NFL Mocks Grades The Giants Free Agency Moves
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Jesse Bartolis, distinguished contributor and lead editor of FanSided’s NFL Mocks has a post up today grading the free agency moves for the entire NFC East, check it out below.
Clipped from: nflmocks.com (share this clip)
The snippet that concerns the Giants reads as follows:
"The Giants have been major players in free agency the past few years, but have taken a different approach this year. The Giants were hard up against the new cap and had to make a lot of cuts: Madison Hedgeock, Shaun O’hara, Rich Suebert, Shawn Andrews,and Rocky Bernard are the main ones. And they also have a lot of important offesnive free agents. Steve Smith, Kevin Boss, Bradshaw. Only Bradshaw has yet to be resigned.Additions:Bradshaw, RB (resigned)Ben Patrick, TE (Cardinals)Steve Weatherford, P (Jets)Mathias Kiwanuka (resigned)David Carr, QB (San Fran)David Baas, C (San Fran)The Giants main priority was resigning Ahmad Bradshaw and they were finally able to get that done at a price that was reasonable to them. Only 9 million dollars guaranteed (reportedly). The Giants could use an upgrade for Kevin Boss, but there are none available not named Zach miller, and the Giants don’t feature a tight end enough pay big money for one. Instead they grabbed a pretty good blocking tight end in Ben Patrick from the Cardinals and hope that if theyd on’t get Boss back he can make a good combination tight end with Pass catching Tight End, Travis Beckum.The Giants biggest signing was David Baas (pronounced Boss). The versatile offensive linemen from the San Fran 49ers. Fans of the 49ers didn’t seem too pleased to lose him, but though the Giants might have overpaid for his services. The Giants have the best offensive line coaching in the league and hope they can get even more out of Baas.Mathias Kiwanuka resigning was a blessing for the Giants. Unfortunately for Kiwi he had to get a raw deal because he missed most of last season with a neck injury. If he returns to his early 2010 season form, the Giants will feel comfortable enough to trade Osi Umeinyora, who is demanding a new contract. Kiwanuka’s return, if healthy, gives the Giants great depth at the defensive end position with or without Kiwanuka.Overall Grade: C+They overpaid for a versatile Offensive linemen, but they got Bradshaw and Kiwanuka on their own terms, which is a big win. If they can bring back Kevin Boss cheap the Giants will feel good enough about their roster heading into the season. Though fans wish they would bring in a big time linebacker, that doesn’t seem likely to happen this off-season."
My response after the jump
I feel Jesse here, I really do — but that C+ needs to be a B+. I agree on his reasoning on just about everything but not the final letter grade. Here’s why – It’s not an A simply because they didn’t sign big names like the Eagles did, who always like to make a big splash it seems for entertainment value if nothing else. And the Cowboys and Redskins aren’t done but they belong in the C category based on all they haven’t done thus far. So by comparison alone, the Giants score a solid B in my eyes. B+ for the following reasons:
Ben Patrick. Got a pass catching tight end who’s been to the Superbowl and made a huge TD catch when it mattered most — we need guys like Ben Patrick on the roster to get out of the trend of using TE’s to only block and not get out quickly into routes. This signing along with Travis Beckum waiting in the wings for more opportunity signals to me that the Giants are ready to use more 2 TE sets and get their bookends out into space more than just once in a while to shake things up. I love this signing actually the more I think about it.
Ahmad Bradshaw. PFF ranks him the #4 overall best RB in the league, and the Giants used the free agency moves of every other team in the market to deplete leverage in their resigning of arguably the most important player available from the 2010 Giants roster. At $4.5 mil a year, he’s not breaking the bank for the Giants and they can use money elsewhere as Jesse points out. Here is my outlet on his play though which is most important – Bradshaw’s going to have a monster season with more touches and more catches out of the backfield, more TD’s and less fumbles. Mark my words — he makes a statement this year and approaches vintage Brian Westbrook territory as arguably the most complete RB in the NFC East, possibly the entire conference. He’s got it all right in front of him, barring serious injury he lives up to that kind of potential in 2011.
Everything else is icing on the cake.