Very interesting conversation. Brian Williams was a DB on the Giants team in 2011. He was released mid-season and was mainly a special teams player, but he had a very long and solid career in the NFL before coming to the Giants, mainly with the Vikes and Jags. I was in the Charlotte airport getting ready to go to the UK - he saw I was rooting for the team, he introduced himself and we talked for about an hour.
He had lots of interesting comments:
- Not a fan of the Giants. Didn't like the way the team handled his released, but he did say that they gave him a Super Bowl ring and he will always remember that.
- Not a fan of Perry Fewell. Said he was really poor at communicating gameplans, made fun of the way he would draw diagrams and felt he disliked him from the time he spurned Wake Forest for NC State while Jim Caldwell was HC at Wake. Said Caldwell and Fewell were close.
He felt that Fewell never really looked at him as an option to play on the D.
- Said the defensive players were divided on Eli. Tuck and Osi were Eli guys, but said it was frustrating that he'd throw a few balls a game that made guys shake their heads.
- Said the practices were a mess. He thought they were pretty bad in Jax his final year there, but he said in NY it was much worse. Not a whole lot of positive comments about the prep.
- Said Randy Moss was the best teammate he had
- Intimated that JPP wasn't the shapest knife in the drawer
- Thinks Barkley is amazing. Reminds him of AP in many ways
- Best athlete he ever played with - Matt Jones
- Always felt like the Giants FO was a mess. Didn't care too much 'for Jerry Reese. Basically said out of the team he played for, the Giants were his least favorite.
- Liked Mike Tice but said he was an example of a coordinator who was over his head as a HC.
- Tore his ACL when he was 30 and playing in Atlanta. Said it was a tough injury to come back from, and he never really had the same aggression after that.
Really good conversation. I came away with the impression that he is a guy who was able to take his success on the field and do some things off the field. He's still quite tight with many players and he said he still bleeds purple. We were talking about the officiating and he said it is pure crap and has been for some time.
Very enlightening to get the fairly anti-Giants take, similar to what we heard on the board from Bryan Kehl.
https://corner.bigblueinteractive.com/index.php?mode=2&thread=523290&show_all=1 - ( New Window )
Meh. As stated earlier, every team has its share of fortunate calls, bounces, etc go there way in Super Bowl winning seasons. Luck plays some part but a very small part.
2011 was a marvelous fluke that is highly unlikely to ever be duplicated by anyone.
2011 was a marvelous fluke that is highly unlikely to ever be duplicated by anyone.
And yet one week later Cruz slips in the redzone and Eli's throws a pick six that seals the game for the Seahawks. Score a touchdown there and they still finish 9 - 7.
2011 was a marvelous fluke that is highly unlikely to ever be duplicated by anyone.
Greg, if you actually go through every team's championship season, you will find multiple plays, lucky bounces, bad penalties or even lack of penalties called that have assisted teams on there way to a championship. It is not the Giants who are the only team to benefit from these on the way to a championship.
I mean, if JPP doesn't block that field goal in Dallas, the Victor Cruz play doesn't even matter either.
And, wtf with the Kehl thread. Missed that altogether, must have been one of those stretches when I just didn't check in for days. Was he BK, or was it understood to be a BBI mole?
I mean, if JPP doesn't block that field goal in Dallas, the Victor Cruz play doesn't even matter either.
Why is this so hard to grasp? Yes, championships always involve some luck. None of them other than 2011 that I can think of involve a lot of luck simply to even make the playoffs.
He made this comment in one of his long responses
Ultimately, Kehl was proven right. The Giants draft picks not only had talent issues, they didn't even fit the schemes Coughlin or Fewell/Spags were running. Over years and years that disconnect helped lead to the implosion that we have seen that only now Gettleman is starting to dig out.
It also speaks to the criticality that Gettleman and Abrams are clear on the types of players will fit what Shurmur and Bettcher want to run.
