Here is my personal expectation for the 2010 Giants.

Firstly I expect the offense will start of similar to last year and improve.

Passing Game
The passing game was good, but this year it will be better. Eli now has more experience with his young receivers and Gilbride has been working in the TEs and RBs a little more too. Our passing game will be very effective, and we will see a little more of those deep passes.
Hakeem Nicks is on track for a breakout year. Eli will have an MVP calibre season.

Running Game
The wheels fell off to some degree, but it will be back this time. Bradshaw is the main man and will add that spark of lighting we have missed since Tiki. I think Jacobs will be better too, he won't be so focussed on pacing himself for the whole season and will be really motivated when he is on the field. A fired up Jacobs is really dangerous. Don't overlook the fact that Hedgecock is fully healthy and can be the Bulldozer we badly need.
With the emergence of a genuinely dangerous passing game, teams will stack the run at their peril.
Bradshaw is going to break out big tims, Jacobs should rebound. We could easily have two 1000yd RBs again.

Offensive Line
This unit it retooled as well and has great depth.
O'Hara is a big deal, he is the glue that keeps the unit together. Koets and Seubert have done ok when called upon.
We have three starting calibre tackles, giving us great options (Diehl is definately a tackle) and we have good talent at Guard. Andrews will be starting LG sooner rather than later, but with Seubert, Petrus we have good depth, don't forget Kevin Boothe waiting in the wings. This is the best Oline we have had for some time.

Defensive Line
The defensive line will be relies on for a lot of our pass rush. However Fewell will mix in a few blitzes to prevent our DLine being consistently double-teamed.
We have 4 starting quality Ends, and they are playing a little wider and getting after the QB a little more. The biggest change is the solidity inside. All 4 of our DTs are strong and capable of holding the point of attack. More importantly the can get penetration or collapse the pocket. We are used to having good DEs, but this is our best bunch of DTs since the days of Keith Hamilton and Cornelius Griffin.
Joseph is an emerging stud and Canty is my pick for a probowl type season. At DE Tuck, Kiwanuka and Umenyiora will all have big seasons (10+ sacks), JPP will get in the mix with a few sacks in passing situations. Tuck could make a case for defensive MVP this year.

Linebackers
The Linebackers have been much maligned in recent years (justifiably). But things are not as bad at they seem.
Boley is a genuine Stud at WLB and could have a probowl type season. Goff is solid inside and Bulluck will be decent at SLB. Sintim will get on the field a bit and use his strength attacking the LOS and the other backups are all very capable. They may not be a spectacular unit, but they don't have to be in Fewell's schemes; this will be a solid unit and will get the job done.
We should be using a higher ratio of nickle and dime packages this year in Fewell's schemes, so the coverage that some of our LB have is less of an issue.

Secondary
Whilst the defensive line is the star of the defense, this is a close second. We have three legitimate starting calibre corners, the key will be if they can stay healthy because after them there is a big drop off. At safety we have 4 starting calibre guys.
I think we will be ok, there will be niggling injuries along the way, but we have the depth to get it done. We won't see our D gashed for big plays like last year.
Also expect a lot of turnovers.

Fewell had similar talent at LB and safety in Buffalo, but our Corners are more talented and our Dline light-years ahead. This is still a unit coming together, but it will settle down and you will see one of the NFL's better defenses.

The biggest thing with the defense is the bend, not break attitude and a lot more turnovers. The biggest change from last year will be a lot less points scored against us.


Special Teams
Special teams will be solid, but nothing too special.
Tynes is solid and Dodge has a ton of ability and is gaining consistency. The aquisition of Reynaud is a big deal, he gives us a legitimate weapon returning kicks that frankly the other guys can't do. The kick coverage units are a concern, but they should be good. I think this is a reason why we kept eight LBs on the roster.
With guys like Cruz, Calhoun, Ware, Beckum, Tollefsen, Pierre-Paul, Sintim, Kehl, Blackburn, Wilkinson, Dillard and the Johnson trio (Bruce, DJ and Michael), we have plenty of ability for very good coverage units.

----------------------------------------------------

What people don't realise is that we have excellent depth at almost every position, we don't have any real weaknesses.

More over this team seems to have that battle-hardend edge and fighting attitude needed to win those close games

-----------------------------------------------------

So looking ahead to the season, I think expect we will be around a 12-4 team, we may not win the NFC East, but we will be back in the playoffs.

This team is flying under the radar big time, I seriously am picking the Giants to reach the super bowl the Super Bowl.

Love your optimism Pete.

