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Carl Banks said it best last night during the final preseason game: the New York Giants can't afford to waive Adewale Ojomo in hopes of stashing him on their Practice Squad because he will end up on someone else's 53-man roster. And with a little over 24 hours until head coach Tom Coughlin has to make his final decisions, Ojomo has certainly given him a lot to think about.
The undrafted rookie free agent out of Miami came into training camp with little fanfare, but quickly began to catch the eye of anyone paying attention. He looked good in practice and then excelled in each preseason game, all but cementing himself a spot on the 53-man roster with a three tackle, one sack performance in a 6-3 victory over the New England Patriots on Wednesday night.
“[The coaches] have to make tough decisions, so if you don’t show what you can do and make the decision easy for them, a guy like me wouldn’t stand a shot at making the 53-man roster,” Ojomo said. “With these guys coming off a championship. I’d be just another guy in the mix, so you have to go out there and make your mark and do what you need to do to make this team.”
Ojomo finishes the preseason with 10 tackles (four for a loss), four sacks, four QB hits, one pass defended and one forced fumble.
“I’m confident in myself and in my abilities. I don’t think I’m a fluke. I think I can go out every Sunday and do what I need to do,” he said. “It would be a great honor to be a part of this team. This is a first class organization from the coaching staff to the players – very mature guys on this team. I would love to be a part of this team.”
With Justin Trattou (foot) on Injured Reserve and Adrian Tracy dealing with a lingering hamstring issue, Ojomo was given a unique opportunity and he ran with it. It's impossible to ignore his impact this preseason, and it's going to be near impossible to waive him.
Once an unlikely candidate to make a team stocked with the best pass rushers in the world, Ojomo would now be considered a surprise cut. We'll know whether or not he sticks in a little more than 24 hours.
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I absolutely agree … they can’t cut this guy … but then I remembered when Tracy notched 10 tackles in a game … I said the same thing. Ouch !
… and when Victor Cruz! first lit up pre-season … I said the same thing there too.
Great article on a better helmet design that wold reduce concussions. What a crazy concept that the concussion issue could be solved by a better helmet. Reminded me of last night when Paul Ryan suggested that the defecit issue could be solved by less spending and perhaps a budget. I made this point some weeks ago that the NFL and Goodel were asleep at the wheel in the midst of this crisis with such an easy solution like design a better helmet but this article subtly suggests why this was never done. The reason is , and it’s a shocker, $$$$$$$$$$. Both the players and the league are so very concerned about players health as long as Nike or Adidas are providing the solutions. Gets far more sticky if some nobody from racing designs the helmets seen on the heads of players by millions. Where is the players union on this if this new helmet is really that good??? If Goodel can play prosecutor and jury in the league why can’t he mandate the usage of these helmets like NASCAR mandated the Hans device after the death of Earnhardt. Why isn’t the league financing this type of technology??? As usual talk is cheap and I’m going to puke the next time I hear some sad song about the safety of players and we need to modify the hitting in some manner. The solution to keep the game the same and protect players is staring back at the players, their union and management just as long as the guys paying the uniform contracts are doing the designing.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/will_carroll/08/29/simpson-ganassi-helmet/
The best argument I have heard for concussion prevention is form a Welsh guy I work with, huge rugby player, and follower. He said you really don’t see too many concussions in rugby because they have no helmets, so they have to protect themselves.
In the NFL aa helmet is essentially a battering ram for your head so there is a lack of caution by the players.
If the NFL truly wants to focus on player safety, they would move back to the leather helmets and players would stop launching themselves head first into each other.
i have heard the same arguement except for removing the facemask. players would still have to protect themselves but you wouldn’t have as many smashed skulls
We actually have an interesting piece on this coming up for this weekend. Spoke to the people who re-designed Eli’s helmet. Pretty interesting stuff.
We are all aware of the love affair and the drafting track record of JR so I would be shocked to see this kid released and swooped up by Indy who would have first crack at him. His last sack last night was,as one of our posters pointed out …vintage Osi. Can’t teach those moves,some just get it at birth. Combine the natural talent with more weight training, more coaching and soaking in the vets like Osi n Tuck and you have big potential. I don’t care the level of competition they are still NFL type players and if this kid was some touted first rounder abusing the second stringers no one would care or question his ability. I’m sure we could find film on some top ten draft pick from his year who was far less dominate in pre season than this kid. I’m a big believer that there are kids with all that draft talent like speed n vertical leap and those that just flat out can play the game. Ojomo is the latter, plus as a bonus he has that type of name that sounds like a guy who will be great…..OJOMO with the SACK!!!!! Nice
I am seriously considering a norm-like self exile from G101 until Reese resigns McKenzie. After last night, there’s no excuse not to. These guys ain’t good enough. Boothe, Petrus, Locklear….bad. Just baaaad. Not a good sign way to enter the season at all.
