Gilbride discusses the decision to play Koets (if it comes down to it, which it looks like it probably will, but that's not official yet)

Sorry for the long parenthetical headline. Just covering bases.

Kevin Gilbride and the Giants have decided that if  Shaun O'Hara is unable to play on Sunday, Adam Koets will get the start at center.

He shared the thought process behind that decision today.

"A lot of things enter into that and we could stand here for an hour and a half, because that’s about how long the discussion goes on, hours to decide what’s the best way to do it," the offensive coordinator said. "I think we felt that Adam has been playing well enough that he deserved the chance to start because by doing that, we’ve made less overall changes. It’s one person, so rather than changing three, you’re changing one."

That other, more complicated scenario, would have had guard Rich Seubert moving to center and either Shawn Andrews stepping in at guard or, more likely since Adnrews is essentailly a tackle for the Giants now, David Diehl sliding down to left guard and Andrews playing left tackle.

Koets makes that moot.

"If we didn’t think he could do the job or he hadn’t been playing well when we’ve asked him to do it, you couldn’t make that decision, but he’s earned it," Gilbride said. "There’s no question he’s earned the chance to get an opportunity and we’re optimistic that he’s going to play well and confident that he will. We’ll see."

Gilbride has been watching Koets since he was drafted in 2007.

"He started at tackle and he’s moved inside. We just felt that he was probably better suited to be an inside player and last year he started to really come on and we were really optimistic about it. 'Hey, here’s a guy who could be an interchangeable part in that guard/center mix.'

"And then he got himself hurt in that New England (preseason) game and he tried to play through that. He actually showed great physical courage doing it, but the problem was that it was a high ankle sprain and it set him back for about the next 8-10 weeks and all the sudden Kevin Boothe became the guy and he kind of got left on the sidelines.

"This year, you say, oh, he’s been hurt, he hasn’t really done it yet, and then sure enough he starts coming around. And then he got himself injured in the New England game again but fortunately it wasn’t the kind of injury that took him out. So he’s been in the mix really since the pads went on and it looked like, 'Can he do it? Yeah. He looks like the same guy that we thought he was four years ago.'

"You hate to see any of your starters (out). And of course Shaun has been such a terrific player, you’re not just losing a player, you’re losing a very good player and a guy that’s been out there, that’s experienced everything.  So you hate to see that happen. But we do have confidence that Adam will play well."