Jul 282011
 

New York Giants Agree to Terms With Center David Baas: According to press reports, the Giants have agreed to terms with unrestricted free agent OC/OG David Baas (San Francisco 49ers).

Giants Agree to Terms with Another Rookie Free Agent: According to press reports, the Giants have agreed to terms with undrafted rookie free agent S Jerrard Tarrant (Georgia Tech).

Coughlin and Burress Can’t Meet Until Friday: The new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) forbids unrestricted free agent WR Plaxico Burress and Head Coach Tom Coughlin meeting until Friday at 6:00PM. ESPN is reporting that Coughlin and Burress will have dinner on Friday night. After that, he is scheduled to meet with the Pittsburgh Steelers. ESPN is also reporting that the Giants are offering Burress a 2-year, $10.5 million contract.

Giants To Release DT Rocky Bernard: According to press reports, the Giants and DT Rocky Bernard were unable to agree on a re-structured contract and Bernard will be released soon. Bernard was scheduled to make $2.95 million in salary in 2011.

Giants Extend Tom Coughlin’s Contract: The Giants announced yesterday that they have extended Head Coach Tom Coughlin’s contract by one season. Coughlin is now under contract through the 2012 season.

“As I was when I was hired in 2004, I am grateful for the opportunity,” said Coughlin. “To be the head coach of the New York Giants is the fulfillment of a dream for somebody who grew up where I grew up and when I grew up. As I have said roughly a thousand times, we’re all on one-year contracts in this business, but the reality is that I am thankful to work for people like the Maras and the Tisches and with people like (General Manager) Jerry Reese and his staff, as well as my coaching staff and our players.”

“As we said after the season, we strongly believe in Tom,” said Giants’ President and CEO John Mara. “We believe in the job he has done, and we believe in his ability to lead our team in the future. Everybody was on the same page in arriving at the extension.”

“Our players respond to and play hard for Tom,” said Giants’ Chairman and Executive Vice President Steve Tisch. “We look forward to being able to continue to benefit from Tom’s energy and drive and work ethic, all of which are second to none.”

“Nobody works harder than Tom at trying to make the team as good as it can be,” said Reese, “and nobody pushes himself and his staff harder than Tom to try to figure out the best way to win.”

Giants Officially Announce New Assistant Special Teams Coach: The Giants yesterday officially confirmed what had been reported in June – they have hired Larry Izzo as their new assistant special teams coach. Izzo replaces Thomas McGaughey, who left the Giants to become the special teams coordinator at LSU.

“This guy is a very intense, very serious, very focused young guy trying to make a transition from being an outstanding three-time Pro Bowler, 14-years-in-the-NFL career into the coaching profession” Coughlin said. “I think our players will relate very well to a guy like this. He has the ability to speak in very straightforward terms and also very colorfully. This game is a struggle. In the long run, many times it is who is tougher, who wants it more, who is willing to pay a greater price. This guy brings all of that stuff to the table.”

“This is not a rah, rah guy,” Coughlin said. “He is just, ‘Okay, we are going to do this, we are going to do it the right way and we are not going to waste time.’ This is an entry level job in the National Football League, special teams assistant coach, in an area where he has demonstrated expertise as a player but now must master all of the techniques and all of the strategy and all of the learning. He is very smart and very eager to do that. I think that this team, at this time right now… we have a veteran coach, we have a guy (Tom Quinn) that has been around long enough to know exactly what I want. Let’s get a breath of fresh air – let’s get somebody that it is new to him. Let it be new to a bunch of others, too, the way he approaches it. All you have to do is be the best you can possibly be every day.  And that is what I think he will bring to the table.”

“You want to surround yourself with good people, smart people, winners, people who know how to pay the price,” Coughlin said. “I think our players will benefit greatly from him.”

“I wanted to stay in football and I wanted to do it at a high level,” Izzo said. “I’m fortunate to be here. I know there are a lot of coaches that would love to be sitting in this chair. I’m excited that I’m here with an organization that has such a great history. It’s just a first-class organization all the way around.”

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to get into the business that I know – what I’ve been doing as a player for 14 years,” said Izzo. “It’s something that was a natural step for me to take. But I’m a rookie all over again as far as the coaching aspect. There’s a lot to this part of the game that is different than the things I experienced as a player. But there are also things I can take from my playing career and hopefully give our guys the best coaching, which they should expect.”

“Special teams is controlled chaos,” said Izzo. “But everybody has a role and a job to do on every play. Watching tape over the years, it’s the guys that consistently win one-on-one that always stood out. There are a handful of guys you can lump into that and say are great special teams players. They all have a similar makeup – tough, fearless and productive. That can be coached. That’s what the kicking game requires, people to play disciplined. You can have some of those qualities, but if you don’t take the coaching, it’s not going to help anybody.”

Article on Halfbacks Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs: Giants Try to Keep Ahmad Bradshaw, Restructure Brandon Jacobs’ Contract by Mike Garafolo of The Star-Ledger

Article on DE Justin Tuck: Giants DE Justin Tuck Lobbies for Plaxico Burress, Osi Umenyiora by Zach Berman of The Star-Ledger

Article on DT Barry Cofield: Giants Didn’t Let Barry Cofield Leave Without a Fight, Agent Says by Mike Garafolo of The Star-Ledger

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Eric Kennedy

Eric Kennedy is Editor-in-Chief of BigBlueInteractive.com, a publication of Big Blue Interactive, LLC. Follow @BigBlueInteract on Twitter.

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