Category Archives: Aaron Ross
According to SNY contributor Mike Garafolo, Giants CB Aaron Ross (plantar fasciitis) has a boot on his foot and will miss the remainder of the preseason. Coach Tom Coughlin told reporters that Ross will be in a boot/cast for the next ten days.
Ralph Vacchiano of the NY Daily News reported that there was no ligament tear in Ross’ foot.
No word on a time frame for when Ross might return to action
Tagged New York Giants Blogs |
From SNY contributor Mike Garafolo…
Tagged New York Giants Blogs |
Aaron Ross’ career is like some Greek tragedy. He has worlds of ability and high hopes, but just as he is about to reach his breakthrough point, he is sidetracked by the fates. Let’s hope his condition doesn’t linger like Eli’s did last year, or Michael Strahan’s did a few years back.
Tagged New York Giants Blogs |
NY Giants cornerback, Corey Webster is very good cornerback. In fact, since 2007 he has been one of the more productive corners in the NFC. However, I guess I missed the story written by Matt Mosley regarding a challenge from NY Giants G.M. Jerry Reese toward Giants cornerback, Corey Webster.
“He’s got to be the guy we paid,” said Reese. “He’s got some play-making ability. He’s got to keep it between his ears, keep it right in his head.”
“He’s got all the tools to be a really great corner. But he’s got to get it in his head, ‘I’m a great corner and I can play against anybody.’ When he falls short sometimes, I think he has a mental lapse in his head about something.”
Now I understand this material is now 13 days old but I would like to take this time to support Corey Webster.
Tagged Aaron Ross, Corey Webster, Jerry Reese, Justin Tuck, Kenny Phillips, NFC East, Osi Umenyiora |
Giants GM Jerry Reese said on a radio show yesterday that CB Aaron Ross was the player he was impressed with the most this summer. Ross’s career has been marred by injuries, most notably a nagging hamstring, and he has yet to show Giant fans and the NFL what he’s capable of.
Today, he met with the pool outside of the Indian Quad at U Albany…
On what he is doing differently to prepare and maintain his body:
I’m taking better care of my body. I’m getting a little older, now. In college, I can go kill myself then go right to the house and go to sleep.
Now, I have to get up, get in the tub (he goes in a hot before a workout and a cold tub afterwards) stretch a little bit..like I said, I’m taking better care now.
Have you taken ice baths before this year?
I’ve never done it until this year. I’m still shivering, now.
I know now that if I take care of my body, my body will take care of me.
Tagged New York Giants Blogs |
CB Aaron Ross is finally healthy.
For the past few seasons, Ross has been marginalized by a tricky hamstring, making him sort of a 
forgotten figure in the Giants’ secondary.
The Giants’ 2007 first-round selection has been all over the place the first three days of camp. He is pushing hard to get his old job back – right cornerback – but that spot has been secured by another high draft choice, Terrell Thomas.
Ross has no worries, though. A starter on this defense is just someone who begins games. Everyone will play plenty in this new Perry Fewell-led defense.
Right now, Ross is penciled in as the primary backup for Thomas, but he will serve as the nickel which will place him in position to make some big plays.
He is also in the running to replace Domenik Hixon as the Giants’ punt returner. He has gone from forgotten Giant to key contributor.
This morning, he spoke to reporters…..
Q: How’s your leg feeling?
A: Last year, any sudden move, I was scared my hamstring was going to
go at any moment. This year, I put in the work, I put in the time to
get my hamstring healthy. I’m feeling healthy. Everything’s going
really, really good for me right now. I’m just ready to go.
Q: How are you adjusting to the new defense?
A: I’m loving it. The new defense, it seems like it fits me really
well. I have a chance to get my eyes back to the quarterback and that’s
something I like to do. Make plays on the balls and coach Fewell, he’s a
DB coach at heart. I’m loving every moment of it now.
Q: Are you able to guess or make plays on the ball? You’re able to play a little cat and mouse?
A: Exactly. You can gamble a little bit more in this defense. Last
year’s defense was more press, man-to-man in your face type. There
wasn’t too much gambling you could do. You basically just had to make a
play on the ball. This year, you can sort of read route combinations and
just go and be a DB and gamble.
Q: Do you have to know where the guys behind you are? You can’t gamble that much, can you?
A: If you don’t gamble you’ll never make a play. That’s something
that I think they drafted me for. For being a gambler, making plays on
the ball. That’s what I’m going to keep doing.
Q: From a distraction standpoint there hasn’t really been any
this camp. Everyone’s talking about the Jets a lot. Does that bother
you?
A: No, not at all. We just have to worry about what we’re doing. If
we take care of our business I believe we will be a top notch defense in
this league this year.
