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The New York Giants watched a gaggle of players limp from the field during their 41-34 shootout victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, key among them Ahmad Bradshaw (strained neck) and David Diehl (MCL), whose injury sounds like it will cost him a few games at there very least while Bradshaw is likely to miss at least Thursday night's matchup with Cam Newtown and the Carolina Panthers.
The old blessing in disguise may be a long running joke around Giants 101, but the Giants may have a chance for just that in Bradshaw and Diehl's replacements. No one is saying the Giants are better off without these guys – they're certainly light years better than the guys you'd sign off the street or practice squad to replace them – but things started clicking when Andre Brown and William Beatty entered the game against the Bucs. Which begs the question:
Are the backups capable of better production right now?
Brown sure looked on Sunday like he's ready to make that case: thirteen runs for 71 yards is good for 5.5 per carry. Add two catches for 19 yards and solid pass protection (don't underestimate that last one) and it quietly totals one of the better performances we've seen from a Giants running back, Bradshaw or otherwise, in a long time.
Lots of eyes are going to be on Brown and rookie David Wilson on Thursday night against the Carolina Panthers. The Giants have already started to change the face of their backfield with Brandon Jacobs and DJ Ware replaced by Wilson, Brown and second-year Da'Rel Scott…and every game Bradshaw sits out is another audition for these guys to show they are worthy of his job, with Brown currently on his second callback.
Just as the Giants running game didn't appear to miss Bradshaw much, neither did the offensive line miss David Diehl when he was replaced by Sean Locklear, with William Beatty moving to left tackle. Beatty had two false start penalties but otherwise held his own on an offensive line that finally got it together as the game wore on: they opened up running lanes for Andre Brown (see where we're going with this?) and allowed Eli to throw for 246 yards in the fourth quarter alone.
If Beatty, whose ownership of the left tackle job remains hampered only by injuries (back problems, these days), can stay healthy enough to be in the lineup every week and Locklear, now back at his natural right tackle position, remains playing at the high level he's shown so far things are looking up for an offensive line that's struggled.
It sounds like Bradshaw will be back sooner rather than later and while he probably won't lose his job, he might find himself splitting more of the workload with Brown than when he left. As for Diehl, he might be ticketed for that 6th lineman/3rd tight end role if and when he returns from the torn knee ligament.
And the Giants may be better off for it…
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Yes. I did it. Silver lining. BID.
I did it. And I stand by it.
Diehl’s only in there because of Beatty’s back anyway and I’ll choose to believe my eyes on Bradshaw vs. Brown.
Let’s do this.
I agree with Dirt’s musings at the end of the last thread, and would extend a debt of thanks to norm for edifying my admittedly obnoxious obsession with improving the OL with picks higher than the 4th and 5th rounds.
Dirt says:
September 17, 2012 at 9:24 PM
Here’s an area that I wish Reese had a little Belichick in him. Instead of drafting a player who’s not going to help your team (Koets, Petrus, Brewer, McCants, Mosley), keep rolling those 5 picks forward until they’re tradable into a high pick. Then, all that salary you wasted on them also goes somewhere to good use, like resigning a star or signing that next big draft pick.
In full disclosure, I acknowledge Belichick hasn’t really dominated doing this lately. But he plays in January annually doing so.
Raise your hand if you’d rather have these 5 guys rather than have all those picks turned into a 1 or 2 in 2013.
These scab refs are strictly amateur hour.
By rights, the NFL ought to be thoroughly embarrassed by this travesty. But Goodell & Co. won’t care – not so long as we dutifully keep tuning in, buying tickets, jerseys, and nine dollar beers.
This game is nearly unwatchable. It is that bad.
I honestly felt the refs have done better than expected thus far, and kinda of enjoy the non wimpified version of football we’ve been seeing. But I don’t have tv in my new setup (just moved) and all I’ve got is sunday ticket on my laptop, which does not run MNF.
I can’t believe I’ve checked the box score to discover that there are 10 minutes left in the 2nd quarter at 10 pm. The ratings will feel this one.
Hate to admit it, but so far this season I’m finding nearly ALL the games that don’t include the Giants just about unwatchable.
And the new zebras are a very bad joke.
I really wish John Gruden would stop the merciless a$$ kissing. Every coach can’t be great … every player isn’t a HOFer. I understand not wanting to go negative … but this constant suckfest is getting ridiculous.
Honestly, Dirt, it’s hard for me to say that Reese should take a page out of Belichick’s book when that book makes as much sense to me as “Finnegan’s Wake.”
More power to you if you can discern any kind of rhyme or reason to what he does. I sure can’t. I see him rolling over multiple lower picks into higher ones, as you point out. I also see him trading away established studs like Richard Seymour for high draft picks – which he then uses to trade back in the draft to acquire more multiple lower round picks. There seems to be a whole lotta churn going on, but not all that much to show for it in the end.
I admit, though, that Belichick is 10,000,000,000,000 times more knowledgeable about the game of football than I will ever be. So perhaps there’s some kind of grandmaster level, three dimensional chess thinking going on here that’s just way too sophisticated for me to appreciate. Nevertheless, the fact remains that I am unable to endorse that which I can not comprehend.
Well, yeah. That’s why I said “little bit of Belichick in him.”. Namely the part that trades picks for better future picks.
I, like you, know nothing about running a team, but from my limited perspective I would include a “Don’t subsidize a guy’s training for the local grocer” rule on draft day. Especially at OL. Where coaches preach consistency. Over the last 5 years, did anyone ever expect Coughlin to trot one of those 5 guys out there voluntarily over one of the established guys? Think he was going to put his meal ticket QB in the hands of one of these guys over one of Diehl, Beatty, Snee, McKenzie, Baas, Boothe, O’Hara? Ever? Nope. Thus, wasted picks. The picks simply didn’t and don’t match the philosophy of what’s going on here. He|l, they signed Locklear over putting one of those jabronis out there, simply because he’s started in this league before.
Which brings up a great point: why blow a 5th that Coughlin will never trust over a free agent on the cheap that will be responsible for protecting Eli who has, you know, actual NFL game tape showing he can handle the responsibility.
I know that FF55 or someone in that last thread loves that one kid’s feet and potential, but when will he ever get a chance to prove he can cut it? Wilson (who alledegly can’t protect yet and thus doesn’t play) drops the ball and you live to see another day. Your band player who’s barely played more organized football than I have blows an assignment and your franchise QB is literally and figuratively dead. He’ll never play a down with Eli on the field.
The only thing that makes less sense were the Bomar/Perriloux-type picks.
*”you” or “your” not meant to represent any individual in particular.
I think injuries have been a factor in the less than orderly transition from the old to the new along the O-line
I mentioned Koets in the previous thread. He, too, was drafted as a project out of Oregon State. He was an undersized tackle; converted to center with initially disastrous results; and then really seemed to be coming into his own in that position when he shredded his knee in 2010 and never played again.
This is obviously speculation on my part but I believe he was being groomed as O’Hara’s successor. He probably would have been the starting center going into 2011 had he not gotten hurt.
Koets’ injury also necessitated the signing of Baas – a high priced expenditure that Reese likely would not have made if he had a healthy Koets going into 2011. That signing, of course, represented a huge opportunity cost that might have been used elsewhere.
I also think Seubert’s injury was big. He was our best O-lineman in 2010 and probably would have been the starting LG again last year if not for his knee injury. My hunch is that Petrus was drafted to ultimately replace Seubert, which probably would not have worked out in the end given Petrus’ shortcomings. That led to even more scrambling on the fly and, ultimately, the insertion of Boothe.
Point of all this blather is that there was a plan in place that was largely predicated on coaching up cheaper, lower round picks. That plan was laid to waste by some really unfortunate and untimely injuries. Who’s to say how it all would have worked out in the end. But I don’t think it’s entirely fair to describe it as nothing more than “subsidizing a guy’s training for the local grocer.”
Just playing the odds here. OK, Koets maybe would have made it. No way to know. Petrus didn’t, we know that. It’s long odds at a crucial position.
The flip side: we’ve struck gold (albeit declining) in the 7th in Bradshaw. With UDFAs all over at other positions like LB, FB, TE. But we talkin protecting Eli here (don’t make J Charles come up in here and drop knowledge!).
We’re not talking Diehl, who was taken in round 5 in 2003 blocking for the prospect Eli. As the years go on, we’re talking about Super Bowl MVP to 2x Super Bowl MVP to future HOF Eli. As that Eli continues to build on a legendary career, it becomes less and less likely that a new late round pick ever sees the field.
It also explains why the greater G101 wants/has wanted Diehl gone but none of the young pups could knock him off the mountain.
Because Eli IS THE show.
By odds, I meant to say you *could* strike gold late with an OL. But it’s longer than other positions.
Man it’s past my bedtime.
Thought this was funny. Craig Custance is a hockey writer for ESPN and tweeted this about the MNF game…
CraigCustance Craig Custance
RT @FlemESPN: Broncos struggling, my advice: give up 604 yards on defense, wait ’till kneel down at end of game, then ATTACK!
Koets, Petrus, Brewer, McCants, Mosley – what is that a 5th, 5th, 4th, 6th and 4th round picks. That’s not the failure some are saying when round is considered and everyone but Koets is still on the roster. Maybe no one has developed as of yet but all are depth right now. When I look at the career of someone like Boothe I think at least one of these players will develop into a starter.
OK. But again I ask: would you rather have that or maybe like a 2 and 3 from trades and the saved salary from the four that I think you’re admitting won’t make it?
No. I think BB hasn’t gotten too cute with that stuff. NE has gotten by with some bad personnel moves because BB is a GREAT coach. He’s no where near JR as a personnel man. I still think the “great” Seymour trade probably cost them a SB or too.
I don’t think people are complaining that the players are not living up to their draft position….people are complaining that the draft position our players are trying to live up to is 5th, 5th, 4th, 6th, and 4th.
Man, that was deep and eloquent!
That’s fair. But I prefer JR’s way. When is the last time a superior OL won a SB? It sounds good but I think heavy investment in the OL is not the best way to play todays NFL football. I think JR felt he had 3-4 good starters and hoped players like Koets and Petrus developed. They haven’t so far but the free agent cost to fix that error isn’t much. Positions like DE, CB and LT are expensive to fix. It might not make some at 101 happy but I think it’s the proper bet.
Here’s what I hate about the NFL and all those who lock out labor in all but dire circumstances.
You don’t want to provide a pension? OK, fine, no one else does either. But what happened to providing what you and your employees bargained for? You want to change it up while minting money? Fine. Do it when the contract is up.
That real refs won in this game tonight. The way this game has been handle really looked more HS like. I enjoy watching all NFL games but this one is really difficult due to the horrible flow. The replacement refs were just doing well enough to maybe get by but tonight shows just how bad they can be.