Q&A with Giants GM Jerry Reese

The Giants aren't quite at the halfway point of the 16-game season, but the bye offers a convenient way to divide the year into almost-halves. It's been an up-and-down first seven games for the Giants, who are riding high with a share of the best record in the NFC along with the league's top rusher, top touchdown receiver, third-best offense and second-best defense.

What better time to catch up with general manager Jerry Reese, who put this team together? Reese spoke with Newsday this week about keeping the team's momentum going in the second half, preparing for the possibility of no football in 2011 and the development of some rookies and veterans who have helped the team get to where it is.

Q. The Giants have the best record in the NFC. Do you feel you are the best team in the NFC?

A. The record is what it is, but we have a long way to go. I don't know who's best. You find out who's best at the end of the season. To be honest, we're just focusing on playing one game at a time, and Seattle is the next game. It's always tough to go out there and get a win, we're very cognizant of that. We haven't played well out there lately. So all of our focus is on trying to go to Seattle and come back with a win.

Q. For whatever reason, this team always seems to land on 5-2 after seven games. But the last two years, it hasn't worked out so well, with the early playoff exit in 2008 and then last year. Why do you think this year will be different?

A. You're asking about two different things. We were 12-4 (in 2008) and 8-8 (in 2009). We'll take 12-4, we'd take that.

Q. But that was also a year with an early playoff exit.

A. It's hard to win the Super Bowl every year. Not many teams do that. The goal is to get into the tournament and give yourself an opportunity to win. Obviously, you'd like to win. There were some things that happened in that 12-4 season that were a little out of our control, but it is what it is. We gave ourselves an opportunity. At 8-8 last year, we didn't give ourselves an opportunity. We were 5-2 at one point and we didn't play that well down the stretch. The injuries are well-documented, but we didn't finish like we wanted to finish. It'd be great if we can win every year. That's what our goal is, that's what we strive for. You want to give yourself an opportunity to do that. Last year we didn't do that. The year before, we did give ourselves a chance and we came up short. This year, we're at 5-2 again. We're in good position now. But 5-2 doesn't mean the playoffs. We were 5-2 last year. You have to continue to improve. The team is going in a good direction right now, but we have to continue to improve on some of the mistakes that we're still making and play better football.

Q. You have the NFL's leading rusher on your team right now in Ahmad Bradshaw. He's going to be a free agent after this season. So are a number of other players who have been key parts of the last few seasons, like Steve Smith, Kevin Boss, Barry Cofield. Then there are guys like Deon Grant, Dave Tollefson and Chase Blackburn. You can't keep all of them, can you?

A. We evaluate everything after the season. Right now it's really silly to be even talking about that. We're just focusing on the season. We'll cross that bridge after the season. The offseason is the offseason. Right now we're in the thick of the in-season. To talk about that is inappropriate from my view.

Q. The current labor situation complicates that, right?

A. I wouldn't say it's complicating it, but we have contingency plans for either way, whichever way the balls bounce. I'm holding out hope that we're going to play next fall and hopefully we'll be able to retain players.

Q. How do you see the situation you have now where, either through injury or depth- chart issues, the only one of this year's draft picks playing a regular role for the team is the seventh-round punter? Is that frustrating or is that in some ways a good sign because it means the veterans are producing?

A. Well, I think JPP [first-round pick Jason Pierre-Paul] is playing a regular role. I'm shocked that you say it's just one, because JPP plays a lot. He's on special teams, he plays from scrimmage a lot, so I don't know how you could forget about him. But it's a good thing. We'd love for Linval [Joseph] to be in there, a young guy, but our front is playing well and that means we're healthy. You can only give 45 guys a suit and you have a guy of his caliber not getting a suit half the time, that's a good thing for us. Obviously, Chad [Jones] had the car accident, Phillip [Dillard] had the hamstring stuff that set him back. Mitch [Petrus] is on the 53, he's up and he's learning, plays on special teams some. Adrian Tracey is on IR. You'd love to have all of these draft picks come in and contribute in some way, but it's really not reality for that to happen most of the time. Sometimes you can get more than others, but it's really not reality. We're happy where we are with the draft picks and we think they'll develop and it'll be a good class.

Q. Do you think if you hadn't used a draft pick on Matt Dodge that he might not have stuck around through what was a pretty turbulent first five weeks? He punted pretty well this week [in Dallas], but if he had just been an undrafted free agent who came in as a rookie, do you think you would have had as much patience with him if you hadn't invested that draft pick?

