Coaches who should know endorse Giants' signing of Canty

Did the Giants overpay when they gave Chris Canty a six-year, $42 million contract? I don't know, we will just have to find out when he gets on the field.

I do know that two guys who have coached Canty, both of whom are very familiar to Giants' fans, heartily endorse the signing.

Here is Bill Parcells talking to Paul Needell of the New York Daily News.

"Oh, Chris is a really good kid," Parcells said. "He's smart, works hard, has great size. Of course, he played end for us but rushed the passer inside. I wouldn't see why he wouldn't have a huge upside for them. He played for Al (Groh in college at Virginia) and me, so he knows what Tom (Coughlin) will expect."

Here is Groh, talking to Tom Rock of Newsday.

“He’s a great kid, one of our favorites,” Groh told Newsday Monday morning, the day after Canty signed a six-year, $42 million deal with the Giants. “He’s very focused and committed to what his ambitions and goals are. He had a tremendous work ethic when he was here.

“There’s a circle of coaches and we were all together in that building there,” Groh said of the Giants’ staff (he was a linebackers coach and a defensive coordinator for the Giants under Parcells from 1989-91 and worked with Parcells at New England and with the Jets as well). “We all tend to like the same type of guys. I’m sure Chris will find the way that Tom Coughlin runs things might have a little familiarity to the way he did things under Bill Parcells in Dallas and maybe even the way we did things down here.”

Parcells, by the way, also praised the Giants' signing of defensive tackle Rocky Bernard.

"You know, that other kid, Rocky Bernard, is a pretty good player, too," Parcells told Needell, who hadn't even asked him about Bernard. "We had to play him a few times (in Dallas) and always had our hands full. He'll do a good job for them, too."

Those endorsements are good enough for me.