Posts tagged EliManning at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Hear that? It's the pitter-patter of fantasy football season approaching. Fantasy FanHouse is here to get you ready by previewing every team from a fantasy perspective.

Meet The ...
David who slayed Goliath ... and you know how that goes in the world of fantasy football. At least you should. The residue of a strong post-season run by a team almost certainly means several players are going to be overrated the next fantasy season. I'm looking right at you, Thomas Jones. So the question with the Giants is, can you look past the post-season and judge flatly on what you think they'll do in this regular season? Imagine the Giants had lost in the first round at Tampa Bay. Now judge their fantasy players. That should be an accurate rating system. For example, settle down about Eli Manning. Sure, you can believe he's taken a giant (pun unintended, but I'm keeping the word choice) step forward in terms of maturity and taking care of the football. You also should remember that 13 QBs outscored him in fantasy points in '07. His last name doesn't do him any favors either. Hypnotize yourself into believing that Eli Smith lost in the first round to the Bucs. Now do you like him as a top ten QB? Me neither.

The Breakout
Brandon Jacobs ... I already covered him.

Michael Strahan's a Hall of Famer and I don't think anybody begrudges him for choosing to retire after the Giants won the Super Bowl, and then taking a $2 million-a-year job to be an analyst on Fox's "NFL Sunday." Unlike Tiki Barber, who left under less happy-go-lucky circumstances, Strahan is still a fan favorite. Even when talking about his former team for the first time as a member of the media yesterday.

Strahan, a former Giant, had just been asked what he thought of his former teammates, Jeremy Shockey and Plaxico Burress. They are currently boycotting the team's off-season training and demanding contract renegotiations.

"Obviously, he is underpaid for what he does and brings to the team," Strahan said of Burress. "For him, in his defense, it is the right time to do that."

"But to be honest with you, in professional football, there is no loyalty," he added. "There is really no contract."

He then randomly added, "Tom Coughlin forced me out of football and Eli Manning isn't a leader."* Actually, Strahan, who quit talking to the media for a spell last season, has seamlessly made the transition to the other side: "I'd like to put in my first media request for an hour sit-down with Coach Coughlin," he announced. "And tell him not to be late."

Leave it to Tiki Barber to be the voice of reason when it comes to the New York Giants. The former Pro Bowl running back-turned-NBC NFL studio analyst makes pretty much the same argument philosopher Lawrence Taylor made when discussing Jason Taylor's football future: when the games start, all the offseason silliness won't matter.

So far this spring, Jeremy Shockey (random fits of anger), Plaxico Burress (wants a new deal), Shaun O'Hara (wants Burress to not be so selfish about wanting a new deal), Ahmad Bradshaw (currently in the can), and Jared Lorenzen (chubby, unemployed) have all made news for non-football-related reasons. Not to worry, though:

"This is the business of the sport," Barber told The Post. "Once football starts it's [all about] football." ...

"I don't think [Burress' contract demands] matter ... As we saw last year with Michael [Strahan, who skipped training camp], people thought it was going to be a big issue and it turned out not to be. I don't think, come Sundays in the fall, it matters too much to players."

Can't disagree with any of that. And Tiki, who questioned Eli Manning's leadership skillz almost a year ago, even had some nice things to say about the handsomest dude in the Manning family:

"He's always been [a leader] who it didn't matter what people thought of him, it only mattered how he could grow," Barber said. "When I was there you could see him growing. People will still doubt him at some point during the year, but he can know in his mind and his heart, 'I've done it already, so I can do it again.' "

See, we can all get along.

Commence corpulence humor: the Giants have released heavy-set quarterback Jared Lorenzen. This comes as shocking news, not so much because Lorenzen was ever considered anything more than a Eli Manning's backup during his three-year career, but because New York's front office thought him to be less effective at his job than David Carr. Which is another way of a saying Lorenzen now replaces Jesse Palmer as the worst quarterback on the planet. Sad times, indeed.

The Giants still have four quarterbacks heading into training camp -- Manning, Carr, Anthony Wright and rookie Andre Woodson -- and there's a chance the team goes into the season with just two on the active roster. Wright has been a competent backup for most of his career, but I wouldn't be surprised if David Carr gets the nod because, well, I have no idea (because his nickname is mittens, maybe?).

Woodson could end up on the practice squad if he's slow to pick up the offense, and that's not necessarily a bad thing (Ryan Grant got his start there). Or, maybe the coaches will come to their senses, send Carr packing, and go into the season with Wright and Woodson behind Manning.

As for Lorenzen's future, I'd have to say it looks grim. Daunte Culpepper and Byron Leftwich are still looking for work, and I can't imagine any team would prefer the Hefty Lefty to two former first-round picks. That said, I don't think Lorenzen will be demanding a shot at a starting job, so who knows.

Plaxico Burress only had two catches for 27 yards in the Super Bowl, but none was bigger than Eli Manning's last completion of the season -- a 13-touchdown pass to Burress to give the Giants a 17-14 lead with 35 seconds left in the game.

Now, some four months later, Burress is sitting out minicamp, and he might be a no-show for training camp, too. According to CBSSports.com's Clark Judge, Burress, like everybody else, wants a new contract.

Burress signed with the Giants in 2005 after the Steelers chose not to offer him a new deal. At the time, it seemed peculiar that teams weren't falling over themselves to ink a 6-5, 230-pound deep threat, and after several weeks and one false start with the Giants (at one point the team abruptly ended negotiations), Burress was eventually signed to six-year $25 million contract, including $8.25 million in guaranteed loot.