Tagged Giants Training Camp, New York Giants |
I think we can all agree that Jerry Reese is a good GM, who has mostly done his part in providing the Giants with the players that the team needs to win. On the surface it would seem that little of last season’s shortcomings were due to Reese’s personnel decisions, and are more attributable to injuries and bad coaching. But I wonder, if I were to put a number to Reese’s draft and offseason moves, would he average out among the better GMs in league history? Mediocre? Or just plain terrible? Over the next four weeks I intend to apply a letter grade and GPA to Reese’s off season moves and draft picks in order to more realistically tag him as a GM.
2007
1) Aaron Ross, DB, Texas – Ross was a lockdown corner for a little while there and contributed steadily until he got debacled by some injuries. Reese could have gotten all hot and bothered and threw away a whole bunch of picks to get Darelle Revis but he showed great restraint in taking Ross: A
2) Steve Smith, WR, USC – Money in the bank baby: A+
3) Jay Alford, DT, Penn State – Alford committed arguably the most spectacular sack in Super Bowl history against Tom Brady and the Pats during Super Bowl 2007. Then he summarily disappeared of the face of the earth. In Reese’s defense, Alford did not have an injury history in college: C+
4) Zak DeOssie, LB/LS, Brown – I don’t want to underestimate the quality of a good long snapper. But draft your long snapper in the 7th round or draft an offensive lineman that can snap: D
5) Kevin Boss, TE, Western Oregon – Boss continues to be a solid contributor, nothing spectacular, but a good pick: B
6) Adam Koets, OL, Oregon State – The only real non-contributor in 2007. We’re still waiting for some good stuff from Koets. If 2010 isn’t his year he doesn’t have a year: C-
7) Micheal Johnson, DB, Arizona – Another disappearing 2007 contributor. At least he was 7th rounder: C
7) Ahmad Bradshaw, RB, Marshall – Bradshaw’s got it all. I don’t know why he actually fell to the 7th round. He had good numbers and Marshall has some descent visibility. At any rate, Bradshaw has to be in the top five change of pace backs in the league and you got him very late in the draft, a Jerry Reese home run: A+
Off-season Moves – Quiet Off-season. It has to be said that Reese ignored the fact that Antonio Pierce’s skills were deteriorating and he was the only starting MLB in the NFL with a beer gut. I think this is the season that the Giants signed Gibril Wilson to a one-year deal instead of a long term contract. In 2008 he got an offer too expensive for the Giants to match: C- (For a lack of foresight)
-Season GPA: 2.6
I’m just saying…
WR Steve Smith wants a raise. And doesn’t he deserve one? Has any Giant ever deserved one more?
Godspeed to AP in his career as a broadcaster for ESPN. Hopefully he shows a little more restraint than Tiki-bear did. And hopefully, he especially shows more restraint than his old club-spelunking days with Plaxico Burress.
Tagged Adam Koets |
Hixon Was The Giants’ Everyman and Will Be Hard To Replace
Not much has been settled in the way of special teams this summer, meaning the Giants have some key decisions to make – and soon.
The loss of WR/KR Domenik Hixon has sent a rippling effect through the Giants’ roster. Hixon was an extremely important part of the Giants’ specials.
Special teams’ coach Tom Quinn told us during mini-camp that Hixon actually had four jobs on the special teams…
“…(Hixon) was a return specialist but he also is a very good cover guy on kickoff and punt. So you really have to replace four starting positions: punt, punt return, kickoff, kickoff return….”
The most difficult of the four tasks is punt returner. The job takes a specific skill set of guts, concentration and talent. Players fitting that description are not easy to find.
Quinn seemed to believe he had some viable candidates on the roster. Apparently, Tom Coughlin and Jerry Reese do not have such faith. They are focusing more on external solutions, it seems.
The dalliance with former Bengal and Titan KR Chris Davis this week has done little to calm the fears of the the team and the fans. Davis was signed but then failed the Giants’ physical, prompting his release.
Quinn had this to say to reporters on June 18th…..
“We have a lot of talented guys. We always put an early emphasis in the OTAs on guys catching punts. We’ll have about eight offensive guys, eight defensive guys and work them all out.”
“Aaron (Ross) has some return experience from college. He’ always wanted to do it and he’s been bugging us to do it and this might be his opportunity. Mario’s (Manningham) another guy. You have Sinorice (Moss), you have Chad Jones…”
“Last year, we had four guys return punts for us, Ahmad Bradshaw, Corey Webster..we had three guys in one game. You have to be prepared to have some depth.”
“(Tim Brown) another guy that you’ll look to. We’ll see if he holds up size-wise. He’s got real good quickness and elusiveness.”
Quinn also pointed out that health and other responsibilities may rule out some players, but a lot has changed since that day.
We now know the team is not high on any of these players returning punts, and Jones is gone indefinitely, if not for good.
