On Clark, I’m going to believe my “lyin’ eyes” and say he’s not a guy you want starting at LB, but if we can keep him cheap as a back up, fine.

Good point on Boley, that the “Osi turnstile” in front of him might have something to do with his poor run defense grade. Hopefully that’s one LB position we can count on in 2010.

On Kehl, I really think in camp they told some players to pick a fight with him just to see if they can get a spark of aggressiveness out of him. I don’t know why we would keep him at this point. Wilkinson should be gone.

Sintim’s the real puzzler. What we’ve seen so far looks more like Osi and Kiwi than a LB. But you hit the nail on the head in that Fewell has to figure out what we are on D, and then we can see what the best role is for Sintim and some other guys, and draft accordingly. I’d love to think we can have a hybrid D, that doesn’t just a standard 4-3 look, and that gets some rotation of fresh legs on all of our “tweeners”, but that may be too complex to pull off, especially in Fewell’s first year.

…step up and make big plays on ST, but less so on D. In fact, the only positive contribution I ever recall him making on D was the pick against Pittsburgh in ’08 (shortly after which he was benched).

Im telling you guys this guy is who we need he is a sleeper!

Reminds me of Brian Urlacher

I think we should go all out young this season with our LB’s. If we can’t get McClain we should get Spikes, Lee in the 2nd or 3rd round and play Sintim.

I think they should have played sintim even more last season but w.e. we need to go young now.

if we should switch to a 3-4.? This the first time that I’ve given that idea half a chance in my head. The three guys you want to keep all have 3-4 experience, although Boley was a failure in Atlanta. Still need the NT. How about the inside guys? As you say, Sintim is a possibility there.

Whenever i look at the Giants Defense, I see nothing Spectacular even the Jets have more play makers on defense than us and they did all of that within 2 yrs.

Kenny Philips, Thomas and Justin Tuck are the only ones that makes plays.
Corey Webster drops every single ball lol no wonder he isn’t a WR.

The Giants have not made Linebacker a drafting priority for the since George Young left and they are paying for it now. They seem to draft a receiver or defensive lineman in the first round every year (with mixed results). The last Linebackers the Giants drafted in the first round was Carl Banks. Before Stintim the last linebacker drafted in the 2nd round was Pepper Johnson. Wilkinson was the last linebacker drafted in the 3rd round. The last young athletic play-making linebacker was Armstead; the Giant lucked out with a late round pick. The Giants really have not had great linebackers since they switched to the 4-3. Since going to the 4-3, the Giant Linebacker have been middle to late draft pick or free agent pick ups.
The Giants need impact players at Linebacker, Safety and DT. However, they really need to start developing young athletic linebackers that fit their system.

Clark – He definitely makes plays, but he also whiffs a bunch. My take, he is aggressive to the ball, but too many times the RB gets past him.

Kehl – A late rounder, many take 3 years to develop, we were spoiled by Boss and others. Lets see what he has this year before we dump him.

Boley – He played great in the one game he looked near healthy. But I agree with Osi comment, could it also be the scheme??

Sintim – How many guys taken between him and Beatty would you swap him for?? Its not like Cushing or Matthews were on the board. But he is a big, fast athletic player who is aggressive. He has a shot, most guys from UVA are pretty smart, I give him a good chance to start and play well.

Great analysis. However, I would not be so quick to dump Clark. He was signed as competition for Wilkinson and as an insurance policy at the position, and he has done what he was signed to do. Imagine what SAM play would have been like without him! Given that , except for Boley, all of our OLBs are question marks, I would resign Clark and challenge the other OLBs to beat him out if they want his job.
I think you are too quick to judge Sintim as a misfit. All of the players talk about how the rookie year is pretty much a blur, but the game slows down for them in the second year. Given that he was hurt part of the time and had to learn a new position, I look forward to seeing what he can do the second time around. Sintim’s rookie year was better than Manningham’s, and look what happened with him.
To me, the real question mark is Kehl. This is his third year, so he should have his position figured out. The criticism of Kehl has not been that he is too slow or can’t cover or doesn’t understand the position; it has been that he is not physical enough. To me, that is a mental issue. If he can’t improve, he should be let go in favor of someone who could develop into a starter.
Wilkinson – I agree keeping him is a waste of a roster spot.
As for the draft, I expect Reese to decide that the issues at MLB and S are too great and too immediate to be solved through the draft. I think he will sign solid, experienced free agents as starters. That will give him the freedom in the draft to bring in players at other positions, such as DT and OLB, and give them time to develop.

Giants have had few opportunities to draft impact LBs, and often having just signed a free agent to play the position, it would not have made sense.

Best example of this:

Prior to 2006 draft, the team had signed Pierce (who made pro-bowl after 05 season) and Arrington. So when they grabbed Kiwi instead of DeMeco Ryans it made sense. 4 years later Pierce is old an injured, Arrington is retired and Ryans (and some of the guys drafted in the vicinity) are nice players.

It sort of repeated itself in 2007 when the team took Ross. But you could throw in Wilkinson, who had an impressive rookie year (on specials and then at the end of the season at LB), and then proceeded to become a resident of IR.

MHO – Giants have wisely stopped trying to pursue free agent LBs as more than stop gap solutions. Most teams don’t let a good one go, and few play very well after 30. If Wilkinson had stayed healthy it wouldn’t even be a discussion.

from the Steelers. I think Sintim compares favorably to him when he was at Michigan. They are similarly built, weigh the same and played in 3-4 defenses. By Woodley’s second year in Pittsburgh, he became a force. I would suggest on those passing downs, moving Tuck inside to DT, and have Sintim rush from the strong side, same as Woodley. I believe we would get similar results.

Keep Sintim, but flush the rest. A crop of rookies and FA’s could do the same thing they do (blow coverages and not tackle). Lets get fresh meat in there and look for a real future. Again the point comes up – if we are keeping Osi, Kiwi and Tuck, where does Sintim end up? We have to clear space and let Sintim sink or swim at LB – OR – trade Osi so that he can be committed as an end.

Very hard to determine we have what we hope we have..because we didn’t see enough of them and our DTs are horrible which makes matters worse…

he only fares against the slower left offensive tackles in the league as a pass rusher, and as a run stopper… let’s not go there… Boley is not that tough and playing behind Osi does not make him any better.