NEW YORK – The New York Giants might have to change their name to the New Look Giants this season. The team has been hit with a string of bad news (karma is a female dog) in recent weeks and the team has lost half of their starting offense. The news about WR Steve Smith going to the rival Eagles yesterday sealed the deal for me. I have been a very big fan of GM Jerry Reese and have showered him with praise since the first year he came to the team. But even my faith has been shaken by the mass exodus of pro bowl athletes in 2011. Think about this for a moment, the Giants have lost OL Rich Seubert, OL Shaun O’Hara, TE Kevin Boss, FB Madison Hedgecock and WR Steve Smith. All five of these guys were starters in an offense that requires eleven men. You do the math.
The Giants also lost some other quality guys such as OL Shawn “Fan Fav” Andrews, DT Barry Cofield (who also went to division rival, the Redskins). They are in a contract battle with all pro DE Osi Umenyiora, they lost CB Bruce Johnson to injury and cut him. They signed TE Ben Patrick who turned around and retired on them and they have lost their 1st round pick CB Prince Amukamara for two months. When it rains, it pours. There were other transactions made but these mentioned are the big deals and the team still hasn’t addressed all of the free agents that need signing. The Giants play their first preseason game in two days and will need to get a ton of new players up to speed on the playbook and the system. I’m not sure how they will fair but I wish them good luck with that.
I cannot remember a year in recent memory where the Giants lost so many quality players within a one month period of time. I’m not sure if there ever was a similar situation in team history. Yes, the team has signed some players but they hardly replaced all of the talent the team lost. I hope Jerry Reese knows what he is doing because this will be an unrecognizable group of players on the field to the true blue fan. The fact that the team was six million dollars over the salary cap certainly plays into the mix but that also begs the question of why? Who was watching the salary cap and allowed this to happen? Rabid fans have been calling for the head of Jerry Reese and for changes in the front office as a whole. I will keep my opinions to myself until I see what the team does in 2011. I will not panic but I am certainly deeply concerned.
What are your thoughts about the recent roster moves made by the Giants?
NEW YORK – We have finally locked down a partnership with Shop.Giants.com. That means you can now find official New York Giants merchandise on our website. This is something that I have wanted to do for a while and think our readers will appreciate the convenience of going straight to the official New York Giants team store if they decide they want to buy something. If you want to learn how you can do this for your own website, using your own favorite team, I suggest you check out an affiliate program and learn how to Find a sponsor for your web site. Get paid for your great content. You get a percentage for using team ads. You will need to get approved and once you do, just become a partner with a merchant, such as shop.giants.com. As you can see, there are no minefields of advertising to maneuver around on nygreporter and we intend to keep it way. However, we do want the fans to have access to Giants products.
You all know that too many advertisements can ruin a good website. Pop ups and the loud ones are avoided like the plague. That is why I will not let ads ruin our website. You will only be able to purchase New York Giants merchandise on this website. Of course, NFL gear for the NFL Draft, NFL Pro Bowl and the Super Bowls to be included too. But you will never find the clutter we have all come to loathe. You can be sure your getting official Giants gear when visiting us here. I mean, think of the possibilities, you have Eli Manning jerseys and Steve Smith jerseys and you have a host of other Giants jerseys you can choose from as well. You can always get a team hat if you need a gift for a sports fan. You never see anyone get mad over getting a hat. Other items that nobody ever gets mad at receiving are team T-shirts, just make sure you know the right size.
It’s nice to know that you can always just go straight to specific catalog areas if you feel like browsing too. After all, it can get pretty cold in East Rutherford during the winter at New Meadowlands stadium and people will need to dress warm while they wait for the game to start, tailgate gear might be just the thing you’re looking for. I am proud to have Giants products available on my site, I know our readers are people who represent their team to the fullest. All of this talk about “stuff” has me wondering what your most prized Giants possession is? Mine revolve around meeting a player usually but what are yours? Feel free to leave a comment below and share your thoughts.
What is your most prized New York Giants possession? My favorite is a helmet that Michael Strahan personally signed for me.
