Stealthy Giants, other free-agent thoughts

by Ed Valentine on Mar 1, 2009 7:00 AM EST in News Comment 31 comments

Rocky Bernard

After two wild days of free agency in the NFL let's take a deep breath and assess at least some of what has gone on.

In many cases, the script has been familiar. Or, at least predictable.

Let's start with our New York Giants. As we should have anticipated, the Giants have made a couple of excellent under-the-rader signings. Linebacker Michael Boley and defensive tackle Rocky Bernard add playmakers to the Giants defense in areas where they were thin in 2008. Both are relatively young (Boley 26, Bernard will soon be 30), both can step in and help immediately and neither of them was incredibly expensive.

It is obvious that the Giants felt they needed an infusion of talent on defense. Jerry Reese moved quickly to acquire it. By the way, Ralph Vacchiano now expects the Giants to pass on Dallas defensive lineman Chris Canty. Tom Rock of Newsday, on the other hand, says the Giants will still see what Canty's asking price is.

The Giants could still use help at safety, wide receiver and maybe even a backup offensive lineman. I have a feeling Reese knows these things.

Much of the other action in the first two days of free agency has also been predictable.

The Washington Redskins threw gobs of money at Albert Haynesworth and DeAngelo Hall. They have tried, and failed, at this before. In an article detailing the best and worst signings of the free agent era, USA Today listed these Redskins failures.

Dead-skins: Among the blunders made by the Redskins — Dana Stubblefield (1998), Jeff George (2000), Deion Sanders (2000), Jeremiah Trotter (2002) and Adam Archuleta (2006). And this list is hardly comprehensive.

The New England Patriots followed a familiar pattern of signing veterans who could still contribute for a year or two by grabbing former Jacksonville running back Fred Taylor. Trading Matt Cassel to Kansas City for a draft pick is also a familiar tactic for the Pats, who love to load up on draft choices.
Speaking of Kansas City, new General Manager Scott Pioli is following a predictable pattern. He brought in a coach in Todd Haley who he worked with in New England, and now he has brought in a quarterback from the Patriots that both he and Haley have confidence in.
The New York Jets are also following the "raid the team the new coach used to work for" philosophy. The have signed linebacker Bart Scott away from Baltimore, and are now Ravens' safety Jim Leonhard.
Things have not gone well for the Philadelphia Eagles the past couple of days. They have lost Brian Dawkins, Correll Buckhalter and Sean Considine to free agency, and traded cornerback Lito Sheppard to the Jets. At this rate, we will hardly recognize the Eagles next season.

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I posted this

in the last thread, but worth putting here too. The Field Gulls have a scouting report up on Bernard, which has nice things to say:

http://www.fieldgulls.com/2009/2/28/775996/rocky-bernard-signs-with-g

Freddie Taylor fits the Pats perfectly … he won’t have to carry the load, he’s hungry for the ring, and he’s a great locker room guy. Plus they know how to make this strategy work.

by potroast on Mar 1, 2009 7:27 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

What a weekend!!! I can't believe some of these changes

KC is loading for bear: new GM, Cassell and Vrabel, Haley as head coach and others

Eagles and Bucs are just getting dismantled!!! Looking at the fire sale in Philly it’s like their must be re-tooling for the future. What are they hoping to ride McNabb, Westbrook and Jackson til the new guys develop?

by NY17NE14 on Mar 1, 2009 9:12 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Don't speak too soon

I’m a Giants fan living in Philly, and while superficially it looks like the Eagles are losing a lot of players the reality is they are not losing very much and are well positioned to retool very quickly. Losing Dawkins is a big deal emotionally in Philadelphia, but not so much of a loss on the field. They had to retool their defense to make him essentially a fourth linebacker because he was simply incapable of covering anybody anymore. Yeah he made some big hits in December, but he cost them a couple of games early in the year. They’ve got a ton of cap money and will undoubtedly sign a more well rounded safety who will actually make their defense better. Plus they have a promising second year safety in Quintin Demps. Consodine was nothing but a special teams player. LJ Smith was an underachiever at tight end and they have a kid, Brent Celek, who plays a lot like Boss. Buckhalter was a nice back up running back but he’s 30, has two surgically repaired knees and saw limited playing time in a pass happy offense. All of those losses don’t ad dup to much. Runyan and Tra Thomas are also probably gone too, but both of them showed their age last year, and they’ve already signed a good right tackle in Stacy Andrews (assuming he recovers well from knee surgery). Plus they should get Shawn Andrews back next year and he’s a monster.

They’ve got lots of cap money and two first round picks. Unless their front office is really stupid or cheap they should come out of the offseason with a younger hungrier more athletic team than they had last year. They’ll sign a safety, draft a tight end or sign Gonzalez, pick up a back runing back from somehwere, and probably try to upgrade their offensive line and wide receivers. I worry a lot more about them than the Skins or even the Cowboys.

by Tucker Fredrickson on Mar 1, 2009 11:57 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks for analysis that

reinforces my gut feeling that the Iggles know what they’re doing. I share your thought that they could be tougher next year and better than D or W.

by blue gonz on Mar 1, 2009 12:28 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

definetly

I was having a convo with a friend of mine who’s a big Eagles fan. We pretty much decided that as long as Snyder and JJ are running the shows in Washington and Dallas, the NFC East looks to be a 2-team race between Philly and the Giants. I’m ok with that, despite my hatred of Philly.

by cjmulrain on Mar 1, 2009 8:38 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Well put...

