Giants By The Numbers: 94 Is For ...

by Ed Valentine on Jul 26, 2010 2:00 PM EDT in New York Giants By The Numbers

Michael Brooks.

Signed as a free agent from the Denver Broncos, was a good linebacker for the Giants from 1993-95. He had 92, 91 and 95 tackles in his three seasons in New York. Was a guy then-coach Dan Reeves brought with him from Denver.

Cedric Jones was one of the more disastrous first-round picks in franchise history. Selected fifth overall in 1994, Jones was pretty much a disaster right from the beginning. He played five seasons with the Giants and recorded 15 sacks, the first one not coming until his third season in the league. He did manage to work his way into the team's starting lineup his last two seasons, and was part of the 2000 Super Bowl team. Had a 7.5-sack season in 1999.

When the Giants took Jones, they thought they were getting "the most complete defensive player in the draft." Instead, they got a player who was troubled by eye and leg issues, and did not begin to play like an even competent player until his fourth season in the league.

William Joseph, of course, was another disastrous Giants' first-round pick who wore No. 94. Taken 25th overall in a 2003 draft that saw a huge first-round run on defensive tackles, Joseph never played up to his draft status. He compiled only seven sacks in four Giant seasons and had a career-best 20 tackles in 2004. He spent a few seasons after the Giants let him go bouncing on and off the roster of the Oakland Raiders.

Curtis Garrett, a defensive tackle, seems to be the first Giant to wear No. 94. He started three games in 1987, then disappeared from the NFL.

Mathias Kiwanuka wears the 94 currently, of course. Considering the number's recent Giants' history maybe that is not a good idea. Good luck with it, Kiwi!

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Comments

Giants should just retire 94 so no one else gets it

Go New York Go!

by FreeBradshaw on Jul 26, 2010 2:05 PM EDT reply actions

LOL, man there are some bad players attached to that number.

All Kiwi needs is one good year under 94 and it is his for keeps.

by Late for Dinner on Jul 26, 2010 2:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Burn it....

burn the number….it’s cursed. Or even better, put “James” on the back of it and ship it to Cleveland.

"Throw the damn ball to Kevin Boss" - Andiamo708

by andiamo708 on Jul 26, 2010 2:12 PM EDT reply actions

Kiwi...

will change the luck of this number. (I hope)

by CCE718 on Jul 26, 2010 2:37 PM EDT reply actions

William Joseph

I can’t remember the name of the player that the Philadelphia Eagles picked before the Giants picked William Joseph in the first round of the 2003 draft, but he was the one the Giants ( and I ) really wanted to take. He seemed to do well for them ( as much as I pay attention to the Eagles ), but years later when they let him go, the Giants grabbed him ( in 2008? ), and he wasn’t any better for us than William Joseph. I will remember his name within 10 minutes of posting this.

But then, what do I know about drafting ( other than being an architect )? In 2004 I thought the Giants should go after Robert Gallery, who was billed by all as the best offensive tackle prospect ever; I thought that all Kerry Collins needed was a better line and we were off to the Super Bowl again. But when the Oakland Raiders took him with the second pick, the Giants had to settle Philip Rivers with the fourth, and the rest is history. Draft day was the last anyone ever heard of Robert Gallery.

This year the Giants ( and I ) wanted to get Rolando MacClain. Was he the first wise first round draft choice that the Oakland Raiders have made in many years, or will history repeat itself in some way?

by Old Giant on Jul 26, 2010 3:15 PM EDT reply actions

I Knew It

Jerome McDougle, another end from Miami of Florida.

by Old Giant on Jul 26, 2010 3:27 PM EDT up reply actions

Jerome McDougle sucked too

by Late for Dinner on Jul 26, 2010 4:51 PM EDT up reply actions

I wanted Gallery, too.

I felt the way you did about Kerry. That’s why i reall didn’t like giving up so much for Eli.
All’s well that ends well.

by blue gonz on Jul 26, 2010 3:37 PM EDT up reply actions

rose tinted glasses

You and Old Giant are looking at that Manning-Rivers trade with rose tinted glasses. It was a bad trade. Rivers and Manning are about the same, equally immobile, good down the field, but Rivers throws a better deep pass and is far sharper on 10-12 yard passes. Both have had weak receivers, though that is changing for both.

Yes Manning went to and won the Super Bowl, and, yes, Manning is not as injury prone as Rivers.

But the Giants gave up at least 2 high level draft picks which the Chargers (historically one of the worst drafting teams in the NFL) used to get two All-Pro caliber players. Yes, one is messed up now, but remains a force.

