Played like a man possessed yesterday, unbelievable presence & push from the DLine that has been sorely lacking all year outside of a few nostalgic flashes of Justin Tuck.
What changed for him to finally show up? He had thoughts of being cut & showing up in Week 16? SMH where was this motivation all year....
10 Tackles/2 Sacks/1 Forced Fumble/2 TFLs/5 QB Hits
still lost contain on an outside run in the second half, but the improvement is there. He was the best player on defense yesterday
He finished the job yesterday and had a great game.
Yesterday is the best I've seen Kiwi play in years and the only answer I have is that he started at DE. He'd been coming in rotationally at DE or starting at LB - maybe he wasn't comfortable doing either.
Yesterday is the best I've seen Kiwi play in years and the only answer I have is that he started at DE. He'd been coming in rotationally at DE or starting at LB - maybe he wasn't comfortable doing either.
Agreed. Most games, he is routinely stonewalled.
He has been playing better as of late as the whole DL has. They got confidence and believe in each other and just as important, themselves. It's amazing how that works.
but then in December for some reason his snaps dropped (and I don't think we ever heard why), to almost like 15 to 25 per game or less (from a point where he was playing practically every down).
His play fell off around that time too.
So, my estimate is all of 2013 (until yesterday) and all of 2012 he was terrible IMO.
You could see him play after play just missing. He's probably getting near 100% now for DE.
Yeah, his weekly 15 yard personal foul penalty/drive killer were exceptional.
Kiwi has been woefully abysmal all year, I too was shocked that he actually was a + yesterday for the first time in years. Still, would rather him not on the team because he usually stinks and is an idiot.
Kudos, but I can't get that excited about it. It's not like he's been getting more disruptive each week with TFL's increasing or his QB hits going up significantly. I'll believe he's progressed when I see consistent impact; of course we've got only one game left, so if it was a case of increased DE reps, it's nice that he needed a season to warm up...
I expect at least a 10-12 sack season from him next year if he's healthy.
I also thought that he ranked in the bottom
5 of 4-3 Defensive ends .
The linebacker square peg in round hole messed
up his career IMO...
As a back up, he's good IMO
Maybe he felt pressure to go out there 110% to back up what he said. Whatever works.
unfortunate that we moved him to LB, it really hurt him. He's done everything asked of him but he production is not close to his salary.
When we needed him this year, it just didn't happen....
However, I disagree with the "he has been close so many times this year" crap. His presence on hits/hurries imo has been a direct result of another Giant defender applying pressure in the pocket and moving the QB towards Kiwi. I know that's the way it should happen but I never see him reciprocate or beat his guy straight up until Sunday.
In the end, he is not effective enough to be a reliable starter next year on this team. To me the decision is just can we find a better alternative (younger, faster, future promise) that is worth using Kiwi $ on?
There's not always some secret. He just had a good game.
If you think you can sign someone better in his place (back up) for $1.8m, or even say up to $2.5m, then I dont think you should worry too much about the dead money.
Obviously not saying dead money isnt a bad thing, but cap savings, and what those savings can allow you to do, are more important than dead money... not to mention the extra benefit of getting an unwanted player off your books once and for all