However, I'm still not confident in our DT's right now. We need to get some serious push and containment if we're not going to get the ball run hard on us up the middle.
I saw glimpses this pre season but not enough.

I like our DB's swagger and think that will really help out our linebacker play.
Rolle proved to me to be a good all around player. Blitzing, covering, tackling.
I like Deon Grant and Phillips too.

I'm not worried about a 4th corner if our safeties stay healthy. Rolle has played corner before and Phillips has the speed to keep up with most receivers if his knee holds up.

I think Tynes and Dodge made great strides by the end of preseason.
I feel much more confident in them now.
Tynes actually improved his leg strength and is getting the ball into the endzone.
Dodge also looks a lot better all the way around.

You bring up good points about out O-line. I think O'Hara's health is going to be the key there.

DTs will be fine, Canty has been a beast so far, Colfield is solid, Joseph is powerful future star and will contribute early, even Bernard has shown up with power. In preseason they showed glimpses, but they also had limited reps and are playing a new system, all have flashed at times. Already it is a huge upgrade over recent years and I think will be very good.
I think Joseph could really surprise, I think he is going to really develop into a quality DT over this year, perhaps even be the defensive rookie of the year.

I think our CBs will be ok, probably will have a lot of niggles, but that is part of football. After Ross there is a big drop off, but it isn't the end of the world. Bruce Johnson showed last year he has ability and in an emergency we could still move Rolle to CB if needed.

I can understand people being cautious, but there is legitimate reason for Giants fans to be optimistic.

For me this team has a similar feel to the Giants of 2007. However we have a more talented team and better depth.

By the way your post read, Pete, I thought for sure you had us going undefeated. 12-4 surprised me but then you got back on track with your super bowl pick. Glad your optimistic but I don't share the same feelings.


I'm concerned with our front 7. Step outside of that blue colored box for a minute and you'll see we have one of the worst LBer groups in Football although Bulluck helped he isn't what he used to be. Only two DTs deserve roster spots Joseph and Canty. We have no real penetration from the interior unless we move Tuck into the middle for special packages. And our DE's (except Tuck) aren't very good at defending the run. As long as Phillips is 100% healed up we can have a very good safety tandem. Our 3 corners are nothing special but get the job done.

I'm a little concerned with the oline. O'hara's injury will hunt him all season. I have faith in seubert stepping in at C and Andrews coming in at LG but O'Hara has been our strength along the line. He communicates very well with the rest of the guys hardly making a bad read.

I'll never have confidence in Eli but thats just the way it goes. I like our WR's. Not happy about the TE's, we lack that extra blocker. Our RB's can be good played off each other but both are too injury prone. I'm hoping Jacobs will have a good bounce back year though.

I look at it this way

We are building on last year's team

Last year despite an atrocious defence and poor running game, we got to 8-8.

This year, our defense will be at least solid (if not down right good) and our running game should be much improved as will our Oline.

There is no reason not to expect a better result.

Also note the biggest deal so far is that we are much healthier than last year.

Pizan wrote:By the way your post read, Pete, I thought for sure you had us going undefeated. 12-4 surprised me but then you got back on track with your super bowl pick. Glad your optimistic but I don't share the same feelings.


I'm concerned with our front 7. Step outside of that blue colored box for a minute and you'll see we have one of the worst LBer groups in Football although Bulluck helped he isn't what he used to be. Only two DTs deserve roster spots Joseph and Canty. We have no real penetration from the interior unless we move Tuck into the middle for special packages. And our DE's (except Tuck) aren't very good at defending the run. As long as Phillips is 100% healed up we can have a very good safety tandem. Our 3 corners are nothing special but get the job done.

I'm a little concerned with the oline. O'hara's injury will hunt him all season. I have faith in seubert stepping in at C and Andrews coming in at LG but O'Hara has been our strength along the line. He communicates very well with the rest of the guys hardly making a bad read.

I'll never have confidence in Eli but thats just the way it goes. I like our WR's. Not happy about the TE's, we lack that extra blocker. Our RB's can be good played off each other but both are too injury prone. I'm hoping Jacobs will have a good bounce back year though.

I can certainly understand your point of view, I had much the same for a while. But I started to think on things a little and the fans have some very real reason for optimism.

I think you will be surprised at our front seven.

At DT Joseph and Canty are the key guys, but Cofield and Bernard can contibute.

At DE both Kiwanuka and JPP can be good against the run and even Osi has been ok.

Sure our LBs are the weakest unit, but Boley is a stud, if Bulluck and Goff can be solid (as they should), this team will be fine.

I go back to the 2007 front seven (which dominated).

