The New York Giants do not have a lack of speed and big play potential when you look at their Wide Receiving core, regardless of what some morons think and write. With the speed and explosiveness of Mario Manningham and Sinorice Moss, and Ron Hixon you would have to be crazy to think that. The Giants may have some of the fastest receivers in the NFL, in truth. The only big problem for this team is the glaring shortness of these Wideouts! Without Plaxico the tallest of Eli’s targets is Hixon at a generous 6′1. And that is the one thing they had been missing all last season and still now. They need a tall athletic target to go get jump balls in crowded spaces, which was Plaxico’s specialty. Before Burress they always had the WR skilled TE, named Shockey! What the Giants need is a WR who is over 6′1 who can make some big catches in some big spots. If he can get up and catch the ball in certain situations the Giants will only need to secure a role playing wideout, in the draft. Now, there are 3 options for this team, as far as I see it.

1. They could just attempt to draft a WR with their number 1 pick and pick up a free agent who has the ability to start and garnish some respect on the field. (My choice)

2. They could trade up picks in the draft to secure Crabtree or Maclin, which is what all of New York is hoping for. Personally I am not convinced, that would be the right move, but hey I’ve been wrong before.

3. They could also decide to just go for broke and trade a good helping of players and picks over several years for Boldin or Braylon Edwards. The Giants need receivers and without a doubt Jerry Reese has his eye on these two. So much so that someone had released the story specualting Reeses’s interest to the media about Edwards, who plays a very similar game to Plaxico and seems to have less of the character flaws.

As far as I see it the GMen are in great shape if they can keep their young talent, therefore I am believe they should keep Steve Smith, Sinorce Moss, and Mario Manningham and just sign a Veteran WR who can make plays in traffic during jump ball situations. There are several great fits for this role playing type (TALL) WR out in free agency right now:

Torry Holt:

Torry Holt, is a getting a litter bit older and has had some extensive knee surgeries and problems, yet if the Giants can sign him for a short deal they can bring up their draft pick wideout the proper way  letting him mature under the tutelage of a true leader, which is what Tory Holt is. The Young Giants recievers could use the Veteran leadership this signing would bring, considering they have lost Amani Toomer.

Matt Jones:

Matt Jones is 6′6 and is a super jumper and a great athlete, yet his off field issues make him a cheap buy in free agency. The Giants are notorious for taking a chance, and over the past couple of years Matt Jones has had very sub par seasons. Make no doubt about it this guy is a risk, but it could pay off if you sign low and he plays high, and I don’t mean on cocaine!

Reggie Williams:

This 6′4 physical monster can put any DB out of a position when he gets rolling. He also has had some issues over the past couple of years, and had seemed to play his way out of the 1 spot in Jacksonville. The Jaguars have however counted on Reggie for big plays and countless jump balls and his stats show it. In 2007, Reggie put up 10 TDs in only 6 starts, while only catching 35 passes for the season. He has brake away speed and he is very young and looking for a fresh start. He has low value because he just didn’t mesh well with the Jacksonville coaches and management!

Drew Carter:

Is a wide out known for his jumping ability, he was supposed to be the replacement for Johnson in Carolina, but it just didn’t work out. He has made some great plays over his career and still is relatively young. Yet the game may have passed this guy over. He is my least favorite possible free agent as I see it now.

Miles Austin:

Miles Austin has had some pretty strong showings over his short career. He had played along side TO and Roy Williams in Dallas. Miles Austin, last year would sometimes seem to out play both Owens and Williams. At 6′3 this player has the potential to be a big catch WR, who could really help replace the loss of Toomer and Burress. He has done great things in Dallas and it’s funny to think they just cut him. His knee issues must be pretty severe for Dallas to have dropped him, but if he checks out good with the doctors, I am all for this guy!

Joe Jurevicius:

I want to cry when I think about how many times this big guy has saved me from losing money. No matter what I will always bet on this guy. Joey is coming into his final seasons as a pro and I can’t think of any other wide receiver who has made as many HUGE catches as this guy without producing any real gawky stats. My friends and I have a saying, “Joey Jurevicius, the man-child from Penn State will always give you 1 big play every game for the rest of his life. Even though he might only record one catch, in the end it is going to matter”. I think the Giants would be nuts not to want him, Joey brings an positive and inspirational aura and an attitude wherever he goes. Jurevicius is a motivational figure that the Gmen may need in that Offensive huddle this season. I know he isn’t fast anymore, but he has height and great hands, and a history with the New York Giants, which could make him an easier sign!

