Giants use caution in free agency
The Giants likely won't be able to afford Mario Manningham next season. (undated file photo) Credit: Getty Images
This free-agency period for the Giants likely will be defined not by whom the team brings in but whom it brings back. And whom it doesn't.
Barely a month after the Giants won Super Bowl XLVI, the dismantling of the champion already has begun. They cut running back Brandon Jacobs and have told free-agent tackle Kareem McKenzie that they will not try to re-sign him. It's also clear that they will not be offering Super Bowl hero Mario Manningham the kind of salary he can attract as a possible No. 1 receiver on another team.
Two of the players they thought would be keys to the 2011 defense before they tore their ACLs in the preseason -- cornerback Terrell Thomas and linebacker Jonathan Goff -- still are dangling over the market, which opens Tuesday afternoon.
"The longer you're in the NFL, you realize each year you're not going to be able to keep every single person," Eli Manning said this past week at the debut of a DVD chronicling the championship season and, for more than a few, some players' final season with the Giants.
"Even guys that want to stay, it's just the way it works in this business. We have a close-knit group of guys and guys do want to be here and want to stay, but things happen. You lose some guys, but you're going to gain some guys as well."
It has not been the Giants' motif to make big splashes in free agency. Last year, while the Eagles were assembling the best fantasy football team in the NFC East during an abbreviated free-agency period, the Giants made one player their priority: backup offensive lineman Kevin Boothe. They also brought in center David Baas and held fast to their budget while watching supposedly key performers such as Steve Smith, Barry Cofield and Kevin Boss walk away for more money on other teams. None of them even made the playoffs.
The one year the Giants did make a splash in free agency was 2009, when they added Michael Boley, Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard in a defensive spending spree. Those signings were on the verge of being busts until the most recent playoff run.
General manager Jerry Reese admitted the team did not make any "sexy" moves, but they wound up with the ring. The Big Blue-print is expected to be similar this offseason, even as the division is roiling with excitement over the Redskins' decision to trade up in the draft to grab Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Robert Griffin III in April.
That would give the NFC East three of the most electric quarterbacks in the league . . . plus Eli Manning. Of course, only one team from the division has won a Super Bowl in the last 16 seasons.
The team does have some needs to address. Two of their three tight ends won't be available until at least the middle of the 2012 season (Travis Beckum and Jake Ballard each tore an ACL in the Super Bowl). They have to find a complement to Ahmad Bradshaw in the backfield -- or a replacement, if his foot injuries continue to mount. Losing Manningham will leave a hole in the receiving corps. And with all those mobile quarterbacks now in the division, some more pass-rushers are always on the Giants' menu.
Reese has pointed to the young players already on the roster as possible solutions, and they have hardly seen what their first four draft picks from last spring can do. They'll add some veterans, bring in some reinforcements, pad out the roster and say goodbye to some players who helped them win a fourth Lombardi Trophy.
"With free agency over the years, I've kind of learned if you get caught up in it and wondering and debating and asking about it, it's not going to solve anything," Manning said. "You can just kind of sit and ride it out and see what happens."
That seems to be the Giants' way.
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