After learning they'll be without defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul for their season opener on Sunday, the New York Giants learned they may also go without wide receiver Victor Cruz.
Cruz was able to start the team's training camp this summer on the active roster following his recovery from a patellar tendon he tore last season at Philadelphia, but it's been a new injury to his calf that has kept him from practice and preseason games over the last several weeks.
Head coach Tom Coughlin said there have been no positive (or negative) changes to Cruz's new condition that will enable him to take the field.
He also reiterated that the remaining concern surrounds his calf only, not his knee.
"The calf is what set him back. Not the knee. For whatever reason these things are very, very hard to get over," Coughlin said, via the New York Daily News.
The healing of this new injury should be the team's first priority, not getting him back onto the field as soon as possible. Eli Manning already has targets in Odell Beckham, Jr., Rueben Randle, and Preston Parker in line for their season opener against the Cowboys on Sunday.
Don't call it a comeback.
Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul had been reported lately to not be as close to returning to the gridiron as was previously believed, and it looks like those reports are coming true.
Head coach Tom Coughlin said on Wednesday that, while Pierre-Paul is in a good place mentally, he is not ready to take the field and has returned to his native Florida, via the New York Daily News.
The Giants, Coughlin said, will "monitor" his progress while he's there.
One presumes the team will have closer access to him than they had following the July 4th weekend, when Pierre-Paul had to have his right index finger amputated after an accident involving an amateur fireworks display. Team officials tried to see him in the hospital, but went back to New York after spending a week without so much as laying an eye on him.
The geographical distance between player and team may also illustrate a financial distance.
Pierre-Paul is yet to put his name to a $14.8 million franchise tender, a number that will still count against the Giants' salary cap despite the man not being present.
As the 53-man rosters have already been submitted, the Giants can't place him on the Non-Football Injury list and activate him after six games as they could have previously.
Giants quarterback Eli Manning noted on Tuesday that there has been "some talking" between his people and the club regarding a new contract extension.
Which is more than can be said for the progress of such talks until this point. And while Manning said he has no certain deadline until which those negotiations can take place, he did make one caveat.
"I'm not a big fan of negotiations going on during the season," he told WFAN. "I'm hoping if this thing is going to get done, it's going to get done very quickly. I would think both sides would want to do it that way and not have these talks continue on."
Apparently, the already rich man is getting picky about when he will be willing to talk to other rich men about making himself richer than he is already.
Manning is entering the final year of his existing contract, and some manner of gibberish has been ongoing between Tom Condon, his agent who wants more money, and Giants co-owner John Mara, who doesn't want to pay too much more money, for most of the offseason.
Nothing has been forthcoming, save words, which are free.
And, despite having apparently said he has no desire to be the NFL's highest paid player, that is precisely what he may become whenever the Giants decide to pay him more.
He'd like that "more" to be in the mail before he throws a gaggle of interceptions to the Cowboys in their regular season opener on Sunday, to not give management any reason to not fork it over.
The theme coming out of the New York Giants' woeful preseason is injuries. Technically speaking, they do still have a secondary, the ill fate of which has garnered most of the attention. But their offensive progress has been lagging behind enough on its own.
Victor Cruz is still nursing a calf injury after he was to triumphantly return from the patellar tendon he tore last season and Rueben Randle has been coping with knee tendinitis.
Their absence may have played a part in what the Giants have failed to do on offense this summer. Over 12 first-team possessions, Eli Manning and Co. have scratched together all of 10 points.
"The time is going to come, it's a long season, just want to make sure we're all healthy, and once we all get there, it's going to be on us to make some plays," Randle said on Friday.
"I think all of us are excited to get on that field with each other and see what we can make happen," he said. "I'm not sure how this week is going to go, but I'm hoping everyone will be able to return and we have all of our weapons out there on the field to come out and try to get a victory."
Randle said the offensive scheme has been coming together over the summer as players come to learn their proper roles in the game plan. There's been a lot of optimism around the team with the possibilities they say it has under second-year coordinator Ben McAdoo.
"I think [we're] a lot more aggressive since everyone understands the offense and the looks that need to check into certain plays," Randle said. "I think that's something that we like to see but we have to start connecting more on some of the plays. The execution will come as long as we continue to get reps but the aggression that we have is far beyond last year and that's something we like to see as receivers.