I also wanted Gallery, feeling, as you both did, that Collins needed a real line in front of him, and that line did, in fact, materialize by Eli’s second year, but the trade remains a mystery to me- very odd and as a conspiracy theorist, I have always wondered about Archie Manning’s obvious push of Eli to NYC and why. Note it was Archie who said that Eli would never play for San Diego. Why? This was no Elway deal, so why wouldn’t Eli play for San Diego?

Sure, all ends well, etc., but it was still a bad trade, or at least an odd one.

by grange77 on Jul 26, 2010 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Odd yes.

Bad no, at least not in my eyes.

Anytime you trade for a player that has a direct correlation to you getting to/winning a Super Bowl, it can’t be bad…

Merriman is washed up now. He had a couple good seasons but I’m certainly not losing any sleep over the fact that we don’t have him. And the other was a kicker, and as we all know, kickers aren’t really football players :)

"With the game on the line. I want the ball in my hands."
-E

by tito (eight and oh) on Jul 26, 2010 4:52 PM EDT up reply actions

?!?!?

How can you trade for a player who helps win a Super Bowl and oh yeah is the Super Bowl MVP be a bad trade?

by Late for Dinner on Jul 26, 2010 5:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Because they gacve up way too much

Rivers for Manning is fair. Manning for Rivers and one other is ok, but Manning for Rivers and two or three others is not acceptable. And the other pick, the kicker- Nick K. has been better than what the Giants have had for the last few years. Plus there was another pick a year later, though i don’t remember whom the Chargers got with that one. And I’m not sure the Giants would ahve made the same picks anyway.

We’re not talking about Rivers for PEYTON Manning or Favre or Brady, plus 3 draft picks. We’re talking about two QB untested draft picks plus three other draft picks.

Come on, it was a weird unbalanced trade.

Yes, it worked fine, but it was not a good trade, and that GM just wanted to make up for losing Elway when he was at Baltimore, so he reversed it as his legacy.

Remember, again, no one knew how either of these QBs would be, so forget that Super Bowl stuff. I’m talking about the trade.

In 5 years we’ll see how both QBs turned out ( and Eli is nearly one full year older than Rivers). And, yes, Rivers is a bit of an ass, and Eli appears to be a fine representative for the Giants and the NFL.

I just think the trade sucked- on paper.

by grange77 on Jul 26, 2010 6:34 PM EDT up reply actions

Huh

By the way Tynes kicked us into the Superbowl And Eli has never had the talent that Rivers had Great trade! Results speak for them selves I will keep the ring and Eli over Rivers crying any day!

by Sgt on Jul 27, 2010 2:18 AM EDT up reply actions

No rose tinted glasses pour moi, dude!

I never said that it was a good trade. I said that the Giants should have gone for Gallery ( big mistake ) and had to re-think the draft since he was gone ( sarcastic comment for me, and unthinkable thought for them ) and they drafted Rivers before deciding, “Hey, lets throw in a bunch of picks and get Peytons’ little brother because he might be better” ( very unlikely scenario, but with the same results ).

On July 10 I wrote in another blog :

“I think that a good case could be made for the Giants being better off in the long run if they had kept Rivers rather than trading him with all the draft choices to San Diego. Manning has obviously done very well with the Giants, but Rivers has been quite a bit statistically better with the Chargers and he took less time to establish himself as a winning quarterback, even though he started later. I don’t see why Rivers would not have fit in with the Giants, and if they used the lost draft choices just as well as the Chargers did, for Merriman and Kaeding, they could have been ahead of where they are now. The Giants thought well enough of Rivers to draft him, and did not do so only to trade him away. If San Diego did not agree to the deal for Manning ( they were at first insistent that Osi Umenyiora be part of the deal ), the Giants would have been content to stay with and build around Rivers. That’s one reason why they chose him rather than Big Ben; they thought he was better, and obviously, more marketable.

Eli has the Super Bowl ring, but I thought Rivers was on his way to his last year. Maybe Super Bowl 42 would have had the same result with a different QB and better cast, and maybe the Giants would have been better than 10-6 when those playoffs started."

I have no idea if Rivers isn’t a pleasant person, but quarterbacks don’t have to go to charm school, just have the respect of their team mates and win games. Eli is a nice guy, and has a ring, but nothing he has done was a certainty back in 2004. And until the 2007 post season, he wasn’t thought of as anything close to “elite”; Rivers was passing him by.

by Old Giant on Jul 26, 2010 9:49 PM EDT up reply actions

"Maybe Super Bowl 42 would have had the same result with a different QB and better cast, and maybe the Giants would have been better than 10-6 when those playoffs started."

