Boss sustained a serious concussion in Week 2 vs. the Buffalo Bills. After not being able to pass a concussion test since, the doctors decided they would not clear Boss for the rest of the season. Based off of that, Chief’s head coach Romeo Crennel placed him on the injured reserve, abrubtly ending his season.

The injury is a huge blow to the Chief’s offense, who lead the league in turnovers. Boss was set to be a safety net for Matt Cassel, who has been struggling mightily.

Boss played four seasons with the Giants and was a key contributor to their post season run in the 07-08 season, in which they went on to win the Super Bowl in dramatic fashion. Best wishes go out to Kevin and his family in what could have been his last NFL snap of his career.

They were without their leading receiver. Their starting running back, full back and center all missed the game due to injury. Their 1st pick overall in the 2011 NFL Draft made the trip, but did not play.

Of the six categories (ten positions within each slot), not one…NOT ONE single member of the New York Giants earned themselves a slot in the NFL Weekly leader board. They were shutdown for the entire first half. Just how did Big Blue pull off their biggest upset of the season? We’ve got answers. Join me on this incredibly inspiring fact finding recap.
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Offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride is as stunned as anyone. He called Ballard, who spent most of last season on the Giants practice squad, the team’s biggest surprise on offense.

So that got me thinking. What do the numbers actually look like. If you look below you will see the comparison between the two.

Jake Ballard.

After losing Kevin Boss to the Oakland Raiders anybody officially involved with the Giants kept saying that former third round pick Travis Beckum was going to be the man to step up and fill in for the loss of Boss. But Beckum had an unimpressive and injury-riddled pre-season and was out for the regular season opener. Stepping up in his absence was Ballard.

While 2 catches for 59 yards isn’t the most amazing stat line in the world, Ballard reminded me of a bigger Kevin Boss; a big bodied tight end (he does weigh 275 pounds) who can block and run faster than anybody his size should.

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Beckum rarely lined up near the line, instead taking the majority of his snaps in the slot, which must indicate that the Giants are not comfortable with his blocking. This would be fine, if Beckum proved to be a good receiver, but he has not made an impact there either.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the Giants can win with the roster they currently have. They have always primarily used their tight ends as blockers, and at this point I think Jake Ballard looks like a better blocker than Boss did in 2008. Ballard’s problem is he is an average receiver at best.

While these two could tag team to give the Giants both a receiving and blocking option at tight end, it hurts the Giants chances of deceiving the defense, as it will be easier to predict run or pass based on the players on the field.

With plenty of tight end options currently on the market, why not look into bringing in another option? Currently Donald Lee, Allen Reisner, Jeff Dugan and Desmond Clark are on the open market. Each of these players is both a capable blocker and receiver.

Donald Lee was the Packers primary tight end before they drafted Jermichael Finley, and a back-up with the Eagles last season. Allen Reisner is a rookie who was very impressive with the Vikings. Despite having Kyle Rudolph, Visanthe Shaincoe and Jimmy Kleinsasser the Vikes tried to keep him, but when Xavier Adibi hit waivers, the Vikings moved on. With injuries at linebacker they have very little depth, and could not pass up a talent like Adibi that fits so perfectly into their Cover 2 system. With the aforementioned depth at the position, it was a necessary decision to release the impressive rookie. Dugan has been a great blocker for the Vikings, but, like Reisner, was cut due to the depth at the position. Desmond Clark was a great tight end for the Bears, but has seen his production reduced due to the drafting of Greg Olsen, and the switch to Mike Martz’s offense, which rarely utilizes the tight end as a receiver.

All four of those guys are better than anyone the Giants have on their roster. It seems silly to me to not bring one of them in. It would go a long way to shoring up one of the Giants biggest holes.

The talent is there. I know we lost Steve Smith, Kevin Boss and Barry Cofield in the offseason, but that doesn’t change that fact. (honestly, I think everyone is freaking out WAY too much about this. Aside from Steve Smith I don’t think we lost any player that was above average. And in Steve Smith’s case, we lost a player at a position that we have an abundance of talent)

Focusing on the defense, I think we can all agree that the Giants showed how dominant of a unit they could be at times last season. Remember, for a while they were ranked as the number one unit in terms of total yards allowed, and they finished the season with the most takeaways in the league. So why don’t we remember how dominant they were? Because they choked down the stretch and gave up a billion points in the time it took to blink. (those numbers were only slightly exaggerated)

This season the Giants will have the same defensive system and coordinator for the first time in three years. A system and coordinator that the players like and respect. If they can keep themselves motivated they have a chance of replicating what the Ravens did back when they terrorized Kerry Collins for 60 minutes. (and subsequently made us forget how magnificent he was against the Vikings a game before)

Now I could bullet the reasons why the defense should be dominant, but I think they showed that at times last year. Instead let’s look at the reasons this defense could fail to live up to these lofty expectations.

1. Poor depth in the secondary

This is something that troubled me last season, as I thought they only had three starting caliber corners (Webster, Thomas, and Ross) and a single injury would leave them exposed. Luckily the Giants did not have a single significant injury in the secondary last season. The problem is, with Prince injured the Giants are in the same predicament. Bringing back Deon Grant helps stabilize the safeties, but the corners are once again an injury away from getting torched on a weekly basis.

2. Lack of talent at linebacker

Right now the three starting linebackers are Michael Boley, Jonathan Goff and Mathias Kiwanuka. While Kiwi spent some time at linebacker before, he is more a defensive end than a linebacker. Boley has been with the team for two seasons and has failed to make a big impact. Finally, Goff was average at best in his role, and did so little to impress the coaches last season that his spot hasn’t even been guaranteed.

