Category Archives: Washington Redskins
Yesterday, I highlighted three Redskins; today we look at the Giants.
1. Jason Pierre-Paul
Without question, this is the biggest game of Pierre-Paul’s young career. Even before Justin Tuck was listed as questionable, Pierre-Paul was to start at defensive end for the injured Osi Umenyiora. Pierre-Paul started in Osi’s place all pre-season long, and looked great in the process. But now there is a very real possibility that Tuck will miss the season opener, and Pierre-Paul will be the last of the Giants’ three dynamic pass rushers remaining. There are a lot of expectations for the kid from South Florida, and the weight on his shoulders keeps getting heavier. The legend begins this Sunday.
2. Eli Manning
“Oh yeah? The quarterback is a player to watch? Great analysis, Rich!” Okay, this may be obvious, but Eli Manning’s performance is a huge key for the Giants this week. He looked downright awful this pre-season, and there have been rumblings that he did not do as much preparation this offseason compared to some other big name quarterbacks. Whatever the reason, his timing was off; it looked like he was playing with an entirely new receiving core. Manning needs to get on the same page as guys like Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham, because while I expect the running game to have a big day, they can’t do it all by themselves.
3. Will Beatty
Beatty will be making his first of what the Giants hope is sixteen starts at left tackle this (regular) season. Beatty was drafted to become the heir apparent to David Diehl, and although there have been ups and downs along the way, that’s exactly where he is now. He has the physical talent to be a solid left tackle, but this weekend will be a tough first test for him, as he will have to deal with the immensely talented Brian Orakpo. With Eli Manning soon to become the NFL’s current Iron Man QB, allowing Orakpo to get a few shots at Manning is an easy way for Beatty to get in the dog house. The Giants cannot afford for Beatty to have too many growing pains this week and this season.
Tagged Eli Manning, Jason Pierre-Paul, Washington Redskins, Will Beatty |
When the Giants hit the field at FedEx this Sunday, they will do so with a depleted roster, but they will also have history on their side.
The Blue has won six straight vs Washington and nine of the last ten, but with the faces changing on both sidelines so dramatically the past nine months one wonders if this one-sided rivalry will continue along this path.
The Giants have 18 new players on their roster, including ten rookies, and if Justin Tuck sits out, the Giants will be starting only 10 of the 22 players they started in last season’s opener.
The Redskins are in transition also. They will start Rex Grossman at QB. Grossman has not started an opener since he was with Chicago in 2007. The Skins also have an influx of new blood most notably ex-Giant DT Barry Cofield and former Cardinal RB Tim Hightower. Washington may start more than a dozen new players on Sunday.
The one constant for the Giants is QB Eli Manning, who will start his 111th consecutive game -the longest-running streak in the league at this point. Eli has several new pieces on offense: C David Baas, TE Jake Ballard and FB Henry Hynoski are new starters.
Bass will be flanked by guards Chris Snee and David Diehl, who is shifting from LT. That spot is being filled by Will Beatty. Kareem McKenzie, who started all 16 games last year, is back at RT.
Hakeem Nicks and Mario Maningham are the wideouts with Domenik Hixon and Victor Cruz filling the slot.
In the backfield, Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw will be spelled by Danny Ware and explosive rookie Da’Rel Scott.
On defense, the Giants are missing DE Osi Umenyiora (knee) and rookie CB Prince Amukamara for the start of the season. CB Terrell Thomas and MLB Jon Goff will both miss the season with knee injuries.
With Cofield gone and rookie Marvin Austin (torn pec) also out for the season, second-year DT Linval Joseph will rotate with veterans Rocky Bernard and Jimmy Kennedy on the interior of the line. Jason Pierre-Paul starts for Osi; Aaron Ross will assume Thomas’ spot and rookie Greg Jones will attempt to fill the void left by Goff’s injury.
Michael Boley returns as the WILL LB and Mathias Kiwanuka starts the year at SAM. Corey Webster is back at CB and Pro Bowler Antrel Rolle will be joined by Kenny Phillips at the safety position.
The Giants still have enough to compete, folks. Just take a look around the league and you’ll see that every team has issues….
Tagged New York Giants, Washington Redskins |
Three Redskins players who will have an impact on Sunday’s season opener:
1. Tim Hightower
Mike Shannahan loves to establish the run, and Hightower has been the Redskins’ most effective player this pre-season. He is by no means an elite player, but he has shown flashes of starter-caliber talent in the past, and on the current Redskins roster, that is enough to set oneself apart. Especially with Jonathan Goff out and rookie Greg Jones starting at middle linebacker, stopping Hightower will be key for the defense.
