Today, DE Osi Umenyiora was on WFAN with Joe and Evan. Among many other things, Osi’s main point to everyone listening was that if he’s not starting, he’ll quit the game of football.
“I’m not going to be a backup player, I can promise you that,” Umenyiora said on WFAN Wednesday. “I’ll stop playing football before I do that ever again. . . . So for me it’s not something that I’m going to do. If I’m asked to come back there and do that then I’ll just stop playing football.”
To listen to the segment with Joe and Evan, click here..
Also, click here to read NYDailynews.com’s Ralph Vacchiano’s take on the situation. Vacchiano writes that Osi, who is under contract until 2012, is not necessarily on the chop block in the eyes of the Giants front office. At least as of now, the Gmen want to keep (or at least are saying they want to keep) Umenyiora around for the foreseeable future.
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I really have to agree with Osi here. I mean think about it – 2006, 2007, this guy is a 2nd round darling. Making plays every game. Spags leaves and all of a sudden Osi is a liability to the run game and you’re starting Kiwanuka?
And don’t get me wrong, like Kiwanuka, but he is nowhere near the pass rusher that Osi was. I keep lamenting that DC Sheridan, for whatever reason, decided to walk away from a defensive scheme that won the SB for the Giants and took them to the conference next year. And here is another example. When Spags used those different line formations it stopped teams from being able to key in on any one player’s position, which freed Osi up to rush the passer.
I’m just saying, you got plenty of tape from 2007. Figure the Sh*t out and go win games.
The teams that win are the teams that keep THEIR players from THEIR drafts.
Just to get this out from the start I’ve always liked Osi and have always thought highly of him. This is my take on his performance this year. First of he’s coming back from an injury, and granted he may have been a little rusty, however in a league that demands high performance players, this is just not an excuse. When I look back at the super bowl season (SB 42 was just on NFL network 2 days ago) the line was always rotate very nicely. Especially in the Super bowl, by the 4th quarter Spags was rotating out all the guys to keep them fresh. I my opinion that Super bowl year obviously Strahan was the star rusher not Osi. I think Osi is a good rusher however when he had Strahan on the line, it freed up Osi a lot more. Since then Justin Tuck has taken over Strahans role. Not to put down Justin Tuck (my favorite current player) but he’s no Strahan, at least not yet anyway. So now we’re left with two good pass rushers but none of them really get the attention from the opposition like Strahan did. With that being said it just seems as though Osi is not that (getting to the QB no matter what) DE we thought. However as I stated before with injury and other factors I’m willing to stick with him for another season and see if he can pick up where he had left off from the SB year.
However what I really dislike is when Osi stated that he’s just not going to be bench or he’ll quit. Besides that being a childish statement, who does he really think he is? In this league if a player isn’t playing well they should be benched or taken out of the starting position until proven otherwise.
Anway, just to throw another idea out there for some convo, I’ve been pondering the idea of us possibly trading for Julius Peppers. Granted what I’ve said previously still holds true about the current players however it might not be a bad idea for the Giants to take a look at him. I like Kiwi but if we could trade him for Peppers hands down please do so. Trading Osi on the other hand I’d have to think about that.
Lastly some other Dline thoughts are, we didn’t have Jay Alford this year and he’s usually the one that gets overlooked. Jay is young and only going to get better. Rocky Benard was a BUST there’s no question about that. Coffield and Robbins aren’t terrible but we need to start looking towards the future in regards to them. Lastly Canty? I’m just going to put him along the same lines as Osi hoping that it was mainly injury related, if not that would be a huge BUST from our supposed BIG acquisition last year.
These are only the issues with the Dline obviously these weren’t the only problems with the Defense this year but I’ll spare myself on writing a book about that whole mess.
Hamann,
In regards to getting Peppers. The only way he’s moving is through free agency. A trade will not be part of the equation of the Giants were to bring the defensive end in.
Secondly, I do not see any feasible scenario in which the Giants even take a glance at Peppers unless Osi is on his way out. Or…at the very least, two of the four DT’s are out (Robbins, Cofield, Canty, Bernard) and Tuck is groomed into playing the inside of the line like he did in that SB year.
I like Osi too, but unfortunately, I am starting to think that he may be a detriment to this team.
And remember, this isn’t the first time he’s acted out off the football field. Although it was resolved, it was just this past preseason when he mysteriously left training camp for what I believe was two or three days.
Osi is an overrated 1 dimensional player. If the Giants can get some sort of value for him, they have to trade him. Theres no reason to keep a complainer around on a team who has had plenty of success in recent years.