No matter what, I cant wait to see big blue fix the issues with this WR core. I think Jerry Reese has some an up his sleeve, so lets see what cards he decides to play on draft day!

Jay Cutler could be making many fans of some other lucky team smile sometime soon.

Yesterday it was reported that the Pro Bowl Quarterback of the Denver Broncos, Jay Cutler, had officially requested a trade. Today, we the people, began contemplating where he might end up if his request is honored. I’m sure there are many fans out there whose team could use a guy in Jay Cutler who played like the potential franchise-type quarterback that many analysts foresaw. The scoop is that new head coach Josh McDaniels, who was offensive coordinator for the Patriots, wanted to trade Cutler for Matt Cassel since he was familiar with his system already. This has since angered the young Cutler and he now wants to go… but where?!

To start off an easy process of elimination, every team in the AFC is out since teams don’t usually like to send star players away to in-conference franchises. And although Cassel was finally traded to another AFC team, like his former Patriots, in the Chiefs, that was more of an “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” deal.

This was the widespread thought when that deal went down, because Scott Pioli, the former general manager of the Patriots moved onto Kansas City to try and resurrect that ball club.

So the AFC is out!

In the NFC East, Dallas has Tony Romo, NY has Eli Manning, and Philadelphia has Donovan McNabb. So far, Jason Campbell of the Washington Redskins still has a lot to prove, while Cutler seems way more promising than him thus far when both their careers are compared.

In the NFC North, the Packers have Aaron Rodgers, and the Vikings made moves to throw their young QB Tarvaris Jackson into a competition with newly acquired Sage Rosenfels from Houston. I don’t think that the Lions could attract an odor, so the Bears are definitely a hot spot. They’ve had no success with Rex Grossman, and minimal with Kyle Orton.

In the NFC South, the Saints boast Drew Brees, and the Falcons have a young star in rookie of the year Matt Ryan. The Panthers would have looked to have some great trade bait with the disgruntled Julius Peppers, but now it looks like he may be a Patriot soon. However, with Jake Delhomme being their current signal caller you still can’t count them out. Then there’s the Buccaneers who got rid of veteran Jeff Garcia.

After that, in the NFC West, the Seahawks have Matt Hasselbeck who is not past his better days yet, and Kurt Warner is obviously safe as the Cardinals QB. Cross those two teams out and you have the 49ers with the disappointing results of Alex Smith’s progress, and the St. Louis Rams, who should have started thinking about dropping Marc Bulger quite some time ago.

So there you have it. The top candidates to have Jay Cutler for President!

Plaxico Burress Catches a TD against the Browns on Monday Night Football

It is 12:20 am on October 14th, and I have just watched the worst Red-zone performance of all time. The one thing about the New York Giants that just doesn’t seem to be good this year is their red zone stragety. I understand that Plaxico is not in the good graces of the organization, but when you take him out of the game in the red zone in the third quarter it just makes no sense. 6′5 Plaxico Burress who has already proved to be one of the Gaints best red zone targets in the 2008 season, was taken out and Eli Manning threw a pass to Toomer instead, which resulted a costly pick 6. I realize that you can’t throw only to one player, However Plax deserves a target in every red zone trip, without fail. This is a man whose jumping abilities and size are unparalleled in the League. The Giants need to get off their high horses and get Plax the ball in the Red-Zone, or risk doing what they did today, just look terrible. I can’t help to wonder if this problems in play calling could be in response to Plaxico’s recent suspension. Regardless, If you pay a player you better use him as far as I am concerned. Also, trying to intercept a Pass high in the corner of the endzone is nearly impossible, especially if the defender is shorter than the WR by about 6 to 7 inches.

So there is always the debate about who is the top quarterback in leagues, is it Brady is it Peyton? But the truth of the matter is that after the top three there is huge separation in the field of Quarterbacks. To me there are only three Quarterbacks that are at the highest level right now, and sorry guys Romo and Favre are not part of them. Four years ago I would have given you a top five of pretty debatable equal players but some of those guys couldn’t hold up over the time. So without further ado here is my top 5 quarter backs in the league now.

1. Peyton Manning

2. Tom Brady

3. Carson Palmer
These three guys ability and skill are on a completely different level than any other quarterback in the league. Brett has his magic and no one plays the way he does but let’s be honest he still has the cannon but
other than last year his last four years have not been that great. Both in ability and Statistics.