NEW YORK – What a crazy year it has been in the world of sports. I can’t believe we have been up and running for a full year already. I was trying to get our readers an interview with a Giants player for this special occasion and got very lucky, because I have one of the best players on the team answering a few questions for us. I will publish the article tomorrow (Sunday 3-6-11) of an interview I had with a “surprise” New York Giants player (he has since been revealed as WR Steve Smith). I suggest you all come back tomorrow and see who it is that I’m talking about. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Hopefully, we will be able to get more interviews now with Giants players and coaches. I know these are exactly the types of articles Giants fans want to read with their coffee in the morning or at home at night. Some of the other writers here like Josh and Saulo, have been with the website since we first went live. Others such as Andrew joined us last year. I would like to say thank you for all of your contributions and as always guys, I look forward to reading your next articles. What a strange journey it has been to get us here today. At the stroke of midnight tonight it will be one year.
Things will continue to get interesting during the next few weeks with the upcoming NFL Draft, The CBA talks (extended another week), free agency and trades. We will be here to cover it all and give our unique perspective on the team. When Saulo takes a moment from his world travels and gets on his laptop, he usually blesses us with an informed article. We need to read more from Saulo! When Josh isn’t studying for mid-terms or finals, he also blesses our readers with well thought out stories concerning the current state of Big Blue. I am sure we will see more of Josh over the summer. Andrew has been busy lately but he also gives us a great perspective on the team through his work. Thank you once again writers for all that you do and thanks especially to all of our readers who are making nygreporter a respectable family friendly website. We have not wavered from our clean chat policy or managing a safe environment for sports fans.
If any of our readers have a website suggestion, please feel free to leave a comment below. You do not need to be a member of nygreporter (although we hope you will become a member) to leave a comment but you do have to have a wordpress account. To become an nygreporter member, make a wordpress account, then make a separate account for nygreporter.com on wordpress. You can also subscribe to our email list or RSS feed if you prefer. We are always open to hearing new ideas about projects our readers might like to share and we always encourage participation.
Here are some of the more interesting things that happened during the past year.
– The shout out we got from Mike Garafolo of the Star-Ledger on NJ.com for correctly picking the final score of a game. Here is a link to the story and video, Mike Garafolo Gives nygreporter a Shout Out on NJ.com
– Attending the New York Giants 2010 NFL training camp at the University of Albany. Here is a link to the pics, Images
– Going on the “Eisen’s Insight Live” podcast and talking Giants football with Michael Eisen and John Schmeelk. Listen for “Robert from New York” at the 16 minute mark of the show. Here is a link to the podcast, NYGReporter Calls “Eisen’s Insight LIVE” on Giants.com
– Calling the “Mike Francesa Show” and talking football with Mike while he was at Giants training camp in Albany. No links are available but it was a good 5 minute talk about the Giants defense.
– COMING SOON: We are working on a partnership that will allow nygreporter.com to sell New York Giants merchandise. We will ONLY promote New York Giants products on our website.
Feel free to leave your comments below, we would love to hear from some of our readers. Once again, thank you to the Giants community for all of your support.
As some of you may or may not be aware, this Sunday (March 6th), will be the one year anniversary of the creation of nygreporter.com! It has been an incredible year to say the least. As we approach both our one year mark and our 24,000th view, we here at nygreporter would like to take step back and reflect on the year it was. Having started in March of 2010, this site has followed the exact path of a real year in the NFL. As you all know, the seasons official begins in March each year and we have been lucky enough to be here covering the ups and downs of the 2010-2011 campaign.
We were there through all of the botched punts, the 25 interceptions, the horrific and scary losses but we were also there to witness 4002 passing yards and 31 touchdowns, 1235 rushing yards for 1052 receiving yards, we saw 11.5 sacks twice over and a 5 interception season by one shutdown corner. We saw 10 wins, we saw no playoffs, we saw an IR list that looked more closely to the size of an active roster (kidding of course) but most of all we saw a ton of heart from a team that in the end was left defeated yet hungry. I strongly believe that the team has an incredible hunger to win; I see big things in the future for this group of guys!
As far as nygreporter goes? Well, we are hungry too! Hungry to improve, to write better, to write more, to see more traffic and ultimately more success. I see big things in the future for us too. You, as the reader, can expect big things this coming year. We will be here all season long for years to come covering your favorite team, so please, stick with us, support us, spark debate in the comment section, let us know you are here and what you are thinking! We would absolutely love to hear from you! We wish all of our readers the best in everything they do, thank you for sticking with us through our first year we hope you have enjoyed reading our work almost as much as we have enjoyed writing it. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come!
