Giants vow they'll prove doubters wrong

Even after all of the free-agent defections, the release of prominent veterans, the failed attempts to sign new players, and now the injuries, there isn't a shred of doubt in Antrel Rolle's mind that the Giants will be playoff contenders in 2011.

In fact, the safety was shocked at the suggestion the Giants would struggle because of all their preseason misfortune.

"I feel exceptionally good about what we have in this locker room," Rolle told me Monday after practice. "We're going to find our way and make it happen."

Linebacker Michael Boley took it a step further.

"We've got all the key components to make a deep [playoff] run this year," Boley said. "We have a never-quit mentality, we've got the leadership, and we've got the talent. The way we finished the last two years wasn't good, but there's no doubt about what this team can do."

OK, OK. So what else are these guys supposed to say, right? That the Giants are finished even before they start? That the weight of all these injuries -- the most recent being Jonathan Goff's season-ending knee injury during Monday's practice -- will be too much for the Giants to endure? We get it. These guys are competitors, they're less than a week away from the start of the regular season, and they can't wait to get this baby started.

This is what players do. They compete, regardless of the circumstances. They don't make excuses. No explanations. They just play. As it should be.

And they're to be commended for not pointing to the series of unfortunate circumstances that have befallen the Giants in recent weeks. Whether it's the post-lockout release of three offensive linemen, the inability to retain Kevin Boss, Barry Cofield and Steve Smith, the failure to sign Plaxico Burress, or the myriad injuries that already have claimed six defensive players for the season -- six! -- the ones still left standing remain resolute in their belief that this team can still contend.

"Who cares what anybody else says about us?" defensive end Justin Tuck told me. "Really, who cares? It doesn't matter to me what anybody outside this locker room says. It's about the guys inside this locker room, and that's all that really matters."

Tuck espouses the company line that coach Tom Coughlin continually preaches: that regardless of the circumstances, you have to find a way to get the job done. It's what Coughlin has been all about since getting here in 2004, and he has parlayed that message into a Super Bowl championship and four playoff appearances in his seven seasons.

But this perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances can't be underestimated when calculating what really lies ahead for the Giants, regardless of their outward optimism. And maybe somewhere deep down the players are looking around, seeing all the roster problems, and at least confronting the possibility that the regular season might turn out to be just as calamitous as the preseason. Then again, their enthusiasm seems genuine and unbridled.

"The Giants always have something to prove, because everybody every year has doubts about us," Ahmad Bradshaw said. "But we've always tried to prove people wrong. We play our hardest every time we hit the field. And I really believe that if we put it together, we can be unstoppable."

If it turns out that way, then this Giants team will have done incredible work in the face of adversity, the likes of which they haven't seen since the injury-filled final days of Jim Fassel's tenure in 2003. The day Coughlin took over for Fassel, he referred to those injuries as "a cancer" and said "it's something that has to be corrected."

He even suggested there was a psychological correlation to the injuries. "It's a mental thing, I believe, as much as it is anything else."

But injuries aren't a state of mind, they're a physical fact that Coughlin is experiencing more than at any time during his long coaching career. His only hope now is having enough players left to have a chance.