The key for Ojomo has been consistency throughout the preseason. Each and every game he has made his presence known in a big way. Regardless of who he was going against, a fair comparison would be to the 4th DE spot who Ojomo would be replacing.
Dave Tollefson (3rd/4th DE)
2 Tackles (1 solo)
0 Sacks
0 FF
1 PD
Adwewale Ojomo
10 Tackles (8 solo)
4 Sacks
1 FF
0 PD
Adrian Tracy
2 Tackles (1 solo)
1 Sack
0 FF
0 PD
2012 Preseason stats
How many snaps did Tollefson get? Sure seemed like Ojomo was in for most of the game last night, and that’s been the case for the last few games. Doubt that they had Tollefson getting as many reps and, therefore, it would be impossible for him to accumulate as many tackles/sacks as Ojomo has.
Plus, come on. We all know that stats aren’t totally indicative of the performances players put out there.
Who the hell watches Raider preseason games?
I’m simply pointing out that you are trying to make a comparison between 2 players based on possibly misleading statistics. If you wanted to make a qualitative assessment, I might have agreed with you. But since you brought numbers into the discussion, I was curious as to whether or not the sample size was biased in any way.
Not sure where to find preseason snap counts or I would do so. Either way Tracy didn’t get on the field to prove anything regardless if people call him Wosi or Yosi whatever it was. I’d be pretty shocked if Ojomo got cut.
Agreed there.
Nosh.0 will be happy.
David Wilson will be wearing #22 this season, divesting himself of Deon Grant’s #34. Now if we can only free up #67…
Looks like #67 is already open, actually…
As for this game, in the four series he played, Manning didn’t look in sync with his receivers, the offensive line looked awful in run-blocking and (likely as a result) the running backs didn’t show much. No, not even David Wilson. What’s it all mean? Absolutely nothing, of course. There’s no way the Giants game-planned for this game and no way they were going to put anything on tape Wednesday night that might have been potentially helpful to the Cowboys next week. Manning and his gang will be ready, of that there should be no fear. Not now that they’ve made it through the preseason games healthy.
What else did we see in this fiasco of a non-game?
Defensive end Adewale Ojomo has to make the team, right? I don’t know whether that means Adrian Tracy has to go or what, but Ojomo’s done nothing to deserve being cut. Another sack, and man did he look good stuffing the run. If these games are ways for off-the-roster guys to make the roster, Ojomo could end up being this year’s prime example.
While we’re on the defensive line, Linval Joseph has flat-out been one of my favorite players to watch in this preseason. He’s playing like a man possessed, and between him and Rocky Bernard the Giants shouldn’t miss a beat in the first half of games in spite of their injuries at defensive tackle. My only question is if they have the depth they need to spell those guys and make sure they don’t wear down in the second half or as the season goes along. But when Joseph is on the field, they have another dimension to the line. He’s everywhere making plays right now.
The other line? Not so much. Chris Snee and Will Beatty sat this one out with injuries, and the issue with the line continues to be depth. Mitch Petrus had some trouble at guard, and the interior of the line just gets pushed back too easily, especially on run plays. They need to find better ways to extend forward and open some holes for the backs than they did this preseason. And last year, for that matter.
Ramses Barden made a highlight-film catch, reaching behind himself and a defender, and continues to impress. Finally healthy and producing, Barden looks like he’s got a chance to make the team and an impact. Jerrel Jernigan helps more on special teams, and it’s hard to see them cutting him so soon after drafting him so high, but again, Barden has outplayed him.
They’re still using D.J. Ware as the third-down back, even with Wilson in the game, and that tells you what they think about Ware (and maybe Wilson) in pass protection.
I saw some nice plays by linebackers Greg Jones and Mark Herzlich in the third quarter. But I was watching three games at once by that point, so I can’t tell you how they looked overall.
Can’t imagine that Andre Brown fumble makes him feel real good about his chances with 36 hours left until final cuts are due.
Steve Weatherford is fantastic. He must really like punting against the Patriots.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/42517/observation-deck-patriots-giants
Well, after sitting through three quarters of that excruciating game last night (I still can’t believe the stadium was almost filled…I just went because I could spend time with two daughters and have some food & drink in the club) I woke up this morning thinking I should revisit my first impressions because things simply cannot be THAT bad.