2. Barry Cofield
The Redskins made a splash by signing a talented defensive tackle to a major contract this offseason. Deja vu? Cofield will be expected to anchor the Redskins’ defensive line, something Albert Haynesworth either could not or had no interest in doing. Cofield is known for his run-stopping prowess, and you can be sure the Giants are going to try and pound the rock against a Redskins team they gashed on the ground last season, so Washington needs a big game out of Cofield. There’s no question that he will be amped to face his former team.
3. Reed Doughty
With Laron Landry almost certain to miss Sunday’s contest due to a slow-healing hamstring, Doughty is likely to get the start. The 28 year old from the small school of Northern Colorado University is actually a very solid backup and a tackling machine, having recorded over 90 total tackles each of the past two seasons. Still, he is the backup when Landry is healthy for a reason; he’s just not as athletic and doesn’t have Landry’s playmaking ability. How well Doughty replicates Landry’s performances will have a huge impact on the Redskins’ attempts to stop both the Giants’ ground and air attack.
Tagged Barry Cofield, laron landry, reed doughty, tim hightower, Washington Redskins |
SNY LoudMouth Adam Schein is also a contributor at FOXSports.com. He likes the Giants this week vs Washington….
“If it wasn’t for bad luck, the Giants would have none at all. But have no fear, Giants fans. Washington is starting Rex Grossman at quarterback. Finally, the break the Giants needed.”
Tagged New York Giants News, Washington Redskins |
DT Barry Cofield was drafted by the Giants in the fourth round of the 2006 NFL Draft
out of Northwestern. He came to the team with a lot of promise and, for the most part, delivered.
In his five years with the Giants, Cofield amassed 210 tackles and 10.5 sacks in 79 games for the Blue. He was a fan favorite, but the Giants decided he was not worth keeping…or they had no shot at keeping him. In Cofield’s final two years as a Giant, the team spent their second-round draft choices on replacements for him.
This summer, after waiting an extra year for free agency to arrive due to the lockout, Cofield was not seriously courted by the Giants, as expected. When the hated Washington Redskins threw a suitcase of money on his lawn, he had no choice but to defect.
“Washington gave me a great opportunity and showed me they really wanted me,” Cofield told Ross Leonhart of Redskins.com last weekend. “If you work hard and do all the right things, you want to be rewarded. That’s what the Redskins did for me.”
Tagged Barry Cofield, New York Giants, Washington Redskins |
Rex Grossman, who may or may not be Washington’s starting quarterback when the seasons kicks off for real next month, says the Redskins will win the NFC East.
“We’re fine being the sleepers right now,” Grossman said Tuesday in an interview with Washington’s Comcast SportsNet. ”We’re just waiting in the wings, ready to take over the NFC East.
“Nobody’s talking about us. That’s right where we want to be. You look at us from top to bottom out here, there’s a bunch of great players. And we don’t need people saying we’re the best right now. But when it’s all said and done, I really feel like this team’s gonna win the East.”
Grossman was the quarterback of the Bears when they went to the Super Bowl in the 2006 season. He thinks this Redskins team is better.
“This offense from top to bottom is better than that offense I had in Chicago,” Grossman said in the interview. “The defense is gonna make a ton of strides this year. I know they are. It’s gonna be fun. I know we’re gonna be a good team.”
The Redskins haven’t won the NFC East since 1999. In the NFL, we’ve seen teams go from last to first, so nothing is impossible. And with Mike Shanahan at the helm, you have to think that Washington is going to become a legitimate contender at some point. But it’s hard to imagine that following a 6-10 season, and with questions at quarterback, that this would be their year. I’m sure the Giants, Eagles, and Cowboys will have plenty to say as well.
Perhaps Rex Grossman should set his sights on winning the QB job first.
Tagged New York Giants, NFC East, Rex Grossman, Washington Redskins |
Plaxico Burress isn’t coming. Steve Smith may be coming, but in what shape is he in after undergoing off- season knee surgery?
The Giants are in need of a player to step up to snatch the third WR spot. Several names are in the hopper: rookie Jerrel Jernigan, Victor Cruz, Domenik Hixon et al.
