Ben McAdoo Addresses the Media at the NFL Owners Meeting

 Posted by
Mar 282017
 
Ben McAdoo, New York Giants (March 1, 2017)

Ben McAdoo – © USA TODAY Sports Images

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BEN MCADOO ADDRESSES THE MEDIA…
New York Giants Head Coach Ben McAdoo spoke with reporters on Tuesday at the NFL Annual meeting and addressed the following subjects:

  • On offensive lineman Ereck Flowers: “It’s still early in the process, but I have a lot of confidence in Ereck. One of the best games Ereck played all year was the playoff game, the last game of the season… If he comes out and works hard and has a little bit of success to start the season, that confidence will come. It’s just a young player and it’s a maturing confidence that he has to go through… He’s working hard on his technique. I’m pretty confident that he’s working very hard right now at being a better player and putting a lot of time and effort and energy into it this time of year. You see his face a lot. He’s in and out of the building a lot. I know he loves the game and I have a lot of confidence in Ereck.”
  • On new wide receiver Brandon Marshall: “He almost didn’t fit through my doorway when he came to the building. He’s a big man. He’s like a tight end body out there, a big strong man who knows how to run the whole tree. There is a lot of value in that… I look forward to getting Brandon out there and seeing what he brings to the table when you get everybody together, but he is a big target. He’s a big target who has played a lot of football and has been very productive. A confident player, so it’s always good to add that chunk of confidence to the offense and the locker room. That’s good. And he’s a big target for Eli and that will help Eli.”
  • On new offensive lineman D.J. Fluker: “Fluker’s a big man, he can block out the sun. Brandon (Marshall) almost didn’t fit through my doorway, Fluker didn’t. He had to turn sideways to get through the doorway. He’s a big man and loves the game, provides a lot of energy.”
  • On if quarterback Geno Smith could eventually replace Eli Manning: “I can’t see why not… I find it very exciting. A guy who has his skill set is hard to find. You can’t find guys out there who have that type of arm talent, the quick release, the throwing motion and the feet to go with it. And he’s a competitor. It’s exciting to be able to bring a guy in and be able to work with a guy like that and see where you can take him… To me with Geno, you look at it and you study the guys coming out and you study Geno, I think he’s right in the mix of one of the better players available this year. We spent a lot of time talking about fundamentals and football and preparation and how this could be a great fit for both of us. He felt the same way and it’s exciting for us… I told Geno he has a clean slate.”
  • On if he intends to use a fullback this year: “Rhett (Ellison) is more of a tight end who has some fullback-type qualities to him. But you can certainly use both types of plays… Anytime you have a big fullback type in the backfield it adds an element of physicality that is tough to replace when you don’t have it. It just didn’t work out last year. It’s not by design… I hear that I don’t want to have a fullback on the roster, and that’s news to me. I think you want the best team you can put out there, but that position has to have special-teams value. I don’t think you just want someone on your roster who plays seven plays a game. They’re not going to play a ton of plays, but the plays they do play are impactful-type plays in the ballgame. But they need to have some value special teams-wise.”

ARTICLES…

John Mara Comments on Free Agency; Giants Won’t Pursue Adrian Peterson

 Posted by
Mar 022017
 
John Mara, New York Giants (October 23, 2016)

John Mara – © USA TODAY Sports Images

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JOHN MARA COMMENTS ON FREE AGENCY…
New York Giants President and CEO John Mara weighed in on the following subjects with Newsday on Wednesday:

  • On franchise-player defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul: “I heard him say (he won’t play on a 1-year contract), yes, and we’re trying to get a (long-term) deal done. We want to get him signed long-term, but we had to do that to protect ourselves. Hopefully, we’ll be able to reach an agreement, but I can’t say it’s imminent…(His franchise-tag contract is) a high number, but that doesn’t mean it has to be the average going forward. It ain’t gonna be that going forward…He’s an important part of our team. He played at a high level last year. He gave us a huge boost. Having him on one side and (Olivier) Vernon on the other gives us a nice pair of bookend pass rushers, so yeah, we’d like to have him back. Plus, he’s a positive influence. He’s a good young man, very popular (in the locker room). He’s the type of guy you want on your team.”
  • On the Giants approach to free agency this offseason: “We’re obviously not going to be as aggressive as we were (last year). We just don’t have the salary-cap room, and you can’t do that every year. Putting the franchise tag on Jason takes a lot of our room away, but there’s still enough room for us to do some things if we want…We struggled on offense last year, but when you go into free agency, there has to be the right guys. I’m not sure the offensive line is the strongest group this year, so I don’t know.”