There still doesn't seem to be much of a coherent personnel philosophy, which is a big reason why I'm not terribly optimistic about the future.
Quote:
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Thanks, Greg. I was wondering why Eric said at the top, 'well played, sir', as if the poster was one of BBI's own, and the banter with FMiC. Guess I'll have to carve out some hours for reading!
That thread was the 2nd time he showed up and posted photo proof because a lot of posters didn't believe it was him on the first thread.
He made this comment in one of his long responses
Quote:
PS - want to know why Seattle got so good all of a sudden? They broke from NFL tradition, and their scouts and GM went to the coaches to ask them who to draft and sign...to fit their scheme. Unlike NY, they never draft a guy who doesn't fit their scheme.
Ultimately, Kehl was proven right. The Giants draft picks not only had talent issues, they didn't even fit the schemes Coughlin or Fewell/Spags were running. Over years and years that disconnect helped lead to the implosion that we have seen that only now Gettleman is starting to dig out.
It also speaks to the criticality that Gettleman and Abrams are clear on the types of players will fit what Shurmur and Bettcher want to run.
This post by Dorgon in the Kehl linked thread still makes me crack up 3 years later
dorgan : 10/22/2015 7:27 pm : link
all your fingers on both hands?
You're hired!
Terps, to be fair, he was talking about it back in 2015. And the particulars were Reese and Coughlin. They are gone. The question is now if Gettleman is on the same page as Shurmur and Bettcher. Based on this first draft, the signs are positive. Granted Barkley can play for anyone, but Hernandez, Carter, and Hill are all picks to play a scheme. Even Beal, who we never got to see play, fits the tall corners that Gettleman likes. Jury is out on Lauletta, but Shurmur is supposed to be a guy who can groom QBs in his system.
By the time Kehl came, the rift between Coughlin, Reese and that clown Ross were causing cracks everywhere.
Weren't Abrams to small degree and Gettleman to a major degree part of the front office then? That doesn't sound like problem solved to me.
Weren't Abrams to small degree and Gettleman to a major degree part of the front office then? That doesn't sound like problem solved to me.
Actually, you raise a good point. Scouts are paid to scout players. They do their reports on everyone. There are for sure certain guys who the big boys in the front office will have an interest in and they will show up at games specifically to scout in person (ie- Gettleman going to West Virginia to see Grier in person).
But it's up to the GM to actually pick the player that they feel will fit their scheme. Gettleman wasn't selecting anyone, that job fell to Reese, using Ross' input. Gettleman's job with the Giants was as Sr. Pro Personnel Analyst. Meaning he was responsible for free agents and guys cut. Think guys like Madison Hedgecock and Dominik Hixon being picked up and fitting in. Kevin Boothe. That was Gettleman.
Ross was so bad at his job it was insane. It's no wonder one of Gettleman's first moves was to fire him last year.
Racer : 11:08 am : link : reply
?
He didn't get to Jax until after TC and he really didn't offer up an opinion about him
I mean if there was a year not to bash Eli...
He wasn't really ragging on him as much as he was saying eli was a guy they relied on, but he made some head-scratching throws
He wasn't really ragging on him as much as he was saying eli was a guy they relied on, but he made some head-scratching throws
Gotcha. That makes sense. Eli’s big games came probably after he was gone.
Furthermore, not really a surprise that a player standing around unimpressed likely doesn't impress coaches and is a mid-season cut.
Thanks for sharing - nice story.
I didn't think the niners or pats were the better team when we played during the regular season and was not surprised when we won in the post season.
Yea, we could have been 8-8, we also could have been 12-4. Some bad breaks in the pack, eagles, and seahawk losses. Hell, even the first skins game. The only team I didn't want to face was the saints. Thankfully a flukey win by the niners spared us that fate
Link - ( New Window )
If Rolle vouched for Fewell I don't take that as a mark in Fewell's favor.
Early days but if these guys can stay on the same page and take it forward together then we will be significantly better off.