Maybe if Eli Manning played in the easiest defensive division in all of football (as opposed to the most difficult), in one of the most consistently beautiful climates in the United States (instead of the unpredictable weather that is December/January in the Meadowlands) with the best tight end in football, an LDT in his prime, and a fantastic deep threat in Vincent Jackson the Chargers would have three Super Bowls right now instead of zero…or at least maybe they would have beat the 9-7 Jets at home.

"With the game on the line. I want the ball in my hands."
-E

by tito (eight and oh) on Jul 27, 2010 1:44 AM EDT up reply actions

Tito to Manning

So you obviously think Eli would have been “elite” no matter where he was throwing? If he went to SD would you be a Chargers fan now?

by Old Giant on Jul 27, 2010 5:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Yes to Eli being elite.

HELLLLLL no to being a Chargers fan.

Powder blue is for Victorias Secret models, I could never rock one of those hideous jerseys.

"With the game on the line. I want the ball in my hands."
-E

by tito (eight and oh) on Jul 28, 2010 1:16 AM EDT up reply actions

no doubt.

If Eli played in sunny San Diego for 8 games a year, not to mention another in Oakland…Eli’s always done well in good weather. Plus he’d also have Norv Turner as his OC, who’s one of the best playcallers in the NFL, not to mention Martyball.

If Rivers was in NY he most likely never amounts to that. Handling NY is another thing I dunno if Rivers could handle either.

Maybe they lost the trade since they couldn’t draft Nate Kaeding…other then that, its a wash, but the Giants reaped the benefits already.

Go New York Go!

by FreeBradshaw on Jul 27, 2010 8:06 PM EDT up reply actions

what

They drafted Rivers to trade for Manning Sandiego knew we wanted Manning They wanted Rivers case closed

by Sgt on Jul 27, 2010 2:22 AM EDT up reply actions

Jones and his eye injuty

His eye injury was more than that – he was blind in one eye.

The Giants wanted him to play the RDE but as he was blind he could not see the QB – so they switched him to LDE so he could see.

Who moved from LDE to RDE to accomodate Jones? That;s right Strahan moved to RDE and the rest they say is history.

The other thing about Jones was that there wer four really good players in his draft class and the Giants were picking fifth.

by G Fan in England on Jul 26, 2010 3:33 PM EDT reply actions

Blind in one eye?

How could any scout who saw him play, watched him work out, talked to him or his coaches not know that he was blind in one eye? I guess Cedric Jones did well getting so far considering, but it is amazing that the Giants didn’t know anything about it before he was drafted.

On the other hand, Raymond Berry on the old Baltimore Colts did pretty well with limited eyesight.

by Old Giant on Jul 26, 2010 10:04 PM EDT up reply actions

ummm

Stray went from LE to RE because he was better suited,and had not yet shown he cld play LE…the giants wanted Simeon Rice or kevin Hardy…that yr..

Regroup refocus..retool...

by Mr.Williams on Jul 26, 2010 4:10 PM EDT via mobile reply actions

Strahan did play LEFT defensive end most of his career

Jones’ ( then Kenny Holmes’) limited playing time was always as a right defensive end, and by 1995, Strahan was already establishing himself as one of the better defensive ends in NFL- as a left end.

Of course I’m speaking as if I were behind the defensive line.

Also though I too thought either Simeon Rice or Kevin Hardy would be better players, was either available by the time Strahan was picked?

by grange77 on Jul 26, 2010 4:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Perhaps

I should believe all I read!

100. Cedric Jones, New York Giants (No. 5 overall pick, 1996)
Unbeknownst to the Giants, Jones was blind in one eye and couldn’t play on the left side. On the other hand, it did mean the Giants shifted another young defensive end named Michael Strahan from the right side to the left, so maybe this should be regarded as a great pick in a twisted, fortuitous way. Jones finished with just 15 career sacks.

by G Fan in England on Jul 26, 2010 5:56 PM EDT up reply actions

Or

Perhaps I should not believe all that I read.

There was no rejoicing back in 1996 when with the fifth pick the Giants landed Jones, mainly because he was viewed as the fifth player in a top-heavy draft dominated by four upper-echelon prospects.

The Giants figured they would get either tackle Jonathan Ogden, defensive end Simeon Rice or linebacker Kevin Hardy, believing that running back Lawrence Phillips out of Nebraska would be one of the first four players off the board.

Phillips slipped to No. 6, though, foiling the Giants plans and forcing them to settle for Jones.

by G Fan in England on Jul 26, 2010 6:01 PM EDT up reply actions