New York Giants notebook, 6.03.09

Good afternoon, Giants fans. Just a few stories making the rounds today.

• This column from Bleacher Report pretty much sums up exactly how I feel about the "Plaxico problem," and I know many of the members of this community feel the same way
  

Passing up the free agency market and drafting rookie receivers instead was a clear signal he wants to move forward. I think the Giants brass knows the 2008 unraveling was due not to the loss of Plax, but rather to the team tapestry into which his role was woven; it was really the game plan that failed.

Fans calling for a Plax replacement should be careful what they wish for, and experts should know better.

The mainstream fixation on replacing Plax demonstrates that many Giants' watchers are missing the point, namely that to successfully move forward one must reconcile instead of replicate the past.

I coudn't agree more. The problem wasn't so much that the Giants didn't have Plaxico, it was that they weren't prepared for not having Plaxico. They have had a whole offseason to rewrite the play book to take advantage of the relative strengths and weaknesses of their current receivers, not to mention possibly the best ground attack in the NFL.

• Mario Manningham is "ready for a breakout season," and Eli Manning offers some faint praise:

"He still has a lot to learn. He didn't get a whole lot of playing time in live action and in making reads and decisions. But he came in with a pretty good feel for what's going on. He's running faster, he's more decisive in what he's doing. He's not running on nails because he's a little indecisive. You really see his speed and his explosiveness and big-play potential."

If either Manningham or Moss could turn into a legitimate weapon this season, the Giants offense could be really explosive.

• In case you weren't sick of wide receivers yet, and DeSean Jackson in particular, he responded to Osi's claim that Ed highlighted yesterday:

"But with him or without him, we are confident in ourselves. One player can't determine if they win or lose. As everybody knows, it's a team. You'll never know what would happen if he was there or if he wasn't there. All I know is that we got the victory and that's what I'm going to go off of. We've just got to get another two this year, or however many we play them...We went in their house and beat them twice. We understand what it takes."

I think it's pretty much a non-story, but for once I can't disagree with him. They won last year - now it's on Osi and the Giants to prove it on the field. One thing's for sure though - New York and Philadelphia have a nice little rivalry going in two sports right now.

• Finally, the new Giants Stadium is going to be one of the greenest venues in sports when it opens. I'm no environmentalist, but it's probably not a terrible idea to make these stadiums a little more eco friendly - can you imagine the electricity bills they must rack up? No word yet on whether the Giants or Jets will be charging fans a "green tax."