"We all understand the roles, and I think we're all capable of moving around wherever the coaches want us to be, anyway. We all have a pretty good grasp of the offense. I don't think it'll take that long for us to get a feel for what we have to do and what we have to get done."
Giants head coach Tom Coughlin has looked around his team's practice for too long now and not seen wide receiver Victor Cruz out there with the others.
Cruz sat out practice on Tuesday as the aches and pains related to a calf injury still play themselves out. He said he would be back in the coming days after missing two practices last week, but his absence has worn on his coach.
"Concerned? Yeah," Coughlin said when asked if he was worried about how long it has taken for Cruz to come back from his injury. "Because obviously there were a couple of slotted opportunities. Yeah, yeah I am."
Prior to the calf problem, Cruz had been recovering nicely from the torn patellar tendon he suffered in a Sunday night game last season in Philadelphia. The calf issue is not related to the original knee concern, however, but it is another reason for him to not be involved with the progress of the team.
Coughlin added that Cruz is day-to-day with the calf, but if he fails to show at practice this week, he would sit out the Giants' next exhibition tilt against the Jets.
"I would like to see him get out there and be able to stay out there," Coughlin said. "As soon as that can be done, that's possible, then that's what would happen."
Should Cruz miss what would be the team's third game this summer, Coughlin didn't rule out the possibility of playing him in their fourth, against New England, if need be. Teams usually sit their starters in the preseason finale, but with the time Cruz has been away overall, any action, he feels, is worth getting him back into the rhythm of things.
Judging by their preseason effort thus far, they could use him.
There comes a time when a mole hill actually becomes a mountain, and the New York Giants' defensive secondary may have achieved the feat this entire preseason.
Starting safety Bennett Jackson will miss the 2015 season after suffering what they called a major knee injury in the Giants' 22-12 exhibition win over Jacksonville on Saturday.
Jackson tore his ACL while attempting a tackle on a Jaguars tight end in the closing minutes of that contest, and fellow safety Justin Currie was also lost for the duration after cracking his right ankle and fibula while serving on kickoff duties.
Giants head coach Tom Coughlin, rarely pleased even in the best of times, remained unpleased.
"It's amazing, the way that's going," he said after Saturday's game. "We earmarked it as a problem position for us, the safety position, and we had two guys hurt tonight in that spot. Hopefully, we'll get a couple of guys back to practice that weren't able to play. It's just hard to even comment on."
It is hard to comment on something that really isn't there. They lost three starters in the free agency period and failed to sign Devin McCourty before adding a few little known names to replace them. They drafted Alabama's Landon Collins with their No. 20 overall selection in April's NFL Draft, but he sat out Saturday's game with a knee injury he picked up the week before in Cincinnati.
Safety Mykkele Thompson also went down that night and will miss the year after tearing his Achilles tendon. Nat Berhe (calf) and Cooper Taylor (toe) also missed some practice time.
The silver lining in the Giants' defensive cloud is the good news they got after linebacker Jon Beason went down with a sprained ankle. Beason now says that injury is not serious and won't threaten his plans to start the regular season opener at the Cowboys in three weeks.
"It's minor, nothing too concerning in my book," he said, via the Associated Press. "Hopefully these [other] injuries slow down. They have been coming fast and furious for us the past couple of weeks."
It won't be long before the New York Giants start sending cardboard cut-outs of safeties to defend the pass with the cavalcade of injuries they've suffered in that department. While they're cutting, they may want to re-think their offense, too.
A first-team grouping that through two preseason contests has yet to find the end zone.
Manning took 19 snaps over three series on Saturday against the Jaguars, going 4-of-14 for 46 yards. Five of those attempts went for Odell Beckham, Jr. None of them found him.
"We had some opportunities for some big plays that we just missed," Manning said after the game. "So we've just got to keep working with those guys getting on the same page, getting the right timing."
Manning alluded to the bumps and bruises that have tagged the offensive side of the ball.
"We're dealing with some guys with some injuries and missing some time and missing some practices," he said. "We need all our guys out there so we're getting those quality reps, those quality times.
"I thought we were close on a couple of plays, but obviously we've got to get better. We've got to execute better, I think our communication, being on the same page and everybody doing the right things was pretty good. We've just got to execute the plays better."
The Giants executed enough without Manning and his primary targets to scratch together a 22-12 victory over Jacksonville. Which makes New York's reservists only somewhat better than the Jaguars' reservists. Take from that what you will, but Eli Manning thinks good times still lay ahead once it counts for real.
