Match made in heaven for Rolle, Giants

Kenny Phillips spent most of this offseason rehabbing from knee surgery. But he also found time to play a little matchmaker.

In late January or early February, Phillips had a conversation with Giants safeties coach David Merritt in which Phillips said he had heard about a player who wanted to come to New York.

"I said 'Who are you talking about?' " Merritt recalled earlier this week. "He said 'Antrel Rolle.' "

Of course there was a problem. Rolle was under contract with the Cardinals for the 2010 season. That made Merritt skeptical. He figured Phillips was just chirping without any real substance behind his words, passing along some chatter between two old University of Miami products.

"Next thing you know, a couple of weeks go by, and well, here's Rolle," Merritt said. "He was without a doubt the number one guy that I wanted."

The Giants had to act quickly to get him. He was released by the Cardinals just prior to the free agency period - he was owed $12 million for 2010 so it wasn't a complete surprise when he was let go - and signed by the Giants a day later. Maybe it was Phillips' heads-up that gave the Giants the ability to jump on Rolle quickly. More likely, it was the pitiful play of their safeties in 2009 that made them open to any and all improvements at the position.

With Phillips sidelined with his knee surgery after Week 2 and returning starter Michael Johnson having an off year, the Giants had to rely on a hodgepodge of veterans like C.C. Brown, Aaron Rouse and even converted cornerback Aaron Ross to fill holes at safety. But whoever they put back there, in whatever combination, just never seemed to click.

"When you're seeing balls going up over your head, I wasn't used to that and neither was Coach Coughlin," Merritt said. "That was really discouraging. Every time the ball would leave the quarterback's hand you were hoping that something good was going to happen and of course not much good came out of some of those balls that were flying over our heads. It was rough, it really was. It was a lot of sleepless nights."

Merritt pointed to a lack of communication and things as simple as players not vocalizing calls to both sides of the field. He also said there was a lot of hesitancy.

"Sometimes the guys became gun shy," he said. "They didn't want to make the wrong call, so they didn't make any call."

That's changed this year. The Giants have Rolle and veteran Deon Grant - another free agent acquisition who is keeping Phillips' starting job warm - as their starting safeties during OTAs and they'll be there for minicamp next week. Together they bring plenty of experience and savvy to the position. They make calls. They make dummy calls. They disguise coverages. They make plays.

And after a year in which hardly any of the above took place, it's more than refreshing for Merritt to watch his new batch of safeties at work.

"I tell you what, it's like having Christmas early," he said. "What those two young men have brought to the team already, the leadership, the ability to vocalize the things that I want to get done out there on the field, they're basically an extension of (defensive coordinator Perry) Fewell and myself."

GIANTS WILL BE IN THE ZONE. While Fewell has roots in a Tampa-2 system, he apparently isn't bringing that with him to the Giants. "I would label Coach Fewell as a multiple front, multiple-multiple coverage defensive coordinator," Merritt said. "I mean, he's the furthest from a Tampa-2 guy." Cornerbacks coach Pete Giunta did say that the Giants would likely play more zone this year than they have in the past when they were known as a press-coverage team. "We're going to mix our coverage, maybe a little more zone than we've had in the past, but it will be a good mix of coverages," Giunta said of Fewell's philosophy. The zones will allow the Giants defenders to have "more eyes on the football," Giunta said, noting that it will help the run defense too because corners won't have their backs to the play in coverage. "He was around Dom Capers, he was around Lovie Smith, so some different zone principles," Giunta said. "There may be more completions, but we'll have guys flying in for tackles after the catch."