REPORT – GIANTS WON’T PURSUE ADRIAN PETERSON…
NJ.com is reporting that the New York Giants will not pursue unrestricted free agent running back Adrian Peterson (Minnesota Vikings) when free agency begins on March 7th. Peterson has expressed interest in the Giants but the 31-year old running back is on the downside of his career and has had off-the-field issues involving domestic abuse of a child.

ARTICLES…

Ben McAdoo Addresses the Media at the NFL Combine

 Posted by
Mar 012017
 
Ben McAdoo, New York Giants (March 1, 2017)

Ben McAdoo – © USA TODAY Sports Images

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BEN MCADOO ADDRESSES THE MEDIA AT THE NFL COMBINE…
New York Giants Head Coach Ben McAdoo addressed the media at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, Indiana on Tuesday. The video of the press conference is available at Giants.com.

Some key points addressed by McAdoo:

  • On whether the Giants need to sign a veteran running back: “If it fits and if it is clean. Paul (Perkins) is a guy that we have confidence in. He missed all offseason last year because of the rules that are in place with rookies and he came into training camp and really had to catch up in a hurry. He had some success with special teams early and ended up being a nice ball carrier for us and grew in protection, as well. But he needs to come back, he needs to get better and he can get better, and I know that he is working to get better right now. Paul is a lot like the rest of the rookies. I think it is important when these rookies get back to New York that they understand that they don’t have everything figured out, that we need to keep our thumb on those guys and they need to grow and they need to get better. We need to make gains; our rookie class needs to make gains. We have a nice class there and Paul is one of those players, but he needs to get better like the rest of them. Even if it is marginally in each area of his game, but we need to make gains there.”
  • On whether the Giants are interested in free agent running back Adrian Peterson (Minnesota Vikings): “We will go take a look at him, we will evaluate him. We will get a grade on anyone that is available, and we will make those decisions in terms of what is best for the Giants moving forward.”
  • On left tackle Ereck Flowers: “I have a ton of confidence in Ereck. He is a guy that is all in. He is working at it. You can make a case that he could be here right now preparing to go out there and run in the combine. He is a young player that has a lot of room to grow and we expect him to grow, and I have confidence that he is going to grow. Where he ends up is where he ends up. Right now, he is playing left tackle like he has always played for us and we will go from there.”
  • On franchised-player defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul: “It is great to have JPP around. We think highly of him. Obviously, that is the business part of the equation and I try to stay out of that as much as I can.  But Jason is a great part of the team, someone who made some progress last year, and it will be good to have him back.”
  • On linebacker B.J. Goodson: “We feel B.J. is going to develop and play more for us on the defensive side of the ball, regardless of what position it’s going to be. There are a bunch of a different linebacker spots that he can go in there and fight for. But he did a nice job for us as a special teams role player. He needs to improve there, which he will. But we feel that he has a lot of upside as a linebacker.”
  • On whether the Giants will add a true fullback: “It just really depends on how things shake out. Whether it is the free agent market or the draft class, it depends on what you have to choose from. The guys on your roster – going into the season we had two players (Will Johnson and Nikita Whitlock) that we felt pretty good about playing fullback for us and neither of them stayed healthy. That was part of it. For one reason or another, they were not a part of the team. So we had to go in another direction and we had to use what we had. We will continue to evaluate and if we feel that there is someone out there that can help us, then we will use them.”
  • On the offense’s struggles in 2016: “I will say this, right now we are in the middle of (evaluating) third down. We are not finished with third down yet as far as our scheme evaluation. But we all know that turning the ball over 27 times isn’t acceptable. We are fortunate to have the wins that we had turning the ball over the way that we turned the ball over, so we can’t turn the ball over that way. We need to handle the ball better, so we need to catch it better than we have caught it and we need to handle it in the pocket better. We can’t have it come out. Way too many fumbles – 16 interceptions and 11 fumbles, way too many fumbles.”
  • On the offensive line and Eli Manning: “The offensive line, they need to play better. I agree with that. I think Eli needs to do a better job playing with fast feet, and I think he needs to sit on that back foot in the pocket. We’re seeing a lot of man coverage, so the receivers, it’s gonna take a little time for them to get open, so everything may not be rhythmical. So he’s got to play with fast feet, he’s got to sit on his back foot and be ready to hitch into a throw. Things aren’t always clean in this league, you watch film of the end zones throughout the league and you’re seeing a lot of dirty pockets.”
  • On if he will continue to call the offensive plays: “You can keep asking the question and I enjoy when you ask the question, but I am not going to answer that question.”
  • On the Giants defense: “We added some guys to the mix (on defense) who were talented men of integrity, tremendous character, they played hard, it was important for them to see each other have success. That was a big part of things. But at the same point in time, we’re not looking to play defense the way we played defense last year. We’re looking to get better. We can’t show up thinking we have everything figured out on the defensive side of the ball. We need make gains, marginal gains, maybe 1% gains, but we need to generate those. We can’t be too big to do the little things. And that needs to show up the first day we get together in April.”

