Ralph Vacchiano over at The Blue Screen pointed out that Drew Rosenhaus was in Albany today along with his brother Jason. Both of them were in town to try and wrap up Plaxico Burress‘ new deal. Drew said, “We’re still in discussions with the Giants and there’s nothing to report at this time. I’m sure we’ll spend the night talking with the Giants and into tomorrow. This is the third time we’ve been up here. We’re certainly working as hard as we can to get this done.” Vacchiano pointed out that, “Rosenhaus doesn’t usually swoop into town until it’s time to close a deal.” Then I can also argue that Rosenhaus thought they were close to a new deal three times already since he said has has been to Albany three times. Ralph also wrote that, “The Giants, wary of all the injuries Burress has suffered in the past year, were not willing to approach the Terrell Owens-like salaries their top receiver was demanding, and as a result the talks essentially broke off.” That took place a few weeks ago, but I believe the Giants have a right to be concerned with Plaxico’s injury. I can also point out that Burress wasn’t very productive in his first two seasons as a Giant. He had an outstanding third year on one leg so he gets tons of credit for that. The Giants could also argue that Burress should have 2 out of 3 good years to deserve a raise. After 3 years, how do you ask for a new contract where you didn’t play up to your capabilities for 2 out of 3 years? That doesn’t happen in the real world. Burress wasn’t the only one not living up to their potential prior to 2007 though. The Giants had a bunch of offensive weapons, and only Tiki delivered. As a fan, Plaxico disappointed me a lot in his first two seasons with the Giants so he had to deliver the way he did in 2007 to get some fans in his corner. If he continued to watch balls get intercepted when thrown his way in 2007 then he may have been run out of town with Shockey. I give him all the credit in the world for 2007, but it is only one year in terms of Giants years. Anyway, he may end up getting his deal tomorrow.
The Giants had to go back to work today, unfortunately. Below you will find a bunch of notes and reports assembled by a variety of beat writers. The Giants play their first game on Thursday so make sure you watch it.
The Star-Ledger
Since Plaxico Burress has been unable to practice, he is contributing as an adviser to the Giants’ young receivers. Plax is taking on the mentor role even if the young guys don’t ask for it.
Mike Garafolo assembled an in-depth 8/3 morning practice report worth checking out. Below is a sample of the entire report. There’s much more where that came from so go check out the source.
DEs Justin Tuck (foot) and Osi Umenyiora (hip), WRs Plaxico Burress (ankle), Amani Toomer (leg), Mario Manningham (groin) and David Tyree (knee/PUP), LBs Zak DeOssie (back) and Gerris Wilkinson (knee/PUP), CB Sam Madison (sports hernia), RT Shane Olivea and S Craig Dahl (knee) did not practice.
There we go again: first play of team drills was a bomb. Again from QB Eli Manning to WR Domenik Hixon. Great tackle on the play by CB Aaron Ross. Too bad it was way before the ball got there. That’s a 40-yard pass interference penalty on Ross.
QB Anthony Wright and WR Michael Jennings hooked up for deep in.
WR Craphonso Thorpe got the crowd excited with a spinning, toe-tapping catch on a fade to the left side from Wright. Dockery was in coverage on the play.
Hall ran a nice route to catch a hook from QB Andre’ Woodson in front of Webster. Hall later went deep on Pope, but the ball from Wright was overthrown and out of bounds.
Mike Garafolo assembled an in-depth 8/3 evening practice report also worth checking out. Below is a sample of the entire report. There’s much more where that came from so go check out the source.
WRs Plaxico Burress (ankle), Steve Smith (groin), David Tyree (knee/PUP) and Mario Manninghan (groin), LBs Gerris Wilkinson (knee/PUP) and Danny Clark (sports hernia), CB Sam Madison (sports hernia) and OT Shane Olivea (back) did not practice..
CB Corey Webster would have none of WR Domenik Hixon catching a fade on the left side. He stayed all over Hixon and knocked the ball away. Webster also stayed stride for stride on a go from QB David Carr to WR Sinorice Moss. Webster had such good position it almost looked like he was the intended receiver. Webster knocked it away for a PD.
Hixon ran a perfect comeback to get separation from CB R.W. McQuarters and make a diving catch. McQuarters bounced back with a PD a few plays later when WR Craphonso Thorpe ran the same pattern.
LB Chase Blackburn keeps making plays. I mean, this guy couldn’t get a job after the draft a few years ago and now he’s a steady backup in my mind. Tonight, he stayed with Boss on a post into the end zone and wrestled with him to grab a ball from Wright for an INT.
WR Brandon London made his first nice grab in a few days on a skinny post over CB Kevin Dockery. Not a bad ball at all from Woodson. London then did a great job of accelerating to at least get his hands on a deep incompletion from Manning. The ball was overcooked and I didn’t think London had a prayer of getting there, but he dove and almost made the catch after getting past CB Terrell Thomas.
Plaxico Burress did some light running for the first time since training camp.