A. We've had free agents who turned out to be really good players for us, we've had late draft picks who have been really good players for us. Ahmad Bradshaw is a seventh-round pick. We've been developing players. No matter if you get picked in the first round or you get picked in the seventh round, we know players have to develop. This is not an easy league to come in and play right away. We took Eli with the first pick and he didn't come in and kill it right away, either. All of the guys coming from college to the National Football League face a huge jump. There's some maturation time, there is some developmental time that players have to go through. It's unusual for guys to come in as a rookie and do a Randy Moss on you. They're few and far between. We believe in developing players. One thing Ernie Accorsi taught me is that you have to give guys a chance to fail. If they fail, fine, say you made a mistake and move on. I definitely believe in that.

Q. I guess what I'm asking, though, is you can develop players. Eli didn't have to come in and start right away. But Matt is in that position where you only want to keep one punter on the 53, so that's pretty valuable real estate on the roster.

A. Well, it's not like it's foreign territory. You look at the two teams in the Super Bowl last year, they had rookie punters and kickers on their roster and they did pretty good. It's not like we're the first team to have a rookie punter. That's not unique to us. It happens more than you think, probably.

Q. When you signed Antrel Rolle and Deon Grant this offseason, most people assumed it was as insurance in case Kenny Phillips didn't come back at full strength or had a setback with his knee. Did you envision having all three of them on the field at the same time as much as they have been?

A. I don't know if I envisioned that. We try our best to get the best players on the field as much as possible. I think that's important. You put your best players out there as much as possible. We have a lot of packages that we can put out there and that's been one of our packages that we've used quite a bit. Obviously, there are different games where you use different personnel. Deon and Antrel have come in and done a really good job for us, like we expected them to do. And having Kenny back and knocking the rust off, we expect him to come on and play even better in the second half of the season now that he's got almost half the season under his belt. We expect to see him shine even more. It's a good transaction for us.

Q. We talked about development of players. What had you seen from Jonathan Goff in his first two years with the team that told you he would have the type of season he's having this year, because you didn't go out and get a new middle linebacker?

A. He has the height-weight-speed stuff that you like, and he has the IQ stuff that you like. When we drafted him, we had extensive conversation about how Antonio Pierce is not going to be here forever, so let's try and draft a young linebacker and develop him and in a few years when Antonio is done, let's try to have someone ready to go. That's really what the plan was. When you come in and you don't play a lot and you get thrown in there and you don't produce right away, everybody says you're a bust and you can't do this or you can't do that. That's the way it is in the National Football League. You get labeled quickly, maybe on the good side too soon and sometimes on the bad side too soon. You have to give a guy a chance to see what he can do. He played a little bit last year. He didn't play great, but at least he got in there and got his feet wet some. Now he's played more. Again, it's development. It's hard for guys to come into this league and play right away. He's developing and he's done a good job for us. We expect him to continue to come on and play and get even better.

Q. When you watch Osi on the field, how is he a different player from the one who was benched late last season?

A. I don't think he's a different player. I think he's the same player. I think we, as a unit, didn't play well for a number of reasons. But I don't think he's really different. He led the team in sacks last year, remember that. Even though he wasn't out there as much as he's been out there now, he still led the team in sacks last year.

Q. You called what he was saying during the offseason "offseason chatter." He's made a pretty conscious effort to keep his mouth closed so far this season and not say much. Did you talk to him about that at all or was that all his decision?

A. Osi and I have conversations. Osi's a smart kid. He understands sometimes that less is more, so he's letting his play do the talking. He's having fun out there. You can see in his eyes that he's having fun. I'm happy with what he's doing right now.

Q. Finally, you just got back from a game in Dallas. Do you think you'll be going back to that city at the end of this season?

A. That's our goal. That's definitely what our goal is. But we're not worried about going to Dallas right now. We're worried about going to Seattle. We don't think this is an easy game. People sometimes think there are easy games; people thought Detroit should have been an easy game. That's ludicrous, it really is. If you think there are easy games, ask Baltimore last week. There are no easy games men against men. But that's our goal, to try to get back to Dallas on February 6. But right now we're just worried about going to Seattle to secure a win and coming back in the second half of the season and finishing the season strong. Put ourselves in position to get in the tournament, and then when we get in the tournament, have some momentum and give us a chance to get to February 6 in Dallas. That's what our goal is.