New York Giants' Potential Free-Agent Target: Andrew Quarless, TE, Green Bay Packers

We have spent a lot of time this offseason discussing the idea that a Green Bay Packers' tight end could end up with the New York Giants as a free agent. All of that time has been spent discussing Jermichael Finley, who is aiming to come back after missing more than half of the 2013 due to a neck injury that required career-threatening surgery.

Finley, though, is not Green Bay's only free-agent tight end. The man who replaced the injured Finley as the Packers' starting tight end is also a free agent. That would be Andrew Quarless. Could Quarless, and not Finley, be the tight end new offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo would like to see the Giants pilfer from the Packers?

Let's take a closer look.

Quarless, 25, caught a career-high 32 passes in 2013. He started 10 games, doubling the total he had started in his first two seasons. Quarless missed the entire 2012 season after tearing the ACL and MCL in his right knee late in the 2011 season.

Green Bay tight ends coach Jerry Fontenot believes Quarless has "more in the tank" in terms of his ability to improve as both a receiver and a run blocker. Quarless, 6-foot-4, 252 pounds, graded out an an awful -9.3 as a run blocker, according to Pro Football Focus.

Mike Vandermause of the Green Bay Press Gazette was lukewarm on Quarless in discussing free agents the Packers should bring back. He wrote that "Someone has to start at tight end, and he wouldn’t be the worst option until a younger player emerges."

Quarless averaged only 9.8 yards on his 32 receptions, so perhaps he isn't the big-play threat you might think the Giants are hoping for after an unsatisfying year of watching Brandon Myers try to play the tight end position.

Quarless doesn't sound like a player who would, or should, be a primary free-agent target. He might be a low-cost option as an insurance policy for young, developing tight ends Adrien Robinson and Larry Donnell.

[NOTE: Drop a note in the comments if there is a specific free agent you would like to see profiled.]