Land of the Giants: Getting back to football

After Thursday's little tussle with Bleeding Green Nation -- and some of you -- about Michael Boley I figured today would be a good day to head for safer ground. So, let's stick to football.

Here are a few stories making the rounds of the Inter-Google about our New York Giants.

• Scout.com's Chris Steuber (Scout's Philly writer, by the way), has a look at the Giants' top 10 prospects (defined as players under 25 or with less than three years of experience). Tops on Steuber's list are Kenny Phillips No. 1 and Hakeem Nicks No. 2.

Here is what he said about Phillips.

After a year of learning, Phillips is ready to take the next step and solidify himself as the next great safety from Miami.

Here are his thoughts on Nicks. Oh, and I am loving what he has to say here.

There were rumors about the Giants making a deal with the Cleveland Browns for Braylon Edwards or with the Arizona Cardinals for Anquan Boldin, but in the end they decided to do what they’ve done best over the years: build through the draft. So, they used their first round pick on North Carolina’s Hakeem Nicks, who I believe will be the best receiver from the ’09 class and immediately validate his status as the No. 2 prospect in the organization. As successful as I believe Nicks will be, it’s hard to replace a Pro Bowl receiver in their first-year in the league. Nicks is a complete receiver who runs precise routes, has great quickness and strong hands. But the transition for a receiver from college to the pros may be the toughest transition of all. The Giants have a nice young core of receivers on their roster, which should ease the pressure off of Nicks’ shoulders for a bit, but as the season progresses, expect big things from No. 18.

Let's hope he is right on both counts. I suspect he will be.

• The war of words in the NFC East seems to be heating up early. First, blog wars. Now, we have Brandon Jacobs taking shots at Dallas quarterback Tony Romo. To say the least, the folks at Blogging the Boys are not loving Brandon these days.
• Interesting Q&A recently by The Sporting News with Giants' wide receiver Sinorice Moss. Here is a snippet.

Q: What goes through your mind when people wonder whether you and the other receivers have what it takes to fill Burress' and Toomer's void?

A: I've been hearing that all my life. I've been hearing guys tell me I wasn't going to make it to the NFL. That is just something for me to look at and listen to and just go out there and perform every week. I can't worry about what those people say. But it does bother me when people tell me what I can't do.

Q: Do you think the other receivers feel the same way? Is there a collective "let's show them"-type attitude?

A: I feel like there is a big chip on all our shoulders. You hear a lot of things: "Oh, they don't have Plax, they don't have Amani. They don't have any deep threats." We have Domenik Hixon, Steve Smith, myself, Mario Manningham, and I can run down a list of guys that we have here who can contribute and make some plays for this team. So as a group, every day we look at each other and say, "Let's go. It's time to go. Let's do what we have to do to help this team."

• Pro Football Weekly is expecting Osi Umenyiora to have a huge year. I may think Justin Tuck is a better player, but I sure would be fine with Osi proving me wrong.