3. Without Osi and Cofield the defensive line won’t be as dominant

Osi recently elected to have surgery (so he gets a second opinion, is told he is cleared to play. tells everyone he is going to play so he doesn’t let his teammates and coaches down, then has a surgery that will keep him off the field for weeks, and let his teammates and coaches down. I don’t get it. Either say right after the second opinion I’m going to have the surgery, or don’t have the surgery. Don’t claim you are going to be the bigger man, then a few days later act like a child in a pissing match with your parents) and Cofield left in free agency. Those two players were two of the most productive players on the line, how do the Giants replace their production?

Now that we’ve outlined the three biggest problems surrounding the Giants defense why don’t we show why they aren’t a big deal. Let’s start with the easiest one. The Linebackers:

This is another issue I think is talked about way too much. With the way the Giants like to play defense, the linebackers are not impact players. For starters, teams almost always trot out three wide receivers, which means three corners and two linebackers. Keith Bullock was the third linebacker last year and he barely saw the field. Secondly, the Giants prefer to play with three safeties than three linebackers. For those two reasons, it is rare to have more than two linebackers on the field, and there are plenty of formations with just one. But what about the lack of talent? Michael Boley is a better player than people give him credit for. He was hurt his first season, and actually played pretty well last year. Boley, combined with the play of Grant and the safeties, were the reason why the Giants defended the tight end position so well. For Kiwanuka, he looked fantastic in this same role early last season. He had four sacks in the first three games before getting injured. I remember I was so excited about his development last season, and it was a huge blow when he was injured. I am not worried about his play at all. For Goff, he had a solid season. I’ll admit it wasn’t great, but it was leaps and bounds better than what I thought he would do. With a season under his belt I expect him to play even better than he did last year. In short, I am not saying the Giants have amazing linebackers. What I am saying is I don’t see the position as this great weakness that will hinder the Giants potential to be a dominating defense.

Now the second easiest question, the defensive line:

Yes, Cofield and Osi played well last season. No, their contributions won’t be impossible to replace. For one, I don’t see Cofield as being anything special. He is a good player, but good players are replaceable. Linval Joseph and Marvin Austin are more talented than Cofield was. Will they be able to showcase those talents on the field? We’ll see. I strongly believe at least one of them will, and let’s not forget, we still have Chris Canty, who has played well for the Giants. For Osi, he will be back with the team probably before the midpoint of the season. In the meantime, JPP has looked great. (While I say this I am terrified he is going to have some freak injury that costs him the season. It seems to happen every year with a player that is about to breakout. Kenny Phillips, Victor Cruz, Kiwanuka…twice) While it would be ideal to have Osi in the rotation, I don’t think it will destroy the team to be without him for part of the season.

Finally the hardest question, the secondary depth:

This is probably the thing that worries me the most. If there is an injury to Corey Webster or Terrell Thomas, I have no idea how the Giants will fare. I guess we’ll have to watch the rest of the preseason to see if someone emerges, but for now it worries me. Prince should be back at some point this season, so hopefully he can come back and add some much needed depth. (or perhaps his injury appeased the sports gods enough that we don’t need to lose another player to injury?) I am worried about a corner coming in without any training camp and having a screw in his foot, but on the bright side, how well do you need to know the playbook to play man-to-man, and if he is cleared to play hopefully that injured foot isn’t bothering him. Still I can’t help but think of this issue as the biggest problem the Giants face.

Still, looking back on these issues and last year’s performance, I think it is fair to say that if the Giants can stay motivated, they can be a top 5 unit in the NFL. Basically, just like Dan said in his article, the biggest thing keeping the Giants from being a top unit is themselves. So this season will tell us one of two things: the coaching staff is incapable of motivating these players, or the Giants have a bad locker room and need to completely overhaul their roster. Something tells me the coaches will go first.

I actually think Joseph Addai or Ronnie Brown could be nice replacements for Bradshaw and perhaps at better value, but I have no problem if the Giants end up brining back Bradsdhaw.

Jason Lacanforna reports that the Giants are negotiating to keep Kevin Boss

While I think Boss could be upgraded, this one is a no brainer. What’s available in the free agency market besides Boss and Zach Miller (too expensive for the Giants) is limited and what’s on the depth chart is scary. Boss will probably return to the Giants.

What’s dissapointing though is that even after the deparute of Coefield and the release of O’hara, Suebert, Andrews, and Bernard the Giants still might not have a ton of money left for free agent linebackers.

Stephen Nicholas, one player the Giants were thought to be heavily interested in resigned with the Falcons. Poz signed with the Jagaurs, James Anderson signed back with the Panthers, and Stephen Tulloch seems likely to end up in Detroit.

The Free agency linebacker pool is shrinking fast and the Giants have yet to upgrade, perhaps, their weakest position.

Source: Sean Kerr

Memorial Day weekend started early for Giants fans this year and on a very positive note to boot. With weather forecasters predicting rain over the holiday, and on a seemingly overcast night, the left tackle for the New York Giants brought a heaping portion of sunshine for all to enjoy, as well as a few friends.

David Diehl hosted the Big Blue Moon Charity Event on Thursday, May 26, 2011 at The Garden @ Studio Square in Queens, NY. Diehl is 6′ 5″, 319 lbs but with the passion and motivation that he has for his charity, it is safe to say that his heart is twice the size.
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