Random Thoughts of Appreciation for Kerry Collins

.

...seriously, all was lost after the Dave Brown failure. Legitimate opportunities were given to average QB prospects. Graham, Kannell, God love em', they were never gonna get the Giants anywhere.

I remember how jealous I was when the Saints first poached Collins. "Why can't the Giants pull off deals like that?!"

We were rewarded - I was a Collins fan, was against the Manning deal because of my support for K.C.. An excellent QB - did a great job behind some atrocious O-lines. The one they duct-taped together with spare parts and castaways in 2000 was the only line Collins worked with that was good enough.

agreed.

I also failed to mention the significance of the 341 yards vs the Jets.
That was the first 300+ plus passer in the franchise since when...93 or 94?

for the move to pick him up.

From 94 to the middle of 99 the Giants were an offensive nightmare stuck in QB hell.

Collins brought stability, 2 playoff appearances and one Super Bowl appearance. There were a lot of fun games to watch, offensively, in his time here.

Minnesota playoff game, the run to the playoffs in 02.

When Collins was in command and the offense clicked he looked very good at times, especially with that cannon.

I was in the Gallery group who thought Collins just needed a good online and had at least 5 more years. I wasn’t anti Eli, just didn’t think we needed him and thought cost to get him was improbable.

If the Giants don’t choke in 2002, who knows how far the Giants go that year. If we made it to the Superbowl that would have been two Superbowls in 3 seasons, that becomes tough to argue against Collins not being a large reason why.

It would have changed history that’s for sure. But fate has a funny way of showing up with its other plans doesn’t it?

Was a big Kerry fan, and his redemption story was great to see unfold.

and got us back to respectable.

I was alive during the first 2 Super Bowls, but I can't remember a thing besides the huge TV my dad bought for 1990 game.

The majority of my first football memories are the Dave Brown, Danny Kennel, Kent Graham fiasco.

Collins, will always be remembered for stabilizing the organization, when all hope was lost.

all the shit Ernie Accorsi gets for picking up QBs that are the sure fire #1 type, he doesn't get enough credit for picking up Collins when he took over as GM. Penn State connection helped for sure.

Side note, do you think anyone would take a chance on someone like him now.

Getting over the Alcohol problem is one thing, but the racism in the locker room probably would be unforgivable in today's environment.

the last 5 or 6 games of that season including the first 3 quarters of the playoff game vs. the niners that was some of the best offense I've seen the the Giants play in my lifetime. The SB run in '00 he was great till the SB. He definitely could throw in his clunkers, but he's one of the better QB's I've seen in Blues since in started watching in '77. Probably only behind Eli and Simms.

Collins was a carbon copy of Drew Bledsoe. Both were statues in the pocket and never saw the DE turn the corner and clobber him.

Collins was an "average" QB. His overall completion % is 55.7.

trouncing of the vikings may have been the easiest, most enjoyable game of my life and Collins was just completely locked in from the start. we haven't had an easy, dominant game like that since.

And then, Kerry Collins led the Giants to the Super Bowl.

Guess Accorsi knew more.

Not great by any stretch, but he led us to a Super Bowl so he should be remembered fondly, even if that Super Bowl was an epic disaster.

I wasn’t a fan of his prior, but had no problem with Accorsi signing him because it was low risk, high reward. He was much better thank could have hoped for, and was much more mature and thoughtful than I expected.

A good QB who showed glimpses of greatness when he was on.

(and the Drew Bledsoe comparison is a good one).

But Ernie deserves more credit for not being complacent in '04 and drafting someone other than one of the QBs.

I was totally on board with the trade for Eli and so glad he didn't settle on sticking with Collins and blow the chance of a long term franchise QB.

When things were good, he was good. When things were bad, he was part of the problem.

have won with him. Actually wanted to keep him and take the safety at #4 that year, and not do the ELI trade. Accoursi was right and glad for that. EA always had a good eye for QBs and was on the money then.

My opinion was I thought KC was "good enough" having lived with all the bums since Phil Simms.

I didn't feel QB was a great need.

