Jerry Reese Talks Giants: General Manager Jerry Reese was on Sirius Radio yesterday. He made the following comments:
On whether or not the Giants are done with free agency: “There’s still some things to do in free agency for us, I think. We’ve just got to kind of slow-play it a little bit and see who’s out there and what’s available for us and what our needs are as we continue the off-season process, and kind of look down the road and see what the draft’s going to bring for us, see what’s available there.”
On the middle linebacker position: “If we had to play tomorrow the mike backer…I’m not sure (who it would be) because we have some interesting candidates for that job. We have some young players that we think can step in and do the job. Obviously Herzlich Is a guy we like. We like Greg Jones. There are two young kids that played a lot for us last year until Mark got hurt. (Michael) Boley. We have linebackers. We do. Competition at every position is what’s important for us.”
On losing WR Mario Manningham: “The salary cap rules the world. If you have a lot of good players you just can’t retain them all. That’s just the way it is. That’s reality. Again, we feel like we have some players on the roster that can come in and step up. You know, everybody gets paid. We think we have a good core of players and we have some players still waiting to step out of the shadows and make some plays for us.”
On who might replace Manningham: “We expect those guys to step out of the shadows. Ramses Barden’s been hurt a little bit ever since he’s been in the league. We hope he can stay healthy and prove to us he was worth — I think we picked him with a third-round pick. We expect those guys to play. And (Jerrel) Jernigan, the same thing. He’s a young guy trying to learn the offense. He should have a better grasp of what’s going on to be a slot type. Ramses has got that length that you like. So we have some targets we need to go to.”
On CB Terrell Thomas: “Well Terrell, he’s very much ahead of schedule. We feel good about him. Our doctors feel good about his progression so far. And he’s a good football player. He’s going to make us better. We feel like you’ve got to have three corners because you play these spread offenses in the National Football League. If you only have a couple of corers…we got away with it a little bit trying to put Antrel Rolle down in the box last year, but it’s tough for a safety to get down and play that third receiver, because those guys are good as well. With three receivers it’s like three starters for those guys.”
On the offensive line: “We try to develop players. We believe in developing players. We hope (James Brewer will) make a step forward. David Diehl is still available for us. Will Beatty is still available for us. And our inside guys are still available. So I think we’ll have a good core of our offensive line coming back. But we do expect James Brewer to step up and challenge for some spots.”
On DT Marvin Austin: “We’re worried about him a little bit. He hasn’t played in such a long time now. He tore his pec. He’s been out for such a long time…This offseason is going to be big for him to get going again and get acclimated to playing football, if nothing else, and playing at this level, which is going to be shocking to him because he hasn’t played in such a long time. To go out in there and tussle with those big guys, it’s going to be tougher than you think it is. But he’s a talented kid. We hope he can get in there with Linval Joseph and Chris Canty and give us a good rotation inside.”
Giants Get 4th Round Compensatory Pick: The Giants were awarded a 4th round compensatory draft pick by the NFL for their free agent losses last off-season. The pick is the 131st overall.
In 2011, the Giants signed free agents OC David Baas and P Steve Weatherford, but lost WR Steve Smith, TE Kevin Boss, and DT Barry Cofield.
Re-Signing of QB David Carr Official: Though we reported that unrestricted free agent QB David Carr agreed to terms with the Giants on March 14, Carr officially signed his contract last week. The contract is reportedly a 1-year, $990,000 deal that includes a $65,000 signing bonus.
“I’ve said it before, these guys, you play ball in high school, you play ball in college and there’s really not a better locker room that I’ve been in, and that’s including those times,” said Carr. “It’s a great environment. Guys keep you humble. They keep it loose. No one takes themselves too seriously, and with all the egos and all the good football players, you’d think that would be a problem. But there’s really not that issue in this locker room. That’s why I like to be a part of it. It makes it very easy to come back.”
“(The Giants’ offense is) just natural for me,” said Carr. “I feel really comfortable in it. I’ve run this for the majority of my career, partly with Chris Palmer who was here before, and now with (Kevin Gilbride and Eli Manning) for my fourth year. So it’s very familiar to me. I feel really comfortable here. I know that if given the opportunity and put in the position to play on this team, I would do well. That’s also a comforting feeling knowing that if you get into the game, you’re in there, first of all, with the world champions, so how can you go wrong? And secondly, to know that you’re going to go out there and succeed is also a positive.”
“I think when we beat the Jets out here, and the spark when Victor (Cruz) made the catch and made that long run, when we won that football game, I was like, ‘We could do this,’” said Carr. “Then we beat Dallas. Honestly, when we got in the playoffs, I didn’t think we were going to lose just because of the talent level that we have in this locker room. If we could get on the same page ever at some point during the season, I knew we’d be all right because honestly I haven’t been around a team like this before – physically, mentally. It’s a mentally tough football team. There are so many times we came from behind in the fourth quarter and pulled them out. It’s just a pleasure to be around. I think it’s one of the reasons I came back.”
Giants.com Q&A With QB David Carr: The video of a recent Giants.com Q&A with QB David Carr is available at Giants.com.
