Expected a difficult year of transition. Did not expect a year of humiliation. Looking at Eric's roster, it appears that most of the defensive players were undrafted free agents, or players waived by other teams who originally acquired them as undrafted free agents. How does Hamilton wind up on the field? Then there are a few promising rookies not ready to start who are starting.
Let's look at how some former Giants defensive players who were disposed of by Gettlemen are doing.
Damon "Snacks" Harrison received a one year extension fom the Lions on his contract through 2021 that was worth about 11 million dollars.
Harrison is a key part of Detroit's defensive line as one of the top run-stoppers in the league. He has played in 102 games, starting 95 of them -- including playing in 17 games last season. He has nine sacks and four forced fumbles in his career, but the 350-pound tackle is dominant against the run. Pro Football Focus graded him as the No. 3 interior defender in the NFL last season and said he had the best run-stop percentage in the NFL (16%) last year
Jason Pierre Paul was the 65th best player in the NFL last year according to the annual player survey conducted by NFL.com. On the link below hear his teammates praise him for the effort he put out all season despite having to play through a lot of pain.
He may miss the beginning of this season, but he is an example of the type of class player disposed of by Gettleman.
Oliver Vernon has been a welcome addition to the Brown's pass rush. This guy's sack stats were never anything to get excited about, but he did make the Pro Bowl last year and other players in the league are impressed by his quarterback hits, which are apparently hard to notice.
Vernon led the Giants last season with 7 sacks and 21 quarterback hits in 11 games. That was more than twice as many quarterback hits as any other player on the team.
Clearly he would be the best pass rusher on this squad. A line of Harrison, JPP and Vernon would be overpaid but would leave the team competitive at least until they had cheaper and younger replacements. It's hard to understand how Gettleman made no attempt to replace the defensive linemen that he cut.
The Redskins are excited about Collins, giving him the game ball following their third preseason game. They even have DRC on their roster. Not supposed to play much, but cheap veteran backup who can fill-in adequately while helping the young rookies to ease into the lineup. DRC would be the 2nd best corner on this team.
This is a joke of course, but a secondary of Collins, Jenkins, DRC and Peppers doesn't sound half bad, at least compared to the stuffed strawmen out there today.
Is it an over-reaction to not see any way this team will have a competitive defense next season?
How will Mara react to another three or four win season?
Will a third straight awful season, more awful than the first two, leave this franchise in a Buffalo or Cleveland type funk from which it will take years to recover?
Lion's Praise JPP - (
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This is the guy who you can make a case for, especially since he is well-suited to the 3-4.
Instead, they'll pay paltry performance small money. Progress!
Perhaps you have not noticed that the Giants have no talent on defense except for Jenkins. How many of the defensive starters and major subs have no college pedigree. They were either signed by the Giants as undrafted free agents, or they were claimed or obtained from teams where they were originally undrafted or late drafted players.
There are a few promising rookies on defense, but no one who has forcibly grabbed everyone's attention. That includes Peppers. It was said that Collins couldn't cover backs and tight ends, limiting his value. Now they are saying the same about Peppers.
(Reading an article about Peppers play vs. Broncos in his 2nd year, it seems that then Peppers started playing up near the LOS, like Collins, he had an impact as a pass rusher, like Collins. He would be valuable to the Giants in that capacity.
The game-clinching sack late in the game stands out for obvious reasons, but Peppers was a consistent presence in the backfield all game. On his nine pass-rushing snaps, he generated four total pressures, which nearly matches the total of five that he had all last season.
There are a few second year players, namely Hill and Carter, who have shown enough promise to be given this season to start making plays.
There are three well-regarded rookie draft choices in the secondary, Baker, Love and Balentine, who are being thrown out there as raw rookies in an atmosphere where they are not likely to experience much success. With no pass rush. You want to break your rookies in gradually, so they don't lose their confidence in themselves.
So, if they reach the end of this season with little or no young defensive players who look like solid starters, what's to keep Gettleman and coach from the plank. Then we start over again.
Most of you just haven't been around football long enough to realize how close this franchise is to falling into the loser funk of Buffalo and Cleveland.
Admission: This all could be a nightmare. No, this all could be week one overreaction. Dallas may be the best team in the league. Life may seem brighter after Buffalo next week (but what if they lose to Buffalo). But I just don't see much raw talent on defense.
Not saying we are necessarily better without them, but a thorough housecleaning was needed and we now have a very young D trying to figure out how to play together. If you didn’t expect it to be rough early on I don’t think you were being realistic.
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3 sacks and 3 TFL today.
This is the guy who you can make a case for, especially since he is well-suited to the 3-4.
I don’t think anyone can say we didn’t give him chances.
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3 sacks and 3 TFL today.
This is the guy who you can make a case for, especially since he is well-suited to the 3-4.
Brought in by Reese so he had to go. Same with Okwara. DG had no choice!