Big Blue Blog
Paul Schwartz assembled his own morning practice notes. Below is a sample of his notes, but there are not too many more.
On Manning’s second pass, Ross made another aggressive play, storming in to bat away a pass in the flat. Unfortunately for Ross, the ball was picked out of the air by RB Derrick Ward for a completion.
David Carrcould not have thrown a better pass on a deep toss to Sinorice Moss, who had a step on two rookies, S Kenny Phillips and CB Terrell Thomas. The ball floated down perfectly to Moss … who watched as it slid right through his arms and to the grass. Moss looked up to the sky in bewilderment.
TE Kevin Boss, who has caught virtually everything thus far in camp, could not make the grab on a lunging attempt from Manning over the middle.
Inside the Giants
Tom Rock believes that Sinorice Moss is basically playing for his Giants career in this camp so he’s been under the microscope this first week and a half. That means every drop is written about, and to be fair, there have been a lot of them. Moss had a pretty good practice tonight.
If you want see what the media is saying about our boys in blue while they are at Training Camp up in Albany then take a look below:
Newsday
Tom Rock of Newsday stated that Kevin Boss is making the most of taking Jeremy Shockey’s place. Boss caught just about every pass that came his way during the first week of training camp, and he’s working on his blocking.
The first fight of training camp took place yesterday. It was between Rich Seubert and Danny Clark, but he said that it, “was more a dance while holding on to each other’s face mask than a brawl.”
MIA from practice: S Kenny Phillips did not participate in either practice with a sore hamstring, Plaxico Burress (ankle), Amani Toomer (leg), and Mario Manningham (quadricep).
Players worth Noting: WR Domenik Hixon had another outstanding practice in the morning, though it came at the expense of CB Corey Webster, who covered Hixon most of the session … Undrafted rookie S Nehemiah Warrick had a second straight practice with an interception in the morning, playing with the second unit in place of Phillips.
New York Daily News
Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News says Sinorice Moss is as disappointed as anyone by the way his first two NFL seasons have gone. He suffered a few injuries, but he’s not ready to give up on himself yet. And neither are the Giants.
New York Post
According Paul Schwartz of the New York Post, “Tom Coughlin gave permission for [Dave] Tollefson to go home to be with his wife, Megan, for the birth of the couple’s first child, a son they plan on naming Tucker. Megan is due on Aug. 15, but will be induced to accommodate Dave’s football schedule. A day or two later, Tollefson will return to camp and hopes to continue his development at defensive end.
Ben Reiter, a writer at Sports Illustrated, recently provided a Giants camp rundown at SI.com. In Reiters “Three Observations”, he writes this of the secondary:
I spent several moments observing what I assumed to be the Giants’ linebacking corps huddled up next to the practice field — until I realized the group was actually the team’s secondary. These guys are monsters (only cornerback Sam Madison is under 6 feet), but the most physically impressive of them all is safety Kenny Phillips, the team’s first-round pick out of Miami.
The good news is that everything mentioned about Big Blue is positive. That’s not the norm so enjoy it while it lasts. As mentioned above, Dave Tollefson’s wife is expected to give birth on August 15 so we wish them a healthy child.
Big Blue Interactive (BBI) presented the “BBI Player of the Year” trophy to WR Plaxico Burress for his play during the 2007 NFL regular and post-seasons after the evening practice yesterday. BBI is one of the most popular Giants fansites out there.
Burress was determined to be the award recipient by a BBI fan vote that occurred earlier in the offseason. For more information on the ceremony, see the Daily News’ Giants Blog update Burress Named BBI Giant of the Year. Pictures of the ceremony are available in The Corner Forum.
Personally, I would not have given my top vote to Burress. I would have given it to somebody on defense or to the Steve Spagnuolo, but Plax is not a bad choice at all so we at Die Hard Giants Fan tip our cap to him for winning the award over at BBI.
Glad to see you’re on our side once again. Politics, money and rumors are a big part of football now and relieved to see that’s all past now. First, I would like to thank you for the great season you gave us. To watch you divert defenders and make touchdowns was fun throughout the entire season. Even the ones that called you out were left embarrassed running behind you and checking out the back of your jersey. You did concern us last year when you did not attend practice and rumors started to circle, but you came through for us. Now, the same rumors were going around and the approach you have taken of just agreeing that everything will take care of itself was something not heard from many. This season is very promising, but even though we won the Super Bowl last year we still have a lot to prove.
Speaking to out-of-state friends and distant connections there still seems to be a doubt and that the Giants had a lucky stretch (of course I can argue against that all day but in the end it’s our team that will outperform to show these critics)
I’ll leave off with the thought that you’ll do it again and just like that last Superbowl catch…..make it look easy big guy.
Arash Markazi of SI.com had a Q&A Session with Plaxico Burress on Friday. Here are some of the questions…
SI: First of all, there’s been some confusion about your situation with the Giants. Will you be there for the start of training camp, on the practice field, ready to go?
