Loading ...The grass is not always greener on the other side. Just ask Plaxico Burress, Steve Smith, Barry Cofield and Kevin Boss. All four players left or opted not to sign with the New York Giants last year, and all four missed out on the opportunity to win a Super Bowl ring. Now wide receiver Mario Manningham is facing a similar choice: sign or go elsewhere.
Pro Football Talk is reporting that the Giants and Manningham are not making any positive progress in their contract talks and that the wide receiver is ready to enter free agency.
"Per league source, receiver Mario Manningham has made no progress on new deal with the Giants and will enter free agency," PFT tweeted.
This doesn't come as a huge surprise since Manningham is likely seeking a much larger deal than the Giants are willing to give, but to see that absolutely no progress has been made is unfortunate nonetheless.
With a very stacked list of free agent or potential free agent wide receivers, Super Mario and agent Drew Rosenhaus may not receive the offer they're both hoping for. Much like the case with running back Ahmad Bradshaw a year ago, multiple free agent options will likely drive down the price for Mario and he'll ultimately be forced to settle for less than he and Rosenhaus value him at.
Will that spell a last second return to Big Blue? Time will tell.
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# John McClain ? @McClain_on_NFL
RG3 is 6-2, 3/8, 223. Some, including me, thought he might be closer to 6-1 but it’s official. That’s a good start for the Baylor QB.
Vick 2.0
I love how 1 an 3/8 inches makes a difference.
Isuspect he’ll get some ‘dumba$$’ contract … full of future money that will never happen … and impossible incentives.
The bright side here is that this probably means JR is focused on doing everything he can to keep Cruz and Nicks, which is more important.
I fully understand how good Mario is and what he means to this offense. I would love to keep him, however, if keeping Mario means the strong possibility that one for Cruz or Nicks can’t be retained, then it’s a no brainer to me.
I loved the pick of mario in the 3rd round. He was a very Giant, and I believe we got our monies worth and full value out of that 3rd round pick. In reality Mario should have been a 1st round or high 2nd round pick. The fact that he fell to us in the 3rd, cost him a lot of money. If he wants to go get paid now then i don’t blame him one bit. He’s a very good WR and deserves more money than the Giants are able to give him. His agent should be telling him to try and get paid now. If the money ends up not being there for him, then come back to the Giants. But he really should be trying to get paid right now. Tomorrow isn’t promised to anybody.
There is a decent supply of WR’s, but Mario has a combination of youth and physical tools that many of the others do not. I know someone mentioned Mike Wallace a day or two ago, but this is another guy that is an RFA and likely to receive a high tender. Nobody is going to sign Wallace at the price of a first round choice. Maybe the 49ers as their first rounder would be a lower pick than many others, but still not likely. Lack of RFA status and zero likelihood of being tagged make Mario’s position to bargain even better.
Gotta hand it to my boy TroyThorne, coming in with a great post about the state of the OL. And a tip of the hat to Kyle, for writing what was certainly a contrarian piece!
Now, I’ve said that mario was going to be gone all year, and for all of the reasons that people on here say he is so valuable. In today’s NFL, with teams moving more and more to pass-first offenses, how do you pass-up a guy that can stretch the field the way #82 does? Sure, he’s a f*cking idiot–teams will DEFINITELY take that into consideration–but the fact is that he can catch the ball and make big plays. There are plenty of teams whose #1 WR isn’t as good as he is, or who are young and looking to build an offense around a couple of young guys. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Mario Manningham will be playing in Cincinnati or Seattle next year.
Chicago makes a ton of sense for Mario. Cutler can sling it, and the Bears have terrible WR’s and a ton of cap space. I expect the Bears to make a huge push for 2 Wr’s in this FA period.
Agreed. Chicago would certainly be in my Top-5 would-be destinations for him.
I just hope he signs a ‘real’ contract … with real money. Not some agent/owner collaboration that plays MM for a fool.
You can’t blame these guys … they get 1 maybe 2 bites of the apple. Mario already missed out on the first. This is it for him. What he earns in the next 3-4 years has to stand him his entire life.