The New York Giants have reported that WR Domenik Hixon will miss the entire 2010 season. Hixon will have surgery on a torn ACL in the next two or three weeks. Domenik Hixon is a tall receiver (6’2″) who has worked his tail off since coming to the Giants. Team reports say that Hixon will have his non guaranteed contract honored, since he was injured during practice. This is not a very good way to christen the brand new stadium. The culprit is said to have been the new turf that was put in at the stadium (hopefully, we had local guys do the job and didn’t outsource the job to a Texas or Philadelphia company). Hixon planted his foot into the new turf and had it get stuck, twisting his leg and knee while trying to release it. You can bet your last dollar that there will be some investigations into the new field and any repairs that need to made, will be done so swiftly.
Hixon has had a rocky three year career with Big Blue and just a couple of months ago, signed a one year contract with the G-men. He most likely would have been used on special teams in 2010, returning punts and kick offs. Now that WR’s Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham, have all shown what they can do on the field, they will be used as the primary three wide receivers in 2010. Of course, things can change at any moment but those three seem to have a lock on the three starting roles.
Be sure to come back and check out today’s (day two) mini camp wrap up.
Do you think that WR Domenik Hixon’s season ending surgery will end his stay with the New York Giants?
The New York Giants have completed their afternoon session of the mandatory mini camp, which began this morning. Early estimates by the associated press say about 7,000 New York Giants fans attended the “open practice”. The team advertised free tickets to the practice on their website, Giants.com and we also wrote an article about it here. It was a great day to be at the stadium because the weather was perfect.
The New York Giants finished their first day of a three day mandatory mini camp. There was a minor scuffle between the offensive and defensive lineman today during the afternoon practice, it was broken up very quickly and all was forgiven. Reportedly, Pierre-Paul and Osi were locked up with some offensive lineman. It’s good to see the two team mates sticking together, even if it was a short and meaningless scuffle. When the team gets to Albany it might not be such a minor thing. I expect some huge battles for starting roles on the defense, especially at the linebacker and defensive linemen positions.
Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of the afternoon practice. Check out Giants.com for video of player interviews.
– WR Domenik Hixon went down grabbing his knee shortly before 3 PM EST. He remained on the sidelines with his knee wrapped up and did not return to practice.
– QB Eli Manning had a good practice and said he is very excited for the new season. He looks like he put on some muscle during the off season.
– CB Aaron Ross is on the field and getting back into fighting shape. He will surely be getting the rust off and hopefully returning to form in 2010.
– LT William Beatty has been playing with the first team offensive linemen. LT David Diehl has been moved to the LG position with the first team.
– Punters Matt Dodge and Jy Bond have a battle going on. Both of them have been impressive today. Dodge kicks further then Bond but Bond has more hang time.
– LB Clint Sintim owned up to having a less then acceptable rookie season and vows to be better in 2010. I believe him.
– S Kenny Phillips was all smiles after practice, while being interviewed in the locker room. He still remains a question mark for the season.
– DT Justin Tuck had a good practice and sounds like he is all business for this season.
– DE Osi Umenyiora has given new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell a good grade so far. Osi expects to have a solid season.
– The Giants defense has been experimenting with four defensive ends (Tuck, Kiwi, Osi, JPP) during mini camp.
Who do you expect the 2010 breakout player for the New York Giants will be?
The New York Giants began their mandatory mini camp this morning. Coach Coughlin did an interview (the video can be seen on Giants.com) with reporters a little while ago and seemed very calm and cool. He mentioned what a beautiful day it was (75 degrees, sunny, little humidity) for football and even joked around with one of the reporters. I am glad that was captured on film. The veterans and rookies will be playing together and getting aquatinted. This is a great time of year for Giants fans and things will begin to happen more quickly now that we are closing in on July. Training camp in Albany is only 6 weeks away now.
The afternoon practice will begin at 2:50 PM EST (come back for updates on the afternoon practice) and it is open to the public. We mentioned how to get free tickets in one of our previous articles. They are expecting between 20,000 and 30,000 fans to show up. Coughlin also mentioned that he hopes the fans know that the team will not be wearing pads today. He wants the fans to have a good experience and thinks the fans will fire up the players a little bit.
Let’s take a look at some of the fine points Coach Coughlin mentioned during his interview and overview of the morning practice.
– DT Jay Alford sat out of practice today because he tweaked his MCL last week. They say he will be fine.
– S Kenny Phillips was brought up again and there was nothing new to report. He is working hard and making progress.