One name that people have forgotten is Devin Thomas, the former Redskins’ washout. The Giants picked Thomas up towards the end of last season when they lost Hakeem Nicks and Steve Smith to injury.
Thomas stepped out of the shadows to speak to the media yesterday.. (..more)
Tagged New York Giants |
Giants GM Jerry Reese
The NFC East is perhaps the most competitive division in the NFL. Three of its four teams are on Forbes’ Top Ten Most Valuable Sports Franchises list. All four play in massive new stadiums and have a collective fan base that can only be quantified in the millions.
The Giants, Eagles and Redskins all played their first games well before World War II and the Cowboys have been labeled “America’s Team”, winning five Super Bowls.
The new CBA favors these teams greatly, even in the Age of Parity because of their deep fans bases and their rivalries with each other. Fans will follow them through hell and high water.
The only device that keeps these four clubs from dominating year after year is the NFL’s salary cap, supposedly set at $120 million this year. This point in time shows the Cowboys and Giants well over it (thanks to the cap-less year in 2010) and the Eagles and Redskins way under it (courtesy of some expiring contracts combined with rosters containing many young, cheap players).
The Eagles are the defending division champions and the Redskins are under the watchful eye of Bruce Allen now. Each team will be active in free agency. The Giants and Cowboys, on the other hand, will struggle in both getting under the cap and attempting to retain their own free agents.
This data comes from a website called NFLsFuture.com:
Tagged New York Giants Blogs |
This should be the last lockout version of GFB’s NFC East report.
We’ll start in Philly where the Kevin Kolb trade rumors took no time off during the lockout. Arizona seems to be the likely landing spot for Kolb, with the Cardinals reportedly set to offer cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, though as Gary Myers reports, it may take more to land Kolb.
Let’s move to Big D where the Cowboys will be welcoming back a familiar name during training camp. Leon Lett will assist with the defensive line as part of the NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship Program. Lett won three Super Bowl titles in his 10 years in Dallas.
Finally, we head to Washington where Sports Illustrated’s Don Banks says he expects the Redskins to be big spenders when free agency begins. We’re talking Nnamdi Asomugha? Santonio Holmes? Barry Cofield?
Tagged Arizona Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys, Kevin Kolb, Leon Lett, NFC East, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins |
Here’s the latest news from around the NFC East:
DALLAS COWBOYS: Hall of Fame electee Deion Sanders thinks Dez Bryant needs to hire a ‘no man.” Sanders used to mentor Bryant, but isn’t happy with the behavior of the young wide receiver: “I think the Dallas Cowboys are more concerned than I am. I’m not losing any sleep by any means. It’s hard to talk to a person when they have millions, man, because there is so much noise in their life. Everybody around them is employed, and they have ‘yes men.’ You gotta start hiring a ‘no man.’ Somebody who is going to tell you no and somebody who is going to tell you the truth, and a lot of these guys don’t, and when it comes to him with a lot of things, I had to cut my umbilical cord with him because a lot of things people do not know about.” NFL.com
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: The Eagles have held training camp at Lehigh University since 1995. Like the Giants, they may have to abandon those campus plans this year, and instead hold camp at the NovaCare Training Complex: Don Smolenski, the Eagles’ chief operating officer, told The Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday that a “drop-dead date” had not been determined about holding camp at Lehigh. Lehigh Dean of Athletics Joe Sterrett told The Express-Times in May the Eagles would need a minimum of a week to relocate to Bethlehem and that the university would probably need more time than that to make the necessary arrangements to the Goodman Stadium complex. Sterrett also indicated that the Eagles couldn’t schedule their camp much deeper into August because the facilities would be needed for Lehigh students, who begin fall semester classes Aug. 29 and start returning to campus during the third week of the month. The Express-Times
WASHINGTON REDSKINS: The Redskins are installing solar panels at FedEx Field in time for the start of the 2011 season: The Washington Redskins are installing 8,000 solar panels in a FedEx Field parking lot that will generate enough electricity to supply a portion of the stadium’s power on game days and all of its electricity the rest of the week, according to people with knowledge of the organization’s plans. Construction is underway in the team’s Platinum A1 parking lot to set up panels that will generate two megawatts of electricity — enough to decrease FedEx Field’s annual energy use by 15 percent, according to people within the organization. The panels also will be used to create an 850-space covered carport that will feature 10 charging stations for electric vehicles. Washington Post
Tagged Dallas Cowboys, NFC East, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins | ← Older postsNewer posts →