"It's just about I think for both of us getting back to being in that game situation and things were flying and just keep repping things and getting good looks at it," he said. "That's the point of preseason games, to see where we stand and get some of those things out of the way and see what you need to fix up and there are some things we've got to fix."
There has been a shortage of twists and turns coming out of the negotiations between Eli Manning and the Giants in relation to a contract extension. Largely because such negotiations have been nonexistent.
Now, days after reports surfaced that Manning said he wanted to be the highest paid player in the NFL, the man himself is pushing back.
"No. That's never come out of my mouth," he said. "I've never said that to my agent."
Nor, Manning says, has his agent said any such thing.
"It was never said by him, claiming this was the goal," Manning told the Daily News.
He also said his father, former NFL quarterback Archie Manning, called him after that report surfaced, upset that one of his sons would make their apparent greed and selfishness public.
Manning is headed into the final year of his existing contract and, regardless of what happens (or doesn't happen) with his potential extension, he is due for a windfall next season. Either he will be awarded a long-term deal for likely landmark money, or will put his name to a one-year, $25 million franchise tender.
So even if he has no desire to be the NFL's highest paid player, chances are he may be provided he plays well this season and becomes a free agent in March.
The overpowering stench of desperation is apparently fuming from the New York Giants' defensive secondary this weekend.
It's gotten to the point, according to reports, that the Giants have signed safety Brandon Meriweather to fill the void. He played in 99 games with the Patriots, who drafted him in the first round in 2007. After two Pro Bowl selections, he did a 10-game tour of duty with the Redskins last season.
A disastrous meeting with the Bengals in Cincinnati this week saw two of the Giants' valuable, young safeties escorted off the field prematurely. Mykkele Thompson was placed on injured reserve after doctors found a torn Achilles tendon and fellow rookie Landon Collins, the club's No. 20 overall pick in April, is day-to-day with injuries, as well.
The Giants will get a testy subject in Meriweather, who has twice served NFL suspensions for helmet-to-helmet collisions and hits against defenseless players. He sat two games in 2014 owing to his reputation in that department.
A 31-year-old product of Miami (FL), Meriweather has 424 career tackles and 15 interceptions over eight professional seasons.
All around him and everywhere he looks, Giants quarterback Eli Manning is surrounded by other guys at his position getting landmark extensions for landmark sums.
The Steelers drowned Ben Roethlisberger in sixty million guaranteed dollars. As did the Seahawks with Russell Wilson, and the Panthers for Cam Newton. Miami doused perpetually average signal caller Ryan Tannehill in $45 million guaranteed, and the Chargers on Saturday gave Philip Rivers an early Christmas bonus.
Four years, $83.3 million for Rivers all told, and the $65 million they guaranteed him is the most for a quarterback in the NFL. The number of Super Bowls currently residing in San Diego? Precisely none.
And in the Giants' trophy case? Four. Two of which were put there by the younger Manning. Twice as many as the other Manning, the one who was supposed to win them.
So, of course, the negotiations to extend the leader of their pack during those two campaigns must be on, right? Wrong.
Apparently, it takes less time for the United States to get the Supreme Leader of Iran's signature on paper than it does for the Giants to get Eli Manning's John Hancock on one.
Giants co-owner John Mara said as training camp was getting started that some manner of agreement would be had between the two before too long. Manning will be playing the final year of his current contract and this offseason watched two of his cohorts from the 2004 Draft get upgraded, again.
Mara has intimated that these sorts of things are a kind of ritual. The agent, he says, "asks for the moon" before being talked back down to earth by sensible management. For what price Tom Condon, Manning's man in that room, currently believes the moon is worth no one knows. Because no one has asked.
If the transactions in Pittsburgh and San Diego (and Charlotte?) are any indication, it's worth around $60 million guaranteed.
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| That finger is no more |
Regardless of how many fingers or toes Jason Pierre-Paul has come the beginning of the regular season, the Giants would prefer he were around than not.
And despite the relative lack of contact between the two since that fateful Independence Day when JPP lit that last fuse, there have been some rumblings lately.
Defensive line coach Robert Nunn said on Friday that he and Pierre-Paul have been exchanging text messages after the latter elected to have his right index finger amputated.
"I've spoken to him on the phone and texted him back and forth, mostly about things other than football," Nunn said via The Daily News. "It was a tragic thing that happened, a major accident. Everybody has their beliefs on what happened, what should have happened, and will make of it what they want to. But the guy went through a tough thing. It's a tough situation to be in."