Burress: Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m just waiting on the Giants and my agent to get this deal done in the next few days or so, and I’ll be ready to get down to camp on time on the 24th.
SI: So you’re saying a deal is imminent and you’ll be on the field for the start of camp?
Burress: Yeah.
SI: You almost didn’t play in the Super Bowl after spraining your MCL during a fall in a hotel shower. In your book, you mention crying four days before the game after being told you likely wouldn’t play.
Burress: Yeah, I was very scared. I didn’t think I was going to be able to play. I remember I didn’t run for a week and a half before that. I didn’t know how it was going to feel on Sunday. They gave me some medicine to numb it up but the medicine wasn’t working too good because I was still hurting. The first time [it hurt] was during the warm-ups before the game. It was painful and frustrating because I wasn’t able to do the things I wanted to do, because I was hurting so bad, but I kept telling myself, “If there’s one game I can play with a lot of pain it has to be this one.” I found it in myself to somehow perform. I was just so frustrated that whole game — I don’t remember talking to anyone because I was in so much pain coming off the field and going to the sideline. I was hurting so bad that I just wanted to play one or two plays. I didn’t really think I would play the whole game.
SI: There’s some stuff in the book that’s going to come back at you during the season, especially the weeks you play the Cowboys. You wrote: “The Cowboys don’t talk a lot of trash. They don’t want to get me riled up. You know, their secondary is not that good anyway. Terrence Newman is a good player and I like Kenny Hamlin. But outside of them, there’s not much.” Any concerns?
Burress: Not at all. I’m a very honest person and when I look in the mirror and be honest with myself it’s easy to tell the truth and tell the things that you see. I didn’t have any problem writing or saying anything that was in the book.
SI: The hardest thing for a champion to do is repeat; especially in the NFL where lately we’ve seen Super Bowl teams not even make it to the playoffs the year after a title. What’s your mindset going into this season?
Burress: I want to win another just as bad. When you get one, you want to do it again. That’s what we play for, and when you put that ring on, it’s a daily reminder of all the hard work you put in to get to that point. I think we’re going to be better than we were last year, and I expect us to win it again.
Training Camp is only days away so it seems like Burress won the battle against the Giants. I expected that all along because the Giants couldn’t have made an example of Plaxico and Shockey at the same time. They wouldn’t have any playmakers left if they did that so I figured that they would’ve given into Burress and gotten rid of Shockey. However, it seems like the Jints caved into both players at this point in time.
About a week ago, Plaxico Burress stopped by the Sirius NFL radio studios in Manhattan which was part of the tour to promote his book. When he was there, he noticed that there was a New England Patriots dynasty recliner inside the control room. So Burress signed the chair, right over the Pats logo. He wrote “Plaxico Burress, #17, XLII CHAMPS!” Way to go Plax. Not quite sure why there is a Patriots chair in Manhattan. Maybe it’s reserved for when Tom Brady comes to town for an interview. Next time, Brady will get to see the signature of the man who caught the winning catch in the Super Bowl. By the way, Ralph Vacchiano of The Blue Screen included a picture of the chair.
Mike Garafolo of The Star-Ledger offered his thoughts on Plaxico’s new book if you haven’t read it yet and want to know what others think about it.
The first article is titled, Ranking the top 25 NFL wide receivers. Only Plaxico Burress of the G-MEN made the list at No. 9. Here is what they had to say about Burress, “What Burress did last season despite struggling through a myriad of injuries is nothing short of remarkable. Blessed with unbelievable skills and physical tools, he is definitely a top-10 receiver when his head is on straight.” It seems about right when you look at the players on the list ahead of him.
The second article is titled, Ranking the top 20 NFL tight ends. Only Jeremy Shockey made the list at No. 5, and they wrote, “Shockey’s greatest weaknesses are his head and his mouth. If he would just stop complaining long enough, he would be recognized for the outstanding receiving threat he is. He is also a better blocker than most think — he just doesn’t like to block.” It seems about right, but I never saw Kellen Winslow of the Browns play. Winslow is hogging the No. 3 spot so I’m not sure if he deserves it or not.
Last, Clifton Brown made his NFC predictions. Brown has the ‘Girls winning the NFC East with a 13-3 record, but he has the Giants with a 13-3 record but making the Playoffs as a Wild Card. Brown made all of his NFC picks in the article, plus who’s beating who in the Playoffs, and he has the Chargers winning the Super Bowl over the Cowboys.
Over at ESPN.com, John Clayton noted that Plaxico Burress‘ new contract will most likely be an extension of one or two years.
The reason Plaxico Burress is optimistic about a new contract before the start of camp because the deal will be good for both sides. The Giants can extend his contract a year or two, potentially making him more committed to the team’s offseason program. In return, Burress can collect a nice signing bonus and more money.
From everything I’ve heard about Plax, it seems like the situation will be resolved by the time training camp begins.
(of course I can argue against that all day but in the end it’s our team that will outperform to show these critics)