– S Antrel Rolle received a lot of praise from Coughlin. Coughlin said he loves his “good energy” and his aggressive play on the field.
– LB Clint Sintim is labeled as a guy whom Coughlin has “big expectations” for this year. Sintim agrees.
– Former Giants punter Jeff Feagles was at the practice this morning working with new punters, Matt Dodge and Jy Bond.
– RB Andre Brown seems to be performing well on the field. Brown had season ending surgery last year and has yet to play in an NFL game.
– DE Osi Umenyiora is working his way back into the groove and hopes to put 2009 behind him.
– The players are responding well to new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell. Fewell is energetic and extremely vocal on the practice field.
Are you excited about the mandatory practices starting today?
NYGReporter was representing on Tuesday, as we called into the Giants.com radio podcast “Eisen’s Insight LIVE” and talked to the guys over at the stadium. The show is hosted by Michael Eisen and John Schmeelk. I called in as “Robert from New York” and can be found at the halfway mark of the show. I asked the guys about safety Kenny Phillips’ injury status and how he is progressing. Michael Eisen said that he was coming along well but he will need to give it the final test on the field to really know for sure. He also said the team is being “cautious” about announcing anything definitive concerning Phillips. I’m sure that I am not the only Giants fan concerned about Phillips’ situation because he is one of the most promising athletes the Giants have. We all wish him a full and speedy recovery.
I also asked about RB Andre Brown (ruptured achilles) and CB Aaron Ross (hamstring) and how they were doing, after both had suffered injuries in 2009. Again, Michael Eisen said that both of them were coming along fine and that it was a good thing (as good as it can be) that Brown got injured last August, so he had time to fully heal. Eisen also mentioned that Ross will need to get on the field and see how the hamstring feels before he will know anything for certain. Aaron Ross plays a huge role in the Big Blue secondary and Brown was touted as a possible break out star when he was drafted in 2009. The fans certainly hope that both of these men will be good to go in 2010.
It was a brief talk during the podcast but I found both Eisen and Schmeelk to be good guys. I have followed their work for quite some time and had a lot of fun being on their show. I was going to ask if I could say a plug for NYGReporter.com but wasn’t sure if that would be a conflict of interest, maybe next time. Enjoy!
I will leave a link to the Giants Radio podcast below, so that our readers can listen to it for themselves. Remember to have the volume turned up on your computer when you click the link.
The first draft class of the New Meadowlands stadium is currently settling in. What a treat for these young players to end up in a situation where the team has brand new state of the art equipment and facilities. These kids today, I’ll tell yaahh! While they were settling in, someone came up to them and said, hey rookie, pick a jersey number. If the number is available, they will get it, if not, then they won’t. Some of them were lucky enough to get the same numbers they wore in college, something I’m told is like a link on a chain to some players. It is extremely important to some and doesn’t mean anything to others.
This is a very exciting time for these rookies. I expect the team to harass them during the training camp and pre-season days. Hopefully, there aren’t any fights that break out this year. These rookies will need to earn the respect of the team, the coaches and the fans. That’s a tall order for anyone to attempt at such a young age. I am confident that the front office has systems in place (Charles Way) to help these young men transition into the pros. They will begin by having every Giants fan rooting for them, while the team and coaches test them. I hope they perform well.
Let’s take a look at what jersey numbers were selected. I will list the rookie players below in the same order in which they were drafted over the weekend during the 2010 NFL Draft.
Round 1 – DE Jason “Wild Thing” Pierre-Paul will wear No. 90
Round 2 – DT Linval Joseph will wear No. 97
Round 3 – S Chad Jones will wear No. 35
Round 4 – LB Phillip Dillard will wear No. 55
Round 5 – OG Mitch Petrus will wear No. 62
Round 6 – LB/DE Adrian Tracy will wear No. 98
Round 7 – P Matt Dodge will wear No. 6
Do you own any authentic New York Giants jersey’s or any kind of Giants jersey at all? What players did you get?
The 2010 NFL Draft is officially over and we can now step back and take a look at what the team has. Like a child ripping through his/her Birthday presents like a chainsaw, fans were getting one surprise after another. This was one of the most fulfilling drafts in recent memory. Even though my player predictions were wrong fifty percent of the time this year, I am still walking away from it knowing that the team got better. With that in mind, the joy of doing the research and scouting fades away. The New York Giants have seven new players to welcome and see what works best. This is about as exciting a group of players as the team has had in a long time. Training camp in Albany can’t come soon enough if you ask me. There are going to be some epic battles on the defensive side of the ball at the linebacker and defensive lineman positions.