A tough situation JPP put himself into, and then practically made himself a veritable North Korea, refusing to make contact with Giants officials even when they made their way down to Miami to visit him in the hospital.
Whenever he shows for good, all the Giants can hope is that he'll be the same man he was on July 3rd.
Giants quarterback Eli Manning is set to make $17 million this season and count against their salary cap for $19.75 million. After that, it's anybody's guess.
There's yet to be a sighting between anybody from the Giants and anybody representing Manning meeting each other to discuss an extension for the two-time Super Bowl winner.
But Giants co-owner John Mara is confident a deal is forthcoming.
"I think we'll get it done at some point in time," he said, via N.J.com. "We're just going through the usual things that you go through. The agent asks for the moon and we make a reasonable offer. At some point, he'll come to his senses and we'll end up making an agreement. There's nothing unusual about this."
The man asking the Giants for the moon in this case is Tom Condon, who himself has been calm and confident during the proceedings, or lack thereof.
The word around New York had been that negotiations would begin and a deal signed before training camp began. That being Friday, it seems unlikely. It takes more than a day to ask for the moon and be talked into your senses.
Mara noted that "in a perfect world" a deal would be struck by the end of the coming season. But even then, if no agreement exists, he didn't seem terribly worried, adding that he expects Manning to end his career with the franchise.
"We want him to be here and finish his career as a Giant," he said. "And I'm sure he wants the same thing."
With the deafening silence between all parties concerned, however, it's hard to tell what anyone wants at this point.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- With the New York Giants' offense looking to take a major step forward this season under second-year coordinator Ben McAdoo, they'll need every man they can get their hands on to contribute.
Wide receiver Victor Cruz has been persistent that he would do everything in his power to stay off the physically-unable-to-perform list as training camp begins.
That hope has been fulfilled as the Giants file into camp, and Cruz, speaking to the assembled press on Thursday, said he's "93 percent" of the way to returning to the field full-time.
Cruz was carted off the field in Philadelphia last season in a Sunday night contest after he tore his patellar tendon on a failed touchdown grab, and has been rehabbing the affected knee every day since then.
He's expected to be an on-field participant when the Giants suit up for their first workout on Friday, but the team will be extremely cautious as they ease him back onto the roster.
When NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell upheld his four-game suspension of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for his supremely unproven masterminding of the DeflateGate controversy, he inadvertently affected the race to decide the NFC East.
Brady is eligible to come back in Week 5, which, as fate would have, is a rematch with the Colts -- the very club his Pats handled to an inflated result with their allegedly deflated footballs in January's AFC title game.
Should Brady not be granted the injunction he and his counsel will most likely pursue, he won't be under center when the Patriots play a certain game in Arlington, Texas. All the promos CBS were going to air about the quarterback duel between Tony Romo and Tom Brady will have to be airbrushed to include Jimmy Garoppolo.
Which makes the Cowboys a sudden favorite to win that game. And gives the Eagles, Redskins, and Giants an almost certain one-game disadvantage in their effort to win the division.
When Philadelphia visits Foxborough on Dec. 6, the matinee idol will be back where he belongs -- and, one guesses, in a sour mood from all that sitting in his moated mansion with his supermodel wife for a crime he couldn't be convicted of properly.
Brady will also man the Pats when they feast on New York and Washington.
Trouble is, the NFC East is a rather closely contested division, not having been decided by more than two games since 2008. Advantage Cowboys.
On the other hand, if Brady and the union contest his suspension in federal court, he could play the entire season unharmed while the tedious and never-ending legal system plays itself silly. He could play this season and, if on the losing end, could serve his suspension later.
One of the best to anchor the New York Giants' defense in recent years is walking away from the game for good.
Osi Umenyiora will sign a one-day ceremonial contract with the Giants before retiring from pro football as a member of that organization, according to multiple reports.
Umenyiora spent the last two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons on a two-year deal that expired in March, leaving him a free agent.
He tallied 2.5 sacks and 12 tackles in 16 games last season with Atlanta, also recovering a fumble for a touchdown. But 2014 was also his first outing as a pro since his rookie season that he did not record at least six sacks.
