New York Giants News & Notes: Brandon Stokley To Sign With Giants

Here are your New York Giants news and notes for this Thursday morning.

The Giants will reportedly sign veteran wide receiver Brandon Stokley today, according to a variety of reports from Giants beat writers. Stokley, in his 13th season in the NFL, is "a prototypical slot receiver" and is expected to push Victor Cruz for that job. Whether it has been Cruz or any other wide receiver, the Giants have struggled to find a receiver who is comfortable in the slot role that former Giant Steve Smith excelled in.

Jeff Roberts of The Bergen Record is probably accurate in wondering if this means Cruz and Domenik Hixon have missed their chance at grabbing the third wide receiver role.

Stokley caught 31 passes for 354 yards last season while playing for Seattle. He has also played for Baltimore, Indianapolis and Denver. He has 338 career receptions. Stokley was reportedly set to sign with the Washington Redskins at the beginning of training camp, but had a change of heart. He has been looking for a team ever since.

According to Pro Football Talk, the Giants worked out a number of potential slot receivers Wednesday.

On the subject of Giants' wide receivers their best one -- Hakeem Nicks -- expects to play Monday night despite not practicing Wednesday due to a bone bruise on his knee.

"I will take it day to day. I feel better than I did yesterday and I keep going up. I don't see myself missing any time," Nicks said.

Veteran guard David Diehl believes the Giants can be a "great offense" despite their struggles thus far.

"You see things on film that we just did in practice that we didn't execute during the football game. That's disappointing watching. That's the thing. The most disappointing thing is when you don't play to your potential and you don't play the way you're capable of. I think all of us are disappointed with the last game, but that's in the past. We can't change that. The only thing we can correct is that we make sure we make those corrections," David Diehl said. "We believe in one another and we know that we’re going to be a great offense. It’s just about going out there and sticking together and being consistent. You can’t have the ups and downs that we had last week."

Diehl also pointed out the Giants' struggles on third down as something the team needs to correct. The Giants were a miserable 1-for-10 converting third-down plays Sunday against the Washington Redskins.

"You have to be able to convert on third downs," he said. "Our defense, it’s getting a lot of heat right now saying they didn’t do anything, this and that, that they need to stop them on drives. Offensively, we have to help those guys. We have to keep them off the field. We have to keep them fresh and we have to keep the time of possession on our side and grind the clock and get that run game going."

Prince Amukamara, out with a broken foot, ran lightly on the sidelines Wednesday for the first time since suffering his injury. He said it felt "pretty weird" and that the foot was sore. Amukamara, a cornerback selected in the first round by the Giants, has no timetable for his return but was happy about being able to run a little.

"Today was a great feeling just to be out there with the team and catch some mental reps and still joke around with the guys and get picked on," Amukamara said. "It is still welcoming, everybody kept calling me the new guy because they hadn't seen me out there in forever."

Veteran safety Deon Grant Tuesday acknowledged the panic being felt in the team's fan base after the season-opening loss.

"They were panicking before the season. They looked at all the moves Philly did and the Jets bringing most of their team back knowing we share the stadium with the Jets and all the other moves teams made like Chicago and they see we didn't make any moves like that," Grant said. "They started panicking before the season even started but it is up to us to change the feelings they have."

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