He was a huge part in winning us a Superbowl … I hope he does well and has a fine career … I’d like it more if it was in the AFC though.
Redskins?
Mario isn’t the only idiot-savant WR. Has anyone listened to Mike Wallace talk, he makes Mario look like a genius. I can piece together and connect the dots with Mario, Wallace not so much.
My hunch is Jacksonville. It makes a lot of sense for both sides.
Who plays QB in Jax? Are they still going with that trailer-trash guy who looks like Sunshine from Remember the Titans?
Players don’t think like fans. Do you really think Mario cares who is throwing to him? The jags have cap space, dire need, and a nice warm climate that many players find appealing. I’m not saying anyone would base their decision solely on weather, but if the money is even there are many who would pick Jax over the windy city.
Expectations would be lower too. And that actually translates to cash.
As for Dan Graziano over at ESPN, he wrote the best article on the Giants’ draft philosophy of late that I have ever read. Truly one of the most enjoyable pieces of Giants-related material I’ve come across (http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/34740/victor-cruz-and-the-new-york-giant-way).
I just tweeted him and pointed out that Ross, Phillips, Nicks and Prince (in a way) all represented “need” picks in the years they were taken. That leaves JPP as the sole “BPA” pick that Reese has made in the 1st. Of course, the draft is more than just the 1st round, and I think we’d all agree that taking guys like Austin and Jernigan this past year were definitely closer to BPA than attempts to fill other “needs” at LB, OL and RB.
Reese has also stated a number of times that he goes for BPA.
As for the OL … this is the area where I have the most trouble getting my head around. It’s very hard for me to figure out who is playing good … who is playing bad.
Sure, of course they could. The New York Giants are picking 32nd in the draft. There’s no way to know who’s going to be available to them at that point. A team that always drafts the best player available, is drafting in a spot where that’s the only smart way to go. The Giants could draft any position in the first round and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise — though as we’ve discussed, offensive line, linebacker and running back are not generally positions they like to draft early.
Anyway, this came up as I was reading Ohm’s report-card review of the defensive line. Even if they trade Osi Umenyiora, they’ll still be deep with pass rushers. They shouldn’t have a problem re-signing Dave Tollefson, and they can always move Mathias Kiwanuka back up to the line from his hybrid linebacker spot. No one in the world would be surprised to see Jerry Reese take a pass rusher with his first-round pick, but I’d be even less surprised if the Giants went for an interior defensive lineman. Rocky Bernard is a free agent, Marvin Austin is a question mark coming off his rookie-season training camp injury and they’re generally pretty young at defensive tackle.
It appears as though they could have some good options at defensive tackle at No. 32. Mel Kiper’s latest mock draft has players like Memphis Dontari Poe, Penn State’s Devon Still, Michigan State’s Jerel Worthy and Connecticut’s Kendell Reyes all going in the mid-to-high-20s, which means one or more from that group could conceivably slip into the early 30s.
I know it’s not groundbreaking to write that the Giants could prioritize the defensive line in the draft. It’s just not something we’d talked about. And these days on the blog, we’re always looking for new stuff to talk about.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/36500/could-giants-draft-a-defensive-lineman
Many draft experts are giving DT’s very good grades and consider it one of the deepest positions in this years draft. It would make sense that a DT could present a great value at some point in the draft and it would definitely make sense that the Giants would jump on it. I certainly wouldn’t complain. Stud interior linemen are nice to have.
The Giants don’t draft by a pure BPA approach. They give each player a grade and then that grade is adjusted up or down depending on whether you are at a need position.
#Andrew Brandt ? @adbrandt
With the Roethlisberger restructure, the Steelers have now mortgaged $26 million from the present to the future. No other team is close.
I had a piece saved and ready to go up at some point today about Devon Still as a possibility by Graziano beat me to the punch I see.
Not at all, dude. I don’t know jacksh*t about Still or any other DTs in this draft. Throw it up here and edumacate us!
Dan is in charge of the schedule