The LBs there were nothing special and are probably on par with the current unit (Boley is better than Mitchell and Pierce much better than Goff

But out current defensive line is much better
DT:(Canty is better than Robbins, we still have Cofield and Jospeh and Bernard are much better backups.

DE: (Tuck is on Par with Strahan, Osi and Kiwi are much like Osi and Tuck were then and JPP is much like Kiwi was then)

Sure the front seven needs to step up the most, but they are certainly capable of it and have shown flashes in preseason. This is a unit that can be better than our 2007 guys.

Big_Pete wrote:I look at it this way

We are building on last year's team

As is every other team.

Big_Pete wrote:Last year despite an atrocious defence and poor running game, we got to 8-8.

This year, our defense will be at least solid (if not down right good) and our running game should be much improved as will our Oline.

There is no reason not to expect a better result.

Also note the biggest deal so far is that we are much healthier than last year.

Pete, you seem to forget that we had a very favorable schedule last year to start the year. Washington, Tampa, Kansas city, Oakland were some of the worst teams last season. The other win to our 5-0 start was against the cowboys by 2 pts. 8-8 goes out the window when you close the season the way we did.

Big_Pete wrote:

Pizan wrote:By the way your post read, Pete, I thought for sure you had us going undefeated. 12-4 surprised me but then you got back on track with your super bowl pick. Glad your optimistic but I don't share the same feelings.


I'm concerned with our front 7. Step outside of that blue colored box for a minute and you'll see we have one of the worst LBer groups in Football although Bulluck helped he isn't what he used to be. Only two DTs deserve roster spots Joseph and Canty. We have no real penetration from the interior unless we move Tuck into the middle for special packages. And our DE's (except Tuck) aren't very good at defending the run. As long as Phillips is 100% healed up we can have a very good safety tandem. Our 3 corners are nothing special but get the job done.

I'm a little concerned with the oline. O'hara's injury will hunt him all season. I have faith in seubert stepping in at C and Andrews coming in at LG but O'Hara has been our strength along the line. He communicates very well with the rest of the guys hardly making a bad read.

I'll never have confidence in Eli but thats just the way it goes. I like our WR's. Not happy about the TE's, we lack that extra blocker. Our RB's can be good played off each other but both are too injury prone. I'm hoping Jacobs will have a good bounce back year though.

I can certainly understand your point of view, I had much the same for a while. But I started to think on things a little and the fans have some very real reason for optimism.

I think you will be surprised at our front seven.

At DT Joseph and Canty are the key guys, but Cofield and Bernard can contibute.

At DE both Kiwanuka and JPP can be good against the run and even Osi has been ok.

Sure our LBs are the weakest unit, but Boley is a stud, if Bulluck and Goff can be solid (as they should), this team will be fine.

I go back to the 2007 front seven (which dominated).

The LBs there were nothing special and are probably on par with the current unit (Boley is better than Mitchell and Pierce much better than Goff

But out current defensive line is much better
DT:(Canty is better than Robbins, we still have Cofield and Jospeh and Bernard are much better backups.

DE: (Tuck is on Par with Strahan, Osi and Kiwi are much like Osi and Tuck were then and JPP is much like Kiwi was then)

Sure the front seven needs to step up the most, but they are certainly capable of it and have shown flashes in preseason. This is a unit that can be better than our 2007 guys.

I have to stop you there Pete. Our Front 7 in 07 was a A LOT better than what we have now. Robbins was at the top of his game and Tuck was what we have now it just took the playoffs for fans to realize it. We had a hall of famer with Strahan and Osi who had one of his best seasons. Pierce and Mitchell were studs. We should have kept Mitchell. Those two played very well together and fit our scheme very well.

Not to mention the biggest difference, Spags. Fewell can only hope to be half the D-cordinator Spags was.

Pizan wrote:

I have to stop you there Pete. Our Front 7 in 07 was a A LOT better than what we have now. Robbins was at the top of his game and Tuck was what we have now it just took the playoffs for fans to realize it. We had a hall of famer with Strahan and Osi who had one of his best seasons. Pierce and Mitchell were studs. We should have kept Mitchell. Those two played very well together and fit our scheme very well.

Not to mention the biggest difference, Spags. Fewell can only hope to be half the D-cordinator Spags was.

perhaps, but no-one rated us the previous year, Robbins was a flop and there were a lot of questions about our front seven.

remind anyone of last year at all?

the other think with our defence this year is that we do have a quality secondary and a potentially very good offence.

I still stand by my thoughts that we have a more talented defence than 2007. But hey thats just my opinion.