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The Giants released three veteran players on Monday. One was not surprising (Carlos Emmons), another a bit of a surprise (LaVar Arrington), and the last very unexpected (Luke Petitgout). Let’s startwith Emmons. He never lived up to his reputation mainly because he was injury plagued his entire stay with the Giants.  After three consecutive seasons of injuries it was time to move in another direction. Arrington was surprising mainly because he was just in the second year of his contract and you’d figure the salary cap implications of releasing him could be devastating. But it appears it will only cost the Giants $2.9 million and considering Arrington is rehabbing  an Achilles injury from last season (throw in a bad knee which limited his practice time last training camp) it’s clear the Giants wanted to start fresh at the OLB position.

Petitgout was the biggest eyebrow raiser. The Giants are parting ways with a pretty good left tackle (albeit sometimes injured-bad back) and the guy responsible for watching Eli’s back. So why did they do this? For the last two years they have allowed a low number of sacks while piling up big time rushing yards. Obviously it just wasn’t all Petitigout but he was a part of it. The Giants said these cuts were due to players not being able to stay healthy (ummm, are Strahan and Shockey next..obviously not).  That makes sense with Arrington and Emmons, but Pettigout played injury free in 2004 and 2005, and the injury he suffered half way into 2006 can hardly be considered his fault or a conditioning thing. Also I don’t believe there were any long term effects projected due to that injury.

The Giants will net about $2 million in salary cap from all three moves. So it is not even a salary cap issue. This is Jerry Reese beginning to put his stamp on the team as GM. It also becomes apparent to me that David Diehl will move to left tackle and Rich Seubert will move to guard. I’m okay with that……..Diehl is athletic enough to play out there and Seubert is starter material. It just seems to me giving up a premium position player in Petitgout hurts the depth on a critical unit. Resigning center Shaun O’Hara becomes even more important now or the Giants will be searching for a starting center in addition to depth 2007. 

I saw an interview on NFL Network from the Pro Bowl in Hawaii with Tiki Barber. Tiki talked about Eli taking over next year as one of the team’s leaders, and it would be easier to do with Tiki himself no longer on the roster. He also mentioned how Phil Simms was given a rough ride early in his career and paralleled it to Manning. So far, so good

Then Tiki talked about Coughlin and it was like the 2006 season all over again. He said Coughlin, and I’m paraphrasing, “doesn’t connect with today’s players and has to change his style”. What can we learn for all this? First, Tiki doesn’t like Coughlin’s approach, but we knew that already. Second, despite his feelings, Tiki would have his most productive years and solve his “fumble-itis” under TC, becoming one of the elite players in the entire league. Additionally, the team itself has had success under Coughlin (11-5 in 2005, 6-2 in 2006 until injuries would decimate the team). That tells me  liking your coach isn’t directly correlated to winning. The point I am trying to make is that Tiki Barber more than any player on the roster has been source of the Giants’ dysfunction. Let’s look at the Giants high profile players. Strahan never questions the coach. Plaixco? He’ll whine and slouch but never goes after the staff. Now Shockey talked about being out-coached after the Seattle game, but that was a one time thing and I chalk that up to just being totally frustrated. He would not only have said out-coached and out-played but also “out-something elsed” if he could have thought of it. Shockey would apologize for those comments. All three of those talented players have their faults, but it’s never directed at the head coach.

But Tiki repeatedly would go after Coughlin, and the press would pick up on it and ride with it because of their own dislike of Coughlin’s abrasive style towards them. Even when Tiki wasn’t criticizing, there was the retirement issue or the “I’m not getting any younger/have to win now” mantra. This helped create a media whirlwind that ultimately weighed on the team, and along with injuries, sent the team spiraling downward. With Tiki not around  anymore, I expect things to be a lot more stable in the locker room in 2007. How the Giants are going to makeup Tiki’s productivity as a football player is a subject for another day.

The Giants named former Eagle assistant Mike Spagnuolo defensive coordinator, replacing the fired Tim Lewis.  Spagnuolo coached the LB’s the last two years, and before that was in charge of the Eagles’ secondary.  I’ve always liked the style of the Eagles’ defense, very aggressive and blitz-oriented (note: I never agreed with their philosophy on building a defense, totally ignoring the LB position and loading up on DL’s and DB’s).  Is this a good move? Time will only tell. I just hope they are more imaginative on defense and become more of an attack defense.  Remember last pre-season how everyone was pumped about the defense throwing different “schemes” at opposing offenses, with all our talent up front?  It never happened, even before the injury bug hit.

Very surprising, I am really taken back that Bill Parcells is hanging it up.  I never thought he would go out on such a down note, losing that playoff game to the Seahawks as they did.  But he knows himself better than anyone, and going thru another soap opera type year with the Cowpokes (JJ, TO, etc.) was just going to be too mentally and physically exhausting. I’ll miss him because unlike most coaches today, he was honest and entertaining. Oh those press conferences!!  I don’t even care he coached one of our division rivals. No doubt, he is my favorite coach of all time and commanded the G-Men during, what for me, were the glory years (1983-1990).  The question is have we seen the last of him??