Yeah, meaningless game in which the starters don’t go full-out and just want to try to get a little work in and stay in rhythm. Yeah, Snee absent and Brewer unavailable so a complete bum like McCants has to play when he isn’t ready to see a field in the NFL against anyone. Yeah, Petrus playing RG instead of his usual LG. Yeah, very vanilla offensive calls that were pretty much telegraphed by formation and personnel and were just run in order to be evaluated with different plug-ins at the receiver spots. And yes, the starting defense looks ready to dominate some people this season even without their superstars at defensive end in the game for a single snap. Weatherford looks great, and the special teams look fine (although ONE successful punt return WOULD be nice).
So that offensive line was just a bad dream from which we’ll awaken next Wednesday, right? They moved the ball on the ground quite nicely to start the second half with Brown running behind them, right? Baas, Locklear, Boothe and Diehl looked decent if not anything better, right? Eli only needs “decent” to win games, as he proved last year, right? Bzzzzzzz. Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
I still believe that with our STARTING offensive line (Beatty, Boothe, Baas, Snee and Diehl) we will be okay. Not great, but okay. Take one of the tackles away and replace him with Locklear and we might survive. Take two players at any position on this line away and we’re in serious trouble. I don’t care how good Wilson may be, and how great Eli is, if the line plays as they did last night AGAINST DEPTH GUYS on a poor Patriots defense Eli Manning may not get through this season and the run game will be a lot closer to what it was until mid-December last season rather than what it was subsequently, making us a pass-dependent team and making Eli that much more vulnerable as opponents stop worrying about our run game. Simply put, none of our back-ups beyond Locklear appear useful. I don’t know what happened to Petrus but he has regressed. He looks lost out there. The others aren’t even worth mentioning except to say there will be players available tomorrow who I would rather see on this team, and I don’t even know who they are at the moment. Kareem at his worst was better than any of these guys at their best.
I have to apologize to kujo. He was right about this bunch. I was right with him in saying we needed to strengthen the line, starting a few years ago. Where I ran off the rails is in assuming that Flaherty (universally acknowledged around the league as a great position coach) wouldn’t allow them to draft guys who cannot cut it, and then would coach them up based on the talent they saw and get them where they needed to be. After all, he did it with O’Hara, Seubert and Diehl, all of whom were either low draft picks or undrafted, and he helped scout Snee. It would seem that somewhere along the way he lost his touch, because with the possible exception of Brewer and Mosley, the guys they’ve brought in of late look absolutely putrid.
IF Beatty looks like he’ll be okay then I think they can live with the four tackles they have (Beatty, Diehl, Locklear and Brewer). If Beatty is questionable call in McKenzie tomorrow.
Scour the waiver wire and claim an interior lineman someone has made a late cut. What they have is not going to cut it. If they can find the right guy release one of Petrus or Cordle (I’m assuming Capers is headed to the practice squad again). Do whatever you like with McCants. Maybe he’s worth stashing on the practice team for a year to see what he can do but get him off this roster ASAP.
I kid around about Flaherty, mainly due to what I perceive as your overenthusiastic praise of him. Nevertheless, I recognize that he is a very fine offensive line coach and I believe he could do great things like he did with O’Hara, Seubert and Diehl.
But let’s get real–those guys were/are far more talented than the guys we have now. Throw Snee and Kareem into that list as well. All of them are objectively better, on their worst day, than this group of guys.
And that’s been my number one criticism these last few years. It’s not that I think Reese is doing *nothing* about this OL, but rather not doing ENOUGH about this OL. It is as you say–they’ve been putting subpar guys who they felt had promise, and figured that Flaherty could unearth that promise over the course of a few years. Well name one player since Reese took office that has become anything close to the *promised player* thanks to Coach Pat Flaherty. None of them. Beatty is the closest thing going right now, and he’s showing a proclivity towards injuries, among other problems in his game. But look at the depth charts since ’07 and you’ll see guys who, by any objective measure, were never going to be “good enough.” Koets, Whimper, Petrus, Cordle…..just a few names off the dome.
It’s sad because while we can get by on decent, these guys are, as I’ve been saying, ASPIRATIONALLY decent.
I can’t get over how good Ojomo looked last night. He just played with so much energy. He’s Reese’s defensive undrafted gem.
what about Broha..he looked very good to me as well