He threw the deep ball as good as anyone. He could really drop that ball in there. The rest of his game was so so.

was one of the highlights of being a Giants fan for me. Shutting down Randy Moss and Chris Carter after all the shit talking they did.

Amazing what Dave Thomas Shaun Williams Emac and Sehorn did that day.

made the playoffs a couple of times and reached the superbowl. He threw a few more ints than I would have liked, but he also could sling it around a bit as well which was a nice change.

Remember what we had before him if you are looking to be critical on QB play...

Maybe it's because the Collins era coincided with the time in my life where I was attending a lot of games and ripping it up, but I have a special appreciation for Collins

that was a spectacular game.

but getting shut out ( the offense) in SBXXXV haunts me, even though it was against the best D of all time.

Unfortunately thats how ill remember Collins

In 2000 I liked him, thinking he would only get better. In 2001, I changed my mind, thinking he just didn't have the football IQ to ever be great. Then in 2002, I thought maybe I had been too quick to dismiss him. But then came 2003 and the play that sealed the deal for me....

I forget who they were playing, but the Giants had the ball inside their opponent's ten yard line. With Collins barking out signals from behind center, the defense was showing blitz up the middle when Tiki went into motion and lined up wide like a receiver. Nobody on the defense adjusted to cover him. He was alone, wide open, but Collins couldn't take his eyes off the middle of the defense which was poised to blitz. The ball was snapped and Collins never looked Tiki's way. Which was bad enough, but what happened afterwards was even worse. The blitz came right up the middle just like Collins saw and feared, but instead of throwing the ball away in time, the blitz got to him and he fumbled!

That was it for me. After that I didn't need to see any more. It's not like he was some rookie. This was a 30-year old, 9-year veteran making three mistakes on one play that a college freshman would've been embarrassed by. Eli was and is a gunslinger who will make mistakes due to overaggressiveness. We can live with that. But Kerry made mistakes of stupidity that had nothing to do with being aggressive. And that's not as excusable.

Maybe TC didn’t think Collins could handle the offense he wanted to install.

He was def overlooked and threw one of the nicest deep balls in nfl history

....was the best pure passer we've ever had, IMHO.

IMO he probably goes down as 7th best NY Giants QB of all time which isn't half bad for such an old franchise and his having just played five seasons for them.

He was very solid. He didn’t have a lot of help most years.

I wanted Fitz or Taylor in the 2003 draft. Felt with a littlr retooling (sound familiar?) that Collins had a lot left.

Glad I was wrong about Eli... But I thought Collins was a solid Giant.

In comment 13981120 JerseyCityJoe said:

Quote:

He threw the deep ball as good as anyone. He could really drop that ball in there. The rest of his game was so so.

Kerry had a cannon arm and threw a 40 or 50 yard frozen rope with no sweat. My only gripe with him was hearing the footsteps and panicking. I think he was jittery after getting his jaw broken early in his career

In comment 13981085 Stu11 said:

Quote:

the last 5 or 6 games of that season including the first 3 quarters of the playoff game vs. the niners that was some of the best offense I've seen the the Giants play in my lifetime. The SB run in '00 he was great till the SB. He definitely could throw in his clunkers, but he's one of the better QB's I've seen in Blues since in started watching in '77. Probably only behind Eli and Simms.

The 2002 offense with Tiki, Toomer, Ike, Shockey & Kerry was one of my favorites. Fassel's game plans worked well with those guys

I didn't want Eli - felt we had more we could still do with KC. Having said that - my issue with him was red-zone efficiency. I've not gone back through the record, but it felt like we just kept getting bogged down in the red zone - and I felt like Collins didn't see things well when the field tightened up. It really frustrated me.

"you have to go back to Sid luckman 5 td's? Well i'll be hornswaggled"

In Giants history (Plax gets the nod). Just ahead of Kareem. Not much without an oline, but who is? Brought stability and respect back to the NY QB spot. Mad props for what he did.

Casual fans don’t get it. He was what we needed at the right time. 41-0 was an incredible achievement. The end result of the season was not his fault.

In comment 13981194 Ivan15 said:

Quote:

Maybe TC didn’t think Collins could handle the offense he wanted to install.

