In the NFL, things change so rapidly. Rosters are never the same from one year to the next. Head coaches have more turnover than at a fast food joint and Super Bowl contenders turn into NFL pretenders at the drop of a hat. Two of the three are certainly applicable to the New York Giants. It’s easy to forget that they were the Super Bowl champions for the 2007 season.
Tom Coughlin is still the head coach in New York, but has to be one of the coaches already on the hot seat as we get set to start the season. It’s imperative that the Giants start well or else Tom could be out of a job. And the roster has changed as well after much controversy and scandal over the last couple of years.
Eli Manning is set to control this team for another season and has a pretty good offense around him. His two pencilled-in starters as of right now are Mario Manningham and Steve Smith. The Giants could very well have the most under-rated set of receivers in the NFL and I’m sure Manning is OK with that. Throw in a good, young tight-end in Kevin Boss and your passing game is set.
The one big question mark on offence is the running abilities of Brandon Jacobs. Everyone talks about his size at 270 pounds and his speed/agility to go with that size, but somewhere along the way, Jacobs lost himself and as a result, he had an off-year. He needs to bounce back so that they can set up the thunder/lightning combo again with Ahmad Bradshaw. The offensive line is the most solid unit that I’ve written about so far, so that will help immensely.
Where this team will fall into trouble is on defence and particularly in the middle of the field. They did sign Keith Bulluck away from Tennessee to help out at the linebacker spot, but this group is weak beyond Bulluck and will need to find a way to elevate their games in order to avoid being exploited over and over again.
The defensive line looks solid on the outside with Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka looking for sacks from the end spots, but the middle of the line is suspect. Suspect defensive tackles combined with a weak set of linebackers looks like a recipe for teams to run all day against the Giants.
The saving grace should be that the secondary looks solid with the addition of Antrel Rolle from Arizona to take over at the free safety position. This is a ball club that was third last in the league in points allowed, so they need to tighten things up.
Two players to watch out for in camp are Ahmad Bradshaw and Umenyiora. If Bradshaw wants to be the feature back in this offence, he will get no better chance than to now take the spot away from Brandon Jacobs. He must continue his progression after having a career year. Umenyiora is coming off a sub-par season last year as he recovered from injury that forced him to miss the entire 2008 season. Can he find his form again or will that injury limit what he can do for the rest of his playing days?
2010 Prediction: 9-7