REPORT – ROB LEONARD BEING PROMOTED TO ASSISTANT DL COACH…
ESPN is reporting that the New York Giants will promote Rob Leonard to assistant defensive line coach. That position had been held by Jeff Zgonina, who was hired by the San Francisco 49ers as their new defensive line coach last month. Leonard has served as a defensive assistant with the Giants since 2013.

GIANTS INSIDER WITH CB ELI APPLE…
The video of a Giants Insider Q&A with cornerback Eli Apple is available at Giants.com.

ARTICLES…

Giants.com Player Interviews; New York Giants Articles

 Posted by
Feb 242017
 
Paul Perkins, New York Giants (October 3, 2016)

Paul Perkins – © USA TODAY Sports Images

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GIANTS.COM PLAYER INTERVIEWS…
Video clips of exclusive Giants.com interviews with the following players are available at Giants.com:

  • RB Paul Perkins (Video)
  • DT Johnathan Hankins (Video)
  • LB Keenan Robinson (Video)

ARTICLES…

New York Giants Re-Sign DT Robert Thomas and TE Matt LaCosse

 Posted by
Feb 142017
 
Robert Thomas, New York Giants (November 6, 2016)

Robert Thomas – © USA TODAY Sports Images

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NEW YORK GIANTS RE-SIGN DT ROBERT THOMAS AND TE MATT LACOSSE…
According to press reports, the New York Giants have re-signed exclusive rights free agents defensive tackle Robert Thomas and tight end Matt LaCosse.

The Giants claimed Thomas off of waivers from the Carolina Panthers in September 2016. He played in eight regular-season games with no starts (6 percent of defensive snaps) and finished the year with five tackles and one sack. Thomas was originally signed as an undrafted rookie free agent by the Washington Redskins after the 2014 NFL Draft. He has spent time with the Redskins (2014-15), Seahawks (2015), Patriots (2015), Dolphins (2015), and Panthers (2016). Thomas is a big, strong tackle who plays hard.

The Giants waived/injured LaCosse in late August 2016 and then placed him on Injured Reserve with a knee injury that required surgery. LaCosse was originally signed by the Giants as an undrafted rookie free agent after the 2015 NFL Draft. The Giants waived/injured him in August with a hamstring injury and re-signed him to the Practice Squad in November and the 53-man roster in December 2015. He played in two games and finished with three catches for 22 yards. LaCosse is a versatile player who played tight end, H-Back, and fullback in college. LaCosse has good speed and catches the football well.

Meanwhile, SNY is reporting that the Giants will not re-sign exclusive rights free agent wide receiver Ben Edwards. Edwards was waived/injured and then placed on Injured Reserve in May 2016 after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in one of his knees during the rookie mini-camp. Injuries have plagued Edwards who tore an ACL in college in 2013, an injury that caused him to miss all of 2014; pulled his hamstring in a June 2015 mini-camp, an injury that led him to being waived/injured; and sprained his knee in an April 2016 mini-camp. The Giants originally signed Edwards after the 2015 NFL Draft, waived/injured him in June, re-signed him to the Practice Squad in November, and signed him to the 53-man roster in December. He played in the final two games of 2015 and finished the season with one catch for nine yards.

The other two exclusive free agents (if tendered) are fullback Nikita Whitlock and tight end Will Tye.

GIANTS INSIDER WITH TE WILL TYE…
The video of a Giants Insider Q&A with tight end Will Tye is available at Giants.com.

ARTICLES…

New York Giants Sign Kicker Aldrick Rosas

 Posted by
Jan 192017
 
American Flag, Oakland Raiders at New York Giants (November 10, 2013)

Oakland Raiders at New York Giants (November 10, 2013)

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NEW YORK GIANTS SIGN KICKER ALDRICK ROSAS…
The New York Giants have signed place kicker Aldrick Rosas to a reserve/future contract. Rosas was originally signed as an undrafted rookie free agent by the Tennessee Titans after the 2016 NFL Draft. The Titans cut Rosas in early September before the season started. Rosas is a strong-legged kicker who made 25 of his 32 field goal attempts during his college career. Over half of his kickoffs resulted in touchbacks.

GIANTS INSIDER WITH DE OLIVIER VERNON…
The video of a Giants Insider Q&A with defensive end Olivier Vernon is available at Giants.com.

ARTICLES…