow-minded to look at things that way. This was not a situation wher the vice president becomes president because something bad happened to the president."

It's pretty obvious at this point that Shockey will be a Giant this season. How happy he is about that will be a season-long theme, I suspect.

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Butler & Shockey

I saw one guy’s post over on Garafolo’s post that I completely agree with … just because Butler gets in good position to make plays doesn’t mean he makes them. In fact he doesn’t. He might read plays well, but he’s slow and simply not starting caliber. He’ll get pushed out of the starting lineup with any of the Phillips-Johnson-Knight combo.

I think Shockey will be fine after he spends time with the team and gets into the flow. He’s bound to feel under-appreciated right now, but he’ll be fine when football starts. I just hope that’s in NJ and not Miami.

by potroast on May 21, 2008 1:51 PM EDT reply actions

Right on, pot

I’d be surprised if Butler is starting come November. He might even be ousted in training camp.

The coaches are saying the right things and modeling for players like Shock.

by george cronin on May 21, 2008 2:01 PM EDT up reply actions

The thing that gets overlooked

about Butler is that he hits like a mack truck and plays the hell out of the run. The problem with him is that he bites so much on the run, it causes him to easily get burned on pass plays.

by MJ20 on May 21, 2008 3:43 PM EDT up reply actions

gotta source for that?

ESPN’s 2007 scouting report: “He is a willing tackler but is more of a drag-down hitter than a hardnosed banger.” Anyone else hear Butler described like that?

by queler on May 21, 2008 6:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Kind of

I think that was how he was described coming out of college, but I have not really seen it. I’ve seen more of the ESPN scouting report. Here’s a scouting report from the 2005 Draft that describes him as MJ20 is saying (http://www.drfootball.net/id153.html):

“Butler is a true free safety who makes good reads from depth and he can either jump routes or screw down and fill in run support. Solid tackler who makes plays around the box. Can break down and finish and he is a physical tackler. Has the ability to cover in both man and zone. Can lock up versus slot receivers and he is effective in zone. Moves well and he can break on routes and play the ball. The problem with Butler is he lacks the speed to be effective versus receivers who can accelerate and force him to open his hips. Needs to stay at home versus play-action, can be too aggressive in this area.”

by potroast on May 21, 2008 6:50 PM EDT up reply actions