Loading ...With Jonathan Goff having recently visited the Miami Dolphins and no signs that Chase Blackburn is a lock to return, the New York Giants appear to be in the market for a linebacker. Ideally, their focus would be on a middle linebacker, but rumors began to spread late Tuesday night that their target may be Cincinnati Bengals outside linebacker Keith Rivers.
Although Rivers has primarily played OLB in Cincinnati, Drew Boylhart's 2007 scouting report touched on the possibility of Rivers playing MLB on a 4-3 defense that runs a lot of cover 2 – ala, the New York Giants.
Initially dismissed as nothing more than an internet rumor, Mike Garafolo of The Star-Ledger hinted Wednesday morning that there may be some substance to this.
"Sit tight. Might be some fire behind that smoke," Garafolo tweeted.
Rivers was drafted in the first-round (9th overall) of the 2008 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals. He received one vote for 2008 Defensive Rookie of the Year, but lost out to New England Patriots LB Jerod Mayo.
Perhaps most well-known for being on the receiving end of a brutal blind-side hit that resulted in a broken jaw courtesy of then Pittsburgh Steelers WR Hines Ward, Rivers actually possesses quite a bit of high-end potential. Unfortunately for the former USC Trojan, injuries have plagued his entire career. In addition to his broken jaw and a previous foot injury, Rivers missed the entire 2011 season with a wrist injury.
In 35 career games, Rivers has collected 186 tackles, two sacks, two interceptions and nine stuffs.
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Interesting. Frankly, I wondered what ever happened to him because he was a stud in college. He’s a linebacker who could play any of the three positions in the Giants’ defensive scheme, so is the type they covet. I wonder what the asking price is for him. He’s probably better than all but 3-4 linebackers in this draft, so a trade of the 4th pick would seem to make a lot of sense if they were thinking of doing something in regard to linebacker in the draft. I would guess that the Bengals are looking for a 3rd round pick and the Giants are offering their 5th rounder. But there aren’t that many 4-3 teams that are good trading partners, so maybe Rivers can be had at a fair value. If not, Reese will pass.
By the way, the possibility of trades like this are precisely why mock drafts are almost certain to be hopelessly inaccurate once you get past the first round. I’m not diminishing Kyle’s efforts, but while it’s fun to think through that stuff there are way too many variables to ever get it even close to correct.
We have no history for this sort of trade. Not saying it’s impossible, but it’d certainly be without recent precedent.
However … I’d love the deal. He runs a 4.5-ish 40 and is solid in coverage. I believe the Bengirls may be moving more to a 3-4, which he’s ill-suited for. To me a #3 is fair value. Especially OUR #3. Pick 93 !
The trade market for a MLB was already set by Demeco Ryans, I doubt JR would offer up more than a 4th rounder.
Would welcome the trade though, instant up grade at MLB. He does have an injury history but no knees, ankles, hamstrings, ect. that we would have to worry about reoccurring. Seems like more bum luck than anything
It makes too much sense to happen.
I think this is much like the time when we were “trying to acquire Gonzales in a trade” and Reese apparently offered a 6th round pick. LoL
I’m also getting the impression that we didn’t make Tollefson an offer. Sounds odd, but that’s the vibe I’m getting.
I think Reese knows he is going to go after a pass rusher early in the draft because he has to in order to protect himself against losing both Osi and Kiwi. Given that, Tollefson became not only expendable, but had to be dumped in order to make room for a rookie who would be the #4 DE but expected to at least compete to be the #3 in 2013. And they still have Trattou, who will never be a star but can probably reproduce Tollefson’s production or come close to it as a #4 DE if they don’t get the guy Reese/.Ross wants in the draft.
Given the above there was no room for Tolley on the roster.
As fans we sometimes don’t fully understand why certain players are allowed to walk or offered deals that make it very likely they will not return. But we have to remember that Reese and his personnel group always have a plan, that the plan is a multi-year plan, that it revolves around certain strategic assumptions, and that the coaches are weighing in heavily in regard to evaluations of both the players on the roster and others who are under consideration (either through the draft or free agency, or the very rare trade).
Many of us think that the Giants must get a third receiver who is a significant target for Eli this season, and who would ideally protect us in case Reese cannot retain Cruz after 2013 (after which he would be an UFA). That player would come through the draft. But none of us know what the coaches think after watching Jernigan and DePalma last year, or what they really think about Barden. We all know that if he’s healthy Hixon can be a reasonably adequate “solution” as the #3 WR this season, because he has been that before. But for all we know Jernigan is thought by the staff and the front office to be a potential star, and Barden has proved by means of his off-season work that he is ready to mature into the match-up nightmare they thought they were drafting when they selected him. So Reese/Ross may not rank a WR nearly as high among team needs as most would assume.
Take another example. It’s no secret that the Giants need a running back. We know it, they know it, the entire world knows it. But the names that get thrown around by the fans may have absolutely no relationship to the players that Reese and Ross have focused upon and where they might get them in April. They could have their eyes on a small college stud who they think will be available at the end of the fifth round. They could be thinking about trading Osi as the draft begins and moving all the way up to get Trent Richardson (and replacing Osi by moving Kiwi to DE after actually pulling the trigger on a trade to get Rivers whom they’d expect to play as the SAM). That wouldn’t be totally ridiculous as a possibility. We just can’t know.
All I DO know is that Reese has a handle on this stuff and we should all look forward happily to the draft and the moves that are going to be made. You simply cannot argue with success and under Jerry Reese’s and Tom Coughlin’s leadership this team has two Super Bowl wins since 2007. That doesn’t mean these folks can do no wrong. But it does mean that we should trust them to get a lot more right than wrong.