Source: Sean Kerr

There is a lot of buzz around the internet praising the New York Giants for having a great draft. The surprise, for many, is how a player that was so highly ranked and regarded like Prince Amukamara ended up wearing a Big Blue uniform given the fact that the Giants had a second half pick in the first round.

The fact of the matter is that it was virtually impossible for the G-Men to have a bad prospect in the first round, regardless if Prince was available come the 19th selection or not. Of course, that is not to say that the Giants could not have SELECTED poorly. Clearly they did not. What the Giants did was pick the highest ranked player that was available at the 19th selection when their turn came around. He just happened to play a position that the Giants needed reinforcement in. He also happened to be the second smallest athlete, (6′ 0″ 206 lbs) that was selected in the first round, Mark Ingram being the smallest (5′ 9″ 215 lbs).
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Source: Yardbarker.com

Linebackers – the Big Blue Wrecking Crew have been notoriously dominant in this area for nearly three decades. We go back to 1981, when Lawrence Taylor, arguably the best linebacker to ever play the game, joined the New York Giants. LT was the second overall selection of the ’81 draft, and of course, the Giants’ first pick that year.

Taylor’s last year was in 1993, when he passed the torch to his successor, Michael Strahan. #92 was the second round pick of the G-Men in ’93 and defined a new era of Giants football. These two bone crushing backs helped to change the face of football and wreaked havoc on opposing QB’s for 26 consecutive years. In 2007, after earning his first and only Super Bowl ring, Michael Strahan retired, thus ending a long standing tradition in Big Blue history.

Source: Yardbarker.com

While the NY Giants LB position is not in dire straits, they will always be on the prowl for the next LT or Strahan. Will they find what they are looking for in the 2011 class of linebackers at the NFL Draft? Let’s take a closer look at the top 5 candidates.

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On Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 1pm ET, TXN Sports and Big Lead Sports organized a conference call with NFL Analysts, Chris Collinsworth, Howie Long and Boomer Esiason. A select group of reporters were invited to join, myself included, to discuss the upcoming NFL Draft that will take place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City from April 28-30 2011.

The call was also organized to promote TXN, a newly formed website (txnsports.com) that will launch this coming Tuesday. TXN, “The Experts Network” will introduce a new way to interact with analysts such as the panel above and the launch of their site is highly anticipated. It was a round robin type of discussion with no shortage of Q & A from the media and experts alike. Click below for transcription of the key topics that we discussed.
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To which I say, Hoorah! For the New York Giants and their awful special teams coverage, but overall it could hurt the game of football, but worse it could roster sports for a lot of players in the league. Players like the Redskins Brandon Banks who are on a team just to return kickoffs would have a more difficult time making rosters if there were going to be a propensity for kickoffs. It also could cost guys who are wedge busters their jobs in favor of backup offensive and defensive line help, or rotational players.

With the proposed rule change, the league is also conceding that a touchback will now put the team at the 25 yard line instead of the 20 yard line.

There’s an old addage if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Which is clearly something the N.F.L. has never heard, despite how old most of the people who run teams are.

What do you guys think?

I think, clearly this would not be a bad thing for teams like the Giants and Colts who suck on Kickoff returns and coverage (and touchbacks so Tynes is rooting for this, I think), but it could be a bad thing for some other teams and their players (the Chicago Bears is one that comes immediately to mind).

Other Giants news is few and far between right now

Not specifically Giants news, but the league has said that teams may trade for future draft picks “at their own risk” according to profootballtalk. Basically, if a team trades this year’s second for next year’s first (a practice that occurs often), but the lockout continues and there is no draft in 2012, that team will not be rewarded a 2013 draft pick, they will just lose the pick.

Also, Hakeem Nicks is the Giants representative for the Madden Cover Bracket Challenge right now he’s up vs Brian Orakpo.

Did Madden get it right, Should it be Nicks, Eli Manning, Justin Tuck?

taken from http://en.nkfu.com/images/tiki-barber-pictures-1.jpg

One of the interesting developments that’s come out of the lockout is what N.F.L.t eams should do with their employees. One approach, which the Jets have taken is having pay cuts or Furloughs from Profootballtalk

Everyone contracted on the football operations side of the business will take a 25% pay cut.  Everyone else will have mandatory furloughs throughout the offseason.  If no preseason games are missed, the employees will be reimbursed for the money.

Oh goody, the billionaire owners and millionarie palyers will defer payments while they posture, or not really lost any money at all, which let’s be honest they should be able to withstand for awhile, but other employees, who aren’t rich will also be drastically effected.

If the Jets have changed their minds on this, I haven’t seen it, so if someone has an article that says they have decided not to go this route I’d love to know.

The Giants, on the other hand, from Ohm Youngmisuk

The Giants currently have no plans for salary cuts or furloughs for team employees or the coaching staff during a work stoppage.Mara, the team president and CEO, said that he has installed a salary and hiring freeze until further notice.

 It’s unfortuante, that the Giants won’t be hiring, but at least all the employees will still be getting paid. It is true, though, that players like Eli Manning will miss their workout bonuses if this continues (and Eli’s is half a million dollars, not chump change, but he should be ok, you’d have to assume and hope).

Ohm Youngmisuk also believes the Giants are well enough prepared for this lockout  (football operations wise) because they have continuity in their front office, have a pretty complete roster and with the tendered contracts appear willing to head into the season next year with pretty much the same (talented) roster.

Ohm has an interesting quote from Giants G.M. Jerry Reese in regards to the draft:

We’re just looking for good players all the time,” Reese said at the scouting combine. “We’re looking for playmakers. Looking for speed. Looking for tough players, smart people in the draft. Nothing changes in that respect. We’re just looking for players who can add depth, look for some starters.”

Looking for speed? I missed that memo. C.S.I would have a hard time finding speed on this team.

I think he meant to say “we’re looking for a good speed to size ratio”.

Moving away from Ohm, I came across this little doozy from Lawrence Taylor. Saying he would love to have Tiki Barber on his team next year.

“I’d rather have a Tiki Barber than some unknown third-rounder,” said Taylor. “He’s going to be fine. He should go play for another 2-4 years if he thinks he can do it.”

There’s a lot of third round RB prospects I can think of I’d rather have than Tiki Barber at this point. Barber  is not a young man anymore. He’s closer to 40 then is he 30 now, and that’s is a fact.

Closer to what I think most Giants fans feel is Antonio Pierce:

Tiki Barber the person? The leader? The person in that locker room? He’s not going to do anything for your team. (…) Now if that’s the guy you think you’re bringing in, you might want to look in another direction, because from personal experience, he didn’t do anything to help the Giants the last year, especially 2006 when he decided to retire in the middle of season … Can he do it four years later? I don’t think he can”.

Which one are you close to L.T. or Antonio Pierce?