Manningham appears to be a good kickoff returner, but he’s not the right body-type for punts. Moss is still an enigma. No one knows what he can do because he’s never stayed healthy.
Bradshaw and Webster are not real options at this point. Bradshaw is still ambling around. He’s got to heal completely and show he’s capable of playing 100% again before any more is asked of him.
Webster is too valuable to risk as a returner, regardless of Quinn’s statement that the best player will get the job, even if they are a starter at another position.
Brown is the smallest player in camp. He can run and make people miss, but ball security is the primary function of the punt returner. Can he take a hit at this level and not cough up the ball…?
That leaves Ross. He is currently the nickel back on the Giants’ defense. He has the attributes to do the job, but his health is always an issue and the team may not want to overtax him.
So, it appears the search will continue.
Tagged Domenik Hixon, New York Giants, New York Giants Blogs, New York Giants News |
Mini-camp may have wrapped up yesterday, but the news continues. Here’s the latest, compliments of an assortment of Giants’ beat writers:
Paul Schwartz, New York Post: The NFL is seriously considering expanding the regular season to 18 games, a plan that Giants players overwhelmingly despise. The main gripe from the players is that a longer regular season will increase injuries. Even if the preseason is reduced from four games to two, players argue that with two preseason games, coaches will need to see more of their starting players, increasing the wear-and-tear on the bodies of athletes already stretched to the limit.
It seems like the switch to an 18-game regular season is inevitable, though the NFL Players Association will certainly have its say. You have to remember that injuries can happen at any time – just ask Domenik Hixon – and this is a move that fans would support. After all, it’s more football for them. Everyone seems to be in favor of the expanded regular-season schedule. Everyone except for the players that is.
Ohm Youngmisuk, ESPN New York: New York Giants safety Antrel Rolle believes the turf at the New Meadowlands Stadium is the reason why wide receiver and returner Domenik Hixon is out for the year. Rolle said he was watching when Hixon crumpled to the new FieldTurf untouched on a punt return and tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee on Tuesday. “I was right there when it happened and I saw it right away,” Rolle told ESPNNewYork.com on Thursday after the Giants’ final practice of veterans’ minicamp. “And I was like, ‘Damn, it don’t look good.’ He didn’t make a cut or anything. It just got caught in the turf.”
All I can say about this one is that whatever the cause of the injury was, it’s a devastating blow to the Giants. Let the competition to replace Hixon begin (see below).
Ralph Vacchiano, Daily News: This isn’t the way Aaron Ross wanted to get it, but it’s definitely the opportunity he’s been seeking for several years. He’s been itching to take his shot at being an NFL punt returner. Now, with Domenik Hixon lost for the season, he’s going to get his chance. “He’s been bugging us to let him do it,” said Giants special teams coordinator Tom Quinn. “This might be his opportunity.” Said Ross: “I hope it’s for real,” and it certainly appears that it is. Two days after the devastating loss of Hixon – the Giants’ best return man who tore his ACL at the new stadium Tuesday afternoon – the 27-year-old Ross appears to be the leading candidate to fill at least one of his shoes.
Hixon returned punts and kicks, was a reliable wide receiver, and played both ways on special teams. There are a lot of shoes to fill. This is going to be a wide-open competition with a handful of players in the mix.
Mike Garafolo, Star-Ledger: For several years, [Rich] Seubert has been involved in more fights at Giants practices than any other player. And for several years — three to be exact — he has been the team’s starting left guard since battling back from a ghastly broken leg in 2003. This year, Seubert, 31, is trying to cling to that starting job with a pair of young players lurking. Rookie fifth-round pick Mitch Petrus looms as the interior lineman of the future, and last year’s second-round pick, William Beatty, impressed the coaches in the spring and is making a push for David Diehl’s left-tackle spot, which would slide Diehl into Seubert’s spot at guard. Not surprisingly, as Gilbride noted, Seubert “is not surrendering that position without a fight” — literally and figuratively.
I’ve said it all along, competition is a good thing, and here’s another battle to pay attention to in training camp. We’ve talked extensively about the defense, running backs, and now special teams, but don’t forget about the importance of the offensive line. It’s good to see guys on this roster not willing to surrender their starting roles.
CB Aaron Ross, who missed the first nine weeks with a left hamstring injury, re-injured himself yesterday and is now listed as day-to-day.
With Corey Webster‘s (knee) status for Monday’s game in Washington day-to-day as well, Ross’ injury puts a severe strain on an already embattled unit.
Terrell Thomas will continue to start at one corner and Kevin Dockery would draw the start opposite him if Ross or Webster cannot go.
This is bad news, obviously, for the Giants. They will now have to resort back to using Aaron Rouse, C.C. Brown and Bruce Johnson in certain coverage situations where they have had issues all year.
Tagged Aaron Ross, Giants News | ← Older postsNewer posts →