4. Donovan McNabb

Donovan Mcnabb

Just look at the numbers look at the history and most of all look at the ability when he is healthy he is playing at level much like that of the top 3.

Number five is tricky you can place a lot guys here again just showing how much the level of quarter backs drops once you get past the top three. So is it…Favre?…Romo?…Eli?…Big Ben? or is it maybe even Drew Breeze? Drum roll…

Not quite yet. At first I was going to call it a tie but you can’t have a tie in top list that is just plain stupid so I had to bump Romo out. Yes he doesn’t make it. Why? he has only started three years and has never
won a playoff game. Also if you look back in his past 2 years starting he has never cracked top 3 as far as ratings are concerned. Which means this year he probably will not either.

So number five on the list goes to Big Ben,

Ben Rothlisberger #5 our our QB list

5. Ben Roethlisberger

If you look at his career he has one of the highest winning percentages ever, for the start of his career, He is also constantly in the top five for ratings which encompasses a quarterbacks overall play and most importantly after having a down year in 2006, last year (2007) he threw for 33 TDS silencing critics say what you want about one the most winning quarterbacks ever, one super bowl ring 33 TDS recently, and one of the highest QB ratings for a career ever he is currently playing at the level of a top 5 quarter back in the league. Don’t Agree?
comment Then and give me your list. I’m out…

Jason Campbell is not looking very good.

However, he hasn’t got the smarts. What is up with the five yard passes when you need six on third down while a defender is ready and waiting to make the tackle after the catch. He threw a yard short on almost every third down in the game when the Redskins called a pass. Surprisingly, the one time his “short-comings” actually worked came on third down and eleven with 20 seconds to go in the first half; The Skins were on the Giants 14 yard line and needed to get down to the eleven so they could move the chains, and lo-and-behold, what does Mr. Campbell do? He throws the ball to Santana Moss at the ten!… who then actually manages to break for 13 yards into the end zone. I mean, you gotta figure that one of his short third down passes would have resulted in a first down eventually. Too bad they all couldn’t. After that touchdown, the Redskins continued with more nowhere marches down the field. The Giants pounded the ball down their throats and Brandon Jacobs received 21 handoffs for 116 yards, and Derrick Ward performed more than admirably with 9 caries for 39 yards. Each runner had 5.5 and 4.3 yards per carry respectively.

Brandon Jacobs as made an event out of crushing Redskins.

Now don’t overlook the Redskins’ running game last night. Clinton Portis managed 84 yards on 23 carries. Most good backs should be closer to, if not over, a 100 at that point, but the Redskins sporty new west-coast offense was of no help what so-ever save for just after the Rock Cartwright 50+ yard kick return before the end of the first half. But when your aerial attack is not helping you, 84 hard-earned yards is somewhat admirable. Eli Manning on the other hand looked good. I don’t care about his one interception. Not because the Redskins would inevitably go three-and-out as a result, but mainly because he just looked sharp. (You see, I have always viewed Eli Manning as such; I call him something I made up about a year ago… an “Interception Quarterback.” He’ll get his fare share of picks while maybe lingering atop the league in that category, and he might just be barely hovering above or just below a 60% completion percentage, but he’ll be getting the job done on third down, and most of the time when the game matters.). He hooked up with Plaxico on big gains, and used Steve Smith on third downs, perhaps showing that Smith might become a possession man on thirds down.

Eli running the ball for a rare rushing TD after juking out a Redskin LB

Bottom line, people want to talk up Jason Campbell for his attributes, and also because I personally believe that for whatever reason, a lot of NFL fans seem to sympathize with him since he’s got the “He’s a good kid” look. But let me tell you something, so does Alex Smith and Joey Harrington, and so did guys like Tim Couch and Akili Smith. Cute faces… ugly games.

Son of a bust! Somebody actually thought both these guys would be good?! Now I remember why I don’t read Sports Illustrated

Anyways, the Giants may want to work on turning more of those field goal drives into touchdowns, and the Redskins may want to start getting Campbell to look just a yard or two further down the field, and try to get Chris Cooley involved, who finished the game with one catch for seven sorry yards. Bottom line, the G-Men did what they were supposed to do. They didn’t blow out the Redskins, but their efforts ultimately culminated into a dominant performance, and a resoundingly convincing win.

-Alex V