Quote (xnozx. @ Jun 12 2012 09:29am)

Hahaha

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"Kevin Gilbride has coached his fair share of dynamic weapons in his five seasons leading the Giants offense. He's had Tiki Barber, Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs at running back; and Plaxico Burress, Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz at wide receiver to name a few.

The list is long and accomplished, but Gilbride doesn't believe he's ever had a piece to utilize quite like rookie running back David Wilson.

"I don't know if we've had a guy as explosive, regardless of the position, here," said Gilbride of the Giants' first-round pick. "Tiki was a tremendous all-around back, Brandon would give you something, Ahmad gives you toughness, but this guy's got the explosion I'm not sure how many guys in the league have."

Gilbride, entering his sixth season as Giants offensive coordinator, added that it's early and Wilson has plenty of learning to do before he can transfer his skill set to when it matters most, but during the team's three-day minicamp this week Wilson provided a dose of his potential by consistently darting to the outside and turning the corner out of the backfield.

"There are guys in this league who have physical credentials and you say, 'Oh, why can't he play?' Because he can't learn." Gilbride said. "I don't think David's that case. I think he's going to learn, but right now he's very definitely in step one."

Gilbride contrasted Wilson to second-year running back Da'Rel Scott, whose straightaway speed is perhaps tops on the team and is different than the shiftiness Wilson brings.

"A waterbug kind of a guy, that's what he looks like to me," Gilbride said of Wilson.

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With or without Jake Ballard officially on the roster, Gilbride knew he wasn't going to get on the field in 2012 and he'd need to find another starting tight end for the second straight season.

With the timetable for Travis Beckum's return still in question, his top options presently are Bear Pascoe and Martellus Bennett, but with Bennett nursing a minor hamstring injury, the starting spot belongs to Pascoe.

It's very similar to the position Gilbride found himself in last year.

"Right now we got a long way to go with that," Gilbride said. "In fairness when we lost Kevin Boss [last year], I kind of was thinking, 'Woah, where are we going to go.'

"You're hoping Martellus, that's why he was brought here. You're hoping Adrien Robinson down the road will be the guy, if not Bear's going to be the guy. Somebody's got to do it."

Ballard's inability to play in 2012 didn't make his loss to the Patriots easier for Gilbride.

"He'll be sorely missed," Gilbride said. "We knew we weren't going to have him this year, but he was a guy that could've been a starter for a long time so now somebody else has got to step up."

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Over his first three seasons in the NFL, Hakeem Nicks has recorded statistics that compare to the league's best to begin a career, becoming Eli Manning's go-to target in the process. But even with his early success, Gilbride said the foot injury that has Nicks out for about 12 weeks came at an inopportune time during his career.

"The thing that's a tragedy here is that there were so many things that we were looking forward to really developing with him and really taking advantage of this time to really focus on developing his entire skill set.

"This was going to be a great chance for him to really, really – us to go another step ahead for him. But there's nothing you can do, you can't do it. He's hurt and he's not there."

Gilbride said he hopes Nicks will be ready for the season opener, if not training camp.

"I'm hoping. I got my legs crossed, my knees are hurting from praying," he said.

With Nicks out, Gilbride said he's been impressed with Rueben Randle's speed and threw a name out there that most don't recognize: Brandon Collins.

Collins, a rookie out of out Southeastern Louisiana, made a few catches in traffic during Tuesday's practice and Gilbride admitted he didn’t know much about him going in.

"I've seen more quickness than anything," Gilbride said. "Good speed, great quickness, but also picking up the offense pretty quickly."

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The similarities between Victor Cruz and Julian Talley are almost too easy. Both are wide receivers out of UMass, both are from New Jersey and both signed with the Giants as undrafted free agents.

The two are even close friends, but Gilbride put the brakes on assuming the two are the same on the field.

"Victor is just a thicker, more muscular, type of guy," Gildbride said. "Victor's run-after-the-catch right from the first year kind of stood out. We haven't had a chance to assess that [with Talley]. I'll get a better – I think – feel for him maybe two or three weeks into training camp. Right now it's hard for me to make a good judgment on him."

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At a time when even the Cincinnati Bengals are investing in iPads for the entire team, the use of technology has officially become pervasive.

But the Giants took a cue from a visiting soccer club last summer, and is pushing for more monitoring of players during workouts.

The New York Times reports the Giants are using GPS devices, heart rate monitors and other means to determine how players are working and recovering from work this offseason.

Giants GM Jerry Reese was intrigued when he saw players from English soccer power Manchester United wearing GPS devices during their training at Giants facilities last summer. So after huddling with Giants vice president for medical service Ronnie Barnes, they decided to push forward into territory that’s common in other sports, but not football.

“Football is really the last bastion of sports, where you don’t really look at that,” Barnes said. “Yet we train them like heck, and we don’t really know whether they’ve recovered or not.”

More important than the performance evaluation, however, is player safety. One of the Giants’ partners in the study is the Korey Stringer Institute, and avoiding a repeat of its namesake’s death in 2001 from complications related to heat stroke should be foremost on every team’s mind.

“They didn’t have these tests before, and they didn’t know where it came from until they did an autopsy,” Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz said. “You don’t want it to have to be like that.”

This is an area where it’s going to be hard to keep up with the technology, but the Giants should be saluted for being at the front of the line. Even if the player safety function wasn’t enough (it is), there are practical applications teams can benefit from, provided coaches open their minds and owners open their wallets.

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—Sitting in front of his locker, New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul looked bigger than last season, when he became one of the NFL’s top defensive ends.
Pierre-Paul said he had gained only five pounds. Must have been five pounds of muscle.

"Becoming more of a man," Pierre-Paul said with a smile at Tuesday’s minicamp.

At 6-5, 295 pounds, Pierre-Paul moves with the agility of someone much smaller.

Quote (thebigman1212 @ Jun 17 2012 09:06pm)

Eli is going to fuck it up for you guys some way or another.

By the end of this season all of you will want him out. Just like a year after his first Superbowl win.

You're all bandwagon fans.