Umenyiora was a key part of the Giants' recent run of two Super Bowls in his nine years with the franchise. He also was listed to the Pro Bowl twice, compiling 435 career tackles, 85 sacks, 35 forced fumbles, an interception, and two touchdowns of his own.
@MrJamesParks
Those contract negotiations that were supposed to be ongoing between the New York Giants and their quarterback? Yeah, they're not happening.
That, according to Rand Getlin of NFL Network, who on Friday evening on Twitter reported the absence of any "meaningful, substantive contract talks between Eli Manning and the Giants in some time."
The Giants had hoped to sign Manning to an extension before the training camp period, but the apparent daily silence between the two camps renders that an unlikely occurence. New York reports to camp on July 31.
Manning is heading into the final year on his current deal, and will be paid $15 million for this season. The two-time Super Bowl champion is coming off a banner campaign in 2014, throwing 30 touchdowns on 4,410 yards. In his first year under new offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo, he tossed only 14 interceptions after throwing a career-worst 27 two years ago.
It's almost an impossibility that the Giants would allow Manning to hit the open market as a free agent, especially with their offensive unit prone to take another step forward this season. The team would do itself much good by getting his signature down as early as possible to avoid the inevitable cavalcade of negative attention his absence would bring.
@MrJamesParks
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - With the Giants' secondary in the condition it's in, the team felt it worth their while to trade up seven picks in the second round to take Alabama safety Landon Collins.
That, despite his moniker coming out of school that he was an "in the box" playmaker, that he needed some time to develop his pass coverage skills. That rumor spread like wildfire among teams come draft time, likely the reason he didn't go in the opening round, where Mel Kiper insisted the Eagles would pick him at No. 20.
"It bothers me, because I know I'm not a box safety," Collins told Monday Morning Quarterback. "I can play in the box, but I'm not a box safety. When I started hearing that, I told the teams, 'You can look at the film. I'm not a box safety.'"
Count defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo as someone who believed him.
"I know people were tagging him as that box safety," he said. "I didn't see that. I really didn't. Sometimes people just want to put guys in categories. I don't really want to do that right now."
In the box or out, Collins will likely face Dez Bryant or Jason Witten in Week 1 when the Cowboys and Giants face off, so he'll get an early lesson in humility. He's the biggest name in that secondary right now, and the Giants need something to improve on their 29th ranked defense that doomed their campaign last time out. Collins, in that confidence known only to rookies, says he's the man for the job.
"I'm about to showcase why I'm not a box safety, and why I should have been in the first round," he said. "The Giants know they got the best safety that came out in the draft."
NEW YORK - Giants linebacker Victor Butler has been suspended the first four games of this coming season for a performance-enhancing drugs violation, according to Dan Graziano of ESPN.
To what degree his performance was enhanced remains unknown, as Butler finished last season released twice by the Colts and by the Cardinals the year before after fourteen days.
A largely rotational player out of Oregon State since 2009, Butler has compiled 91 tackles and 11 sacks with the Cowboys in addition to Indy and Arizona. A two-year deal with the Saints failed to produce after he tore his ACL in the 2013 training camp.
He was signed to a futures/reserves contract by the Giants on January 5.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The New York Giants on Monday released center J.D. Walton, a 16 game starter last season, according to the team website.
Walton was drafted 80th overall out of Baylor in the 2010 Draft by the Broncos, but was sidelined with a dislocated ankle two years later. He was claimed off waivers by the Redskins in 2013 before joining New York on March 12 of last year.
Cutting him frees up $3 million of cap room for the Giants, who are seeking an upgrade at the position, and on Monday assigned a $14.8 million franchise tag to defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul.
Walton has started all 52 regular season contests of his career, as well as two postseason appearances.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - After not being able to come to a long-term agreement, the New York Giants on Monday placed the franchise tag on defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul.
The move came after several weeks of rumors to that effect. Pierre-Paul can sign a franchise tender and play next year on a one-year deal for a guaranteed $14.8 million, then either enter free agency or be franchised again for a reported $17.8 million.
The tag is non-exclusive, meaning another club can arrange a deal to sign the five-year man from South Florida, giving the Giants seven days to match such an offer. Should they not, the team signing him must surrender two first-round draft picks as compensation.
The first-round pick from 2010 will account for roughly $15 million against the salary cap next season, after racking up 12.5 sacks and 77 total tackles last season.
After learning they'll be without defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul for their season opener on Sunday, the New York Giants learned they may also go without wide receiver Victor Cruz.