My thoughts on each player selected this year. DE Jason Pierre-Paul could be the new Javon Kearse. The guy is a tremendously gifted athlete who is eager to learn. That is the kind of combination that spells solid NFL career. I can’t wait to see him on the field. DT Linval Joseph can be as good as he wants to be. The big guys in the middle have one of the toughest jobs in the NFL. There is a lot to absorb both physically and mentally in the trenches and I think Joseph is up to the task. S Chad Jones, who I believe was a steal in the third round, will prove to be a very valuable pick in the future. This kid has been on my radar for months and I’m very happy that Jerry Reese was able to grab him where they did. I think it’s safe to say that the safety position has been addressed by the G-men. LB Phillip Dillard seems to be a player that will get some time to show what he can do. He had a very good combine workout and should be in the LB fight for a starting role. OG Mitch Petrus is a big guy who fills a need area. The Giants definitely needed some depth on the offensive line and now that have it. I thought the team would have come away with a Center as well but one thing at a time I guess. LB/DE Adrian Tracy is a guy who they will be experimenting with in a couple of different positions. He also had a good combine workout and is a gifted athlete. P Matt Dodge was brought in to add some fire in the Punter competition. All-World punter Jeff Feagles is uncertain if he can continue for another year after 22 in the NFL. Jy Bond and Matt Dodge will battle it out in training camp, if Feagles can’t go another year
I want to be clear about my feeling on the new three day draft event too. I do not like this new system at all and I hope the NFL goes back to the traditional 2-day draft weekend schedule. It was a nice experiment but really way too drawn out. Having a 3-day draft weekend is like staying that extra day in Las Vegas, nothing good can come from it. Not to mention the fans on the West Coast who were probably really upset that it was 3:00 PM when the draft kicked off Friday. Please go back to the 2-day draft weekend NFL, why mess with something that wasn’t broken?
Here is a recap of who the New York Giants selected. Nicknames provided by the NYG Reporter (you heard the nicknames here first, spread the word).
ROUND 1 – DE Jason “Wild Thing” Pierre-Paul, 6’5″ 270 pounds, South Florida
ROUND 2 – DT Linval “The Anvil” Joseph, 6’4″ 328 pounds, East Carolina
ROUND 3 – S Chad “Keepin’ Up With The” Jones, 6’2″ 221 pounds, LSU
ROUND 6 – LB/DE Adrian “Yo” Tracy, 6’3″ 248 pounds, William and Mary
ROUND 7 – P Matt Dodge “Viper”, 6’1″ 225 pounds, East Carolina
What do you think about the New York Giants 2010 NFL Draft? What grade would you give them for this year? I am giving Jerry Reese and Co. an “A”. Welcome to New York!
This site was born on 03/06/10 in the state of New York. nygreporter is a home for New York Giants fans and writers. We are a family friendly website and keep the comments clean. Remember that kids read this stuff too. This is a place where football fans can come and go as they please, without any headaches. We are a destination for NFL fans who want real analysis and original opinion articles about the New York Giants. The idea is to continue publishing solid work and to build on the existing good reputation we have within the Giants community. Ultimately, leading to a full time paid job writing or partnership of this website with someone who can see the light and see the social media value of working with values.
THE 2011 NFL LOCKOUT IS OVER AS OF 7/25/11. The lockout lasted (136 days). **A judge ordered the end of the NFL lockout for 4 days on 4/25/11 but I do not subtract those 4 days from the total.
NEW YORK – The New York Giants might have to change their name to the New Look Giants this season. The team has been hit with a string of bad news (karma is a female dog) in recent weeks and the team has lost half of their starting offense. The news about WR Steve Smith going to the rival Eagles yesterday sealed the deal for me. I have been a very big fan of GM Jerry Reese and have showered him with praise since the first year he came to the team. But even my faith has been shaken by the mass exodus of pro bowl athletes in 2011. Think about this for a moment, the Giants have lost OL Rich Seubert, OL Shaun O’Hara, TE Kevin Boss, FB Madison Hedgecock and WR Steve Smith. All five of these guys were starters in an offense that requires eleven men. You do the math.
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