After three seasons in New York, 46 starts, more than 3,000 receiving yards and 29 touchdowns, I'd say Burress has earned a new deal. Of course, the front office may feel differently, especially since he has three years left on his existing contract.

On the upside, the longer Plax stays way, the better it is for Mario Manningham and, if we're to believe Vinny Ditrani, David Tyree. Jeremy Shockey, however, is still angry. About something.

Eli Manning, June 9, 2008: We head into the 2008 season with the goal of getting better, not winning the Super Bowl.

If Peyton the Younger had uttered those (paraphrased) words 12 months ago, he would've been castigated for it by media, blogs, fans, anybody with a passing interest in football and Tiki Barber. Now, though, Manning can actually verbalize a thought without it being offered up as proof that he's waste-of-space, first-round bust.

A lights-out end-of-regular season and an even better postseason performance affords such opportunities, I suppose.

Now, four months out from a Giants championship, Manning's comments make perfect sense:

"We've said we're not going to talk about repeating or doing that, just becoming a better team," he said. "We have a lot of work to do. You look at a lot of things from last year that we did not do well. From an offensive standpoint, there's a lot of things." ...

Manning said the focus for the Giants this season is to find a way to learn from last season, when they turned around their season with a six-game winning streak after losing their first two.

Actually, if Manning had uttered these words a year ago, they would've made sense then, too, but the difference, obviously, is that when he says it now, people only half-pay attention because they're too busy gawking. It's just a shame that Manning will never be the outspoken leader the Giants need. Maybe someday.

The space shuttle Discovery lifted off at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida yesterday, and the astronauts brought some interesting items on board. From NASA's web site:

Discovery's crew will sport a number of athletic items as it embarks on its mission to deliver the Japanese Kibo laboratory's main module.

A yellow jersey from Lance Armstrong's record-setting seven victories at the Tour de France bicycle race, the backup jersey Eli Manning took to the Super Bowl, and the last jersey baseball's Craig Biggio wore in a game have places inside the orbiting locker room.

Here's what I don't get: Eli Manning gave NASA his backup jersey? For the rare opportunity to have his jersey in outer space, he couldn't even give them the real thing?

As Rodney Harrison prepares for his 32nd NFL season, the Patriots safety took time out from biting the heads off small animals to talk to the Boston Globe's Mike Reiss. It's been nearly four months since David Tyree saved Eli Manning's career*, and Harrison is still stupefied at how the play unfolded.

"Not in a million years does he make that catch again," said Harrison. "I don't have any regrets on it. I saw the ball, went up for it, and did my best to grab it out. It goes on his head, so what can you say? "I think you have to understand that certain things happen that you just can't explain."

I think Harrison's right: a thousand do-overs and no way Tyree makes that play again. And, yeah, there are some things you just can't explain (like this, for example).

Harrison is 35 and, unsurprisingly, is as eager as ever to coldcock someone. He's old in football terms, and although he's slowed down in recent seasons, he's adjusted accordingly. Harrison can no longer run with slot receivers, but he still excels near the line of scrimmage in a hybrid safety/linebacker role.

He's scheduled to make $3.7 million in the final year of his contract, and even if his professional football career is nearing its end, Harrison has backup plans: to become an NFL official, presumably the first one who tackles rules violators instead of chucking a flag in their general direction.

* joke

One of the biggest transitions from the college game to the NFL is the complex offensive and defensive schemes. Assimilating enough information to fill a phone book and then being able to recall it the split-second before taking a sack is one of the things that separates young quarterbacks from veterans.

In an effort to accelerate Brodie Croyle's development, new Chiefs offensive coordinator Chan Gailey has simplified the offense, which, theoretically, should allow Croyle to worry less about formations and pass protections, and more about what happens after the snap.

"I really like the offense," Croyle said Thursday after the Chiefs completed their second week of the on-field portion of their offseason program. "I'm very comfortable, surprisingly. The reads are pretty clear right now for us.

"It's a pretty simple offense. It's giving guys the chance to go out and play, not a whole lot of thinking about it, just go out and line up and go."

Midway through Eli Manning's rocky rookie year, the Giants pared down the game plan to a handful of plays and the first-overall pick responded with more consistent, confident performances.

Croyle's entering his third season, but this will be the first time he enters training camp as the starter. He had a chance to win the job last summer, but floundered during training camp. Hopefully, the new streamlined offense will makes things easier. That Gailey plans on emphasizing the run should only help.

We have yet to hear from Jeremy Shockey on his employment plans in the greater New York area for the next few months, but everybody else -- from teammates to coaches to the media to fans (okay, not all of them) -- thinks the team's former first-round pick will be back ready to prove his detractors wrong.

After quarterback Eli Manning announced yesterday that he expects to see Shockey at the team's mandatory minicamp next month, tight ends coach Mike Pope thinks the rift between Shockey and the Giants won't be enough to end the sometimes rocky relationship.

"A good way to look at that is the picture of Phil Simms in the tunnel out here. We all remember that shot," Pope said yesterday in reference to an image of the injured quarterback watching a playoff game during the run to Super Bowl XXV. "And Phil has said how difficult that was for him." ...

"I don't think you can individualize this," Pope said during the team's organized team activities (OTA). "Any player who's a big part of the team and gets out of the roster for a period of time, it's a terrific shock because that's what they do. ... I know he was very, very upset about not being able to finish what we collectively started. I'm sure there was a lot of disappointment."

Pope also denied that Shockey's teammates don't want him around, which Michale Strahan can confirm (until he retires, anyway). Pope also addressed the claims that Manning made great strides only after Shockey went down with the season-ending injury: