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VDesai
Posts: 42530
Alba Posts: 44
Joined: 10/28/2003
Member: #477
USA
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With Nicks, Beckum and Barden on board the need for Edwards is greatly lessened. In fact unless you were sure Edwards could bounce back, be a superb no.1 and lead the Giants towards the superbowl then I don't think you can make the move anymore. From a financial standpoint, Edwards' contract will be a bear. Not to mention Ware and Manningham are both quality prospects who I both believe have the potential to develop into starters.
As much as I love Brandon Jacobs, he misses ballgames and gets banged up, and the Giants use 2 primary backs. We need 3-4 quality RB's on the roster. Manningham is talented enough to potentially contend for a starting role this year if healthy.
On a side note, Hakeem Nicks is standing out early in rookie mini camp.
Hakeem Nicks Makes a Good First Impression in Giants Camp
Posted May 08, 2009 4:27PM By Dan Graziano (RSS feed)
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- He looked good on the field, and he did fine in the press conference, which were the two parts of Hakeem Nicks' first day at New York Giants rookie minicamp that we got to see. To the scriblling, twittering, inquiring group of media that gathered at Giants Stadium this morning to check out the new guys, Nicks looked just like a first-round pick is supposed to look. He was quick, skillful, athletic and surprisingly polished.
Giants coach Tom Coughlin liked what he saw on the field, too. But that wasn't the only place Nicks was impressive on his first day as a pro. Coughlin also liked what he saw of the rookie out of North Carolina in the morning meeting.
"He worked well. He was humble," Coughlin said after the morning session of practice concluded. "He did well coming out of his meeting. The information we had on him is that he learns all the positions and he can line everybody up in the receiving corps. So that's a good plus, and we saw that. He handles himself well, carries himself well."
The Giants needed a receiver in the draft, and there was a good group from which to pick. Pre-draft speculation connected the Giants to Kenny Britt, a New Jersey kid and Rutgers product who made sense because of his height and the local connection. But the Giants saw something in Nicks beyond the spectacular on-field performances. They saw somebody who could be a leader among their receivers. And that made them like him even more.
"In my opinion, you have to know what everybody is doing on the field," Nicks said. "That's the game of football. I've prided myself on being a leader by example, on and off the field. On the field especially. I want to make sure everybody's doing what they're supposed to be doing."
Nicks is a confident fellow, which should serve him well as he attempts the difficult transition from college wideout to pro wideout. The other thing that should help is that he's coming from the pro-style offense Butch Davis coaches at North Carolina.
"Slight advantage," Nicks said of that idea. "The offense I came from was similar to what we run here, so I don't think it's going to be a hard transition for me from one playbook to another. It's just going to take a lot of time and effort in the playbook."
Nicks got a lot of attention on the first day, and that's not likely to change. The dominant personnel story of the Giants' 2008 season (and their off-season so far) has been the absence of Plaxico Burress and what the team can or hopes to do to replace him. Burress caused plenty of trouble during his time with the Giants, but he also made a major contribution to the offense, and the Giants struggled without him in the final weeks of last season.
So much of the first-day focus was on Nicks and fellow draft pick Ramses Barden, the 6-foot-6 wideout from Cal Poly. The two know each other from the scouting combine and from an ESPN-sponsored "College All-Star Challenge" in which they both participated, and they're happy to have each other to bounce things off of as they go through their first professional preseason.
"It'll be good to have somebody who recognizes me on the sideline," Barden said.
But everybody's going to recognize Nicks, because everybody knows who the first-round pick was and because Nicks is the kind of guy who stands out.
"I thougth Hakeem was one of the best receivers in the draft," said second-round pick Clint Sintim, who saw Nicks up-close as an opponent while a linebacker at Virginia. "You always knew he was going to be a big-play guy who was going to be tough to stop. He's a baller, man. Hands down. That's all I can say. He's a baller."
Anybody who watched this year's Meineke Car Care Bowl could've told you that. But what we learned on the first day of Giants rookie minicamp was that the field isn't the only place where Nicks is that impressive.
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5/10/2009 8:26 PM