Pre-Season Begins

With the first pre-season game only four days away, how do the Giants appear to shape up as the 2008 season opener looms just over the horizon?

Let's look at the personnel changes from 2007. The Jeremy Shockey circus packed up its tents and moved to New Orleans. That makes me sad but not overly worried. Sad because of the legend he should have become. He had all the ability and potential to replace Mark Bavaro in that role. But Shockey didn't reach those heights and while some of the fault lies at the feet of the offensive scheme, at the end of the day his failures as a player rest squarely with Shockey himself. His best year was his rookie year after which he left me wanting more which never came. So I am content (ok, I have no choice) with his moving on. Oddly, the hole he leaves will impact the running game much more than the passing game and that will be one one area to watch this pre-season.

Strahan's retirement worries me more. The issue isn't replacing Strahan. I am confident Tuck will be more than adequate in that regard. The issue is - who replaces Tuck? He was critical - invaluable - as a regular member of the DE rotation on running downs and moving over to DT in passing situations. I believe his role last year was much more valuable than both Osi and Strahan. There is no one to replace Tuck and I am a bit surprised the Giants didn't move Kiwi over to Strahan's side and let Tuck continue to fill the critical role he played last year. I have no idea how the Giants plan to replace Tuck and I'm anxious to learn what new scheme Spags has conceived. Replacing Tuck, whose role resulted in Tuck becoming what I believe was 2007's most valuable defensive player, isn't going to be easy and is the biggest challenge facing the Giants in 2008.

The Giants let Kawika Mitchell walk and, while I thought he played very well last year, it is time to see what the Giants have in Wilkinson. The problem with that scenario is that Wilkinson's injury from last year hasn't healed sufficiently and found himself on the PUP list when camp opened and he hasn't been able to take the field yet. That cannot be a good sign, especially for a player trying to win an open competition at a vacated position. It looks like the Giants may have yet one more year (is this 6 in a row?) in which they fill one or more of the linebacker positions with one year contract free agents - this year's version being Danny Clark. No knock on Clark, but it would be nice to see the Giants finally fill the position with their own draft picks. If Wilkinson doesn't get healthy soon - and if the leg hasn't healed after all these months one has to wonder why there should be any hope it will suddenly be ok - then the job will almost certainly fall to Clark by default. The only good news is that rookie draft pick Bryan Kehl should get more reps in the absence of Wilkinson but it is unrealistic to expect him to challenge for a starting spot.

Gabril Wilson also moved on. I liked Gabril and his success from obscurity was fun to follow. But I am much more excited by first round pick Kenny Phillips than I would ever be by Gabril Wilson. I've wanted the Giants to go after a top notch safety for a long time. Phillips, the first safety taken in the entire draft, is going to be fun to watch and ten years from now most Giant fans won't even remember Gabril Wilson's name.

The other interesting issue facing the Giants this pre-season is WR. You can safely assume the Giants will carry a maximum of six. You can also safely assume four of those names will be Plax, Toomer, Smith and rookie Mario Manningham. That leaves Domenik Hixon, Brandon London, D.J. Hall, David Tyree, Michael Jennings, Craphonso Thorpe, and Sinorice Moss to battle for the last two positions. This is unquestionably the best WR group the Giants have had in my lifetime. And wouldn't it be nice if the Giants could simply keep the best six wide receivers. Unfortunately they are almost certainly not in a position to do that. The victors of the battle for those two remaining slots will likely be the two players who demonstrate the greatest special teams prowess.

So those are the areas I'll be watching this pre-season. Of course the most fun of every pre-season is getting to see the "new blood". Oddly, some of that fun is diminished by what the rookie class did last year. There will never be another rookie class in my life time that comes close to the contributions made by the 2007 draft class as a group. Beyond Phillips, it is unrealstic to expect any of the other rookies from this class to make any substantial contributions this year. But, as always, it will be fun to watch and that is what pre-season is all about - some rookie making a splash out of nowhere.