But, I don’t think it’s as easy as you make out. We aren’t replacing car parts here. A team is more than the sum of it’s parts, they all have to work together. You just described a MAJOR re-vamping of a team. They can have 20 first round picks, but they wouldn’t develop and gel in one training camp. There is still talent there, You can see already that Jackson and Celek are going to a pain in the buck for years. I never look past any NFC East team, but filling needs as we are doing and cleaning house like they’re doing are not the same thing. I wish them nothing but the worst in their attempt at it!!!!

by NY17NE14 on Mar 1, 2009 1:11 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks for the analysis that

reinforces my gut feeling that…. Oh. Wait.

by blue gonz on Mar 1, 2009 2:32 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I hear you

Yes, chemistry can be a problem when you shuffle too many players, but Consodine, Buckhalter and Smith hardly played major roles for them last year. Dawkins did, my gut says they’re actually going to be better at that position next year. Their biggest disruption is potentially losing both of their starting tackles. They actually have a number of young offensive linemen who have some playing time, but they may have to reshuffle positions, and that hopefully will be their achilles heel. If our improved pass rush can dominate their unsettled O-line and get better pressure on McNabb (I mean did we sack the guy at all in the last two games?), we should be able to limit their offense.

by Tucker Fredrickson on Mar 1, 2009 4:55 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

good talking with ya!!!

GO GIANTS!!!!!!

by NY17NE14 on Mar 1, 2009 7:33 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

one thing to consider

would they have made that run they made this year w/o Dawkins in the locker room? I get the sense that the team was just about ready to officially quit on Andy Reid, but the leaders in the locker room (Dawk and McNabb) rallied the team. Without Dawkins there, I could see them having a tumultuous year, especially considering all the outside crap McNabb has to go through.

Speaking of McNabb, I was up in Delaware visiting some friends this weekend, and I was listening to WIP on my drive back, they were talking about Dawkins leaving, and the guys and all the callers kept taking potshots at McNabb. The guy lost his starting spot, came back, and rallied them to an NFC Championship game, playing great down the stretch. What the hell does he have to do for those fans to show him some respect? I really, really hope he goes somewhere where he can be appreciated for the great QB he is (I’d say easily the 3rd best QB of the past decade behind Peyton and Brady). Outside of the Giants winning another SB, I think my favorite possible outcome would be seeing McNabb lead a team other than the Eagles to the promised land.

by cjmulrain on Mar 1, 2009 8:43 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Ya got that right

Celek and Jackson are going to be their big guns next year. Gonzalez would help a lot in the short term. Do you think Andy Reid is going to forget about the run again? Buckhalter could have been used more effectively. Reid didn’t even carry a FB at the beginning of last season.

by TerraByte on Mar 1, 2009 1:33 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I took an IMMEDIATE dislike to Celek

and got that “ut-O” feeling about Jackson. Receiving is bad enough, but doing returns too? This is not good!!!

by NY17NE14 on Mar 1, 2009 1:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Reid hates the run

But he’s really thin at running back with the only proven player being a very good, but very injury prone Westbrook. They have to add somebody to replace Buckhalter, probably through the draft. Whether they try to get a real fullback is anybody’s guess.

by Tucker Fredrickson on Mar 1, 2009 5:17 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Maybe they add Ward

it is rumoured he may be talking to them.

by brisulph on Mar 1, 2009 7:12 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

If he wants to play behind Westbrook

Yeah Ward would be a good addition for the eagles — if they would use him. But he’d be a back up to Westbrook getting 5-6 carries a game until Westbrook goes down, so I’m hoping he goes somewhere else.

by Tucker Fredrickson on Mar 2, 2009 9:25 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

That failed three way Cutler/Cassel trade should get interesting

In which Cassel goes to DEN, Cutler to TB and Picks to NE

Denver probably wouldve been a better fit for Cassel and now the Broncos have pissed off Cutler….should get very interesting

Okay, just so I understand it... in your wildest fantasy, you are in hell. And you are co-running a bed and breakfast with the devil.

by bren on Mar 1, 2009 9:13 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Tom Rock @ Newsday on The Giants

two signings and still being interested in Canty

And I suppose this is what Jerry Reese considers “bottom-feeding.”

by NY17NE14 on Mar 1, 2009 9:36 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

JR not makinkg same mistake with Boley

I think they locked him up for four years becasue I think JR knew he made a mistake by not doing that with Kawika Mitchell. Mitchell was signed by the Giants after his fourth year and like Boley had shown some promise and did a very good job for the Giants in 07, we took a bigger hit that we thought without him so I love the fact JR went out got this guy for 4 years.

by Landeta on Mar 1, 2009 11:20 AM EST reply actions 0 recs