Eli was definitely EA's idea at the very least. His scouting report on Eli was IIRC "this guy is a generational QB and I must have him"

Possibly could have been even better in this era. But then again he got away w some pretty ridiculous racist storylines that would have crushed him these days.

I don’t get where people called him a stop-gap, he was the face of the franchise on offense for 4-5 years.

In comment 13981085 Stu11 said:

Quote:

the last 5 or 6 games of that season including the first 3 quarters of the playoff game vs. the niners that was some of the best offense I've seen the the Giants play in my lifetime. The SB run in '00 he was great till the SB. He definitely could throw in his clunkers, but he's one of the better QB's I've seen in Blues since in started watching in '77. Probably only behind Eli and Simms.

Yes, the end of '02 was the one time I thought he was a big time QB. Collins to Toomer and Shockey with Tiki out of the backfield.Pretty darned good. And the playoff debacle was in no way on him. He was a monster in that game. Not only did he put up 38 points with 4 TD but he also led two late game drives into easy FG position.

The wheels came off in '03 and while it wasn't all his fault, his bad traits all came back in a big way, notably his penchant for turnovers.

But you can do much worse. He provided a lot of fun moments. He deserves to be remembered fondly here by nyg fans.

I’m just glad Ernie moved on when he did.

In comment 13981148 Milton said:

Quote:

In 2000 I liked him, thinking he would only get better. In 2001, I changed my mind, thinking he just didn't have the football IQ to ever be great. Then in 2002, I thought maybe I had been too quick to dismiss him. But then came 2003 and the play that sealed the deal for me.... I forget who they were playing, but the Giants had the ball inside their opponent's ten yard line. With Collins barking out signals from behind center, the defense was showing blitz up the middle when Tiki went into motion and lined up wide like a receiver. Nobody on the defense adjusted to cover him. He was alone, wide open, but Collins couldn't take his eyes off the middle of the defense which was poised to blitz. The ball was snapped and Collins never looked Tiki's way. Which was bad enough, but what happened afterwards was even worse. The blitz came right up the middle just like Collins saw and feared, but instead of throwing the ball away in time, the blitz got to him and he fumbled! That was it for me. After that I didn't need to see any more. It's not like he was some rookie. This was a 30-year old, 9-year veteran making three mistakes on one play that a college freshman would've been embarrassed by. Eli was and is a gunslinger who will make mistakes due to overaggressiveness. We can live with that. But Kerry made mistakes of stupidity that had nothing to do with being aggressive. And that's not as excusable.

Collins was a very good QB at times, but he definitely had a deer in headlights problem. He was spooked by the Ravens D before that game even began.

In comment 13981194 Ivan15 said:

Quote:

Maybe TC didn’t think Collins could handle the offense he wanted to install.

I remember hearing Accorsi talking about how he had to draft Eli on WFAN. That has sometime when I was off between Christmas and New Years. Tom Coughlin wasn't hired until January 9th according to a Google search.

For any QB.

His great play did not end at the end of QTR 3.

He was 70% in 4th Qttr including a game winning drive at the end to get them in position for the win. Another drive ended with a FG in the 4th because Fassell took the ball out of his hands.

Collins was a really good QB for us and he finished with a strong comeback in TEN. Excellent career for the guy after the trouble he had early.

In comment 13981109 Milton said:

Quote:

When things were good, he was good. When things were bad, he was part of the problem.

That's how I viewed him as well. If he came out and hit his first few passes you knew he'd be ok that day but if he didn't, you knew he'd have a shitty day. He never seemed to be able to shake off a rough beginning to a game and overcome it. He'd remain shaky for the whole damn game.

In comment 13981093 Les in TO said:

Quote:

trouncing of the vikings may have been the easiest, most enjoyable game of my life and Collins was just completely locked in from the start. we haven't had an easy, dominant game like that since.

I assume you mean playoff games. There've been a few laughers along the way since Eli has been starting. And even so, I'd put the 2011 divisional round game where they beat down the falcons 24-2 on that list as well.

was the fact he rarely if ever missed a game. Very durable.

looked unbeatable at the end of the season and at the beginning of the playoff game. I still believe to this day if they had gotten past that game they would have made a SB run.