What turned into a glorious day for Victor Cruz was not so hot for a few players with ties to the Giants who saw those ties severed today. Cruz made it, others did not as the final round of cuts trimmed the roster to the league-mandated 53.
Rhett Bomar did not succeed in his bid to win the No. 2 quarterback job, as he was done in by the trade for Sage Rosenfels. He also did not succeed in impressing the Giants enough to keep a third quarterback on the roster.
The coaching staff did believe that Bomar made significant improvement this summer but ever since Tom Coughlin has been the head coach he’s been inclined to keep only two quarterbacks on the roster. Bomar is eligible for the practice squad and it’s likely that’s where the Giants want to stash him. Bomar, though, must clear waivers first, and it’s certainly possible that some team will like him enough to sign him to their roster.
The Giants had to purge 24 players from their roster and a few qualify as surprises: WR Derek Hagan, RB Andre Brown and DT Jay Alford.
Hagan, the veteran receiver, seemingly had a spot locked up as not only the fourth receiver but also as a valuable special teams player. Apparently, he wasn’t deemed to be valuable enough.
“It was a tough call,” Coughlin said. “Derek Hagan is a very good special teams player and he made our team a year ago because of that. We felt like our situation, particularly at the gunner spot, had not emerged the way we wanted to. [Duke] Calhoun did a nice job the other night. He and Reynaud, along with a couple of other guys – D.J. Johnson – will get an excellent opportunity to help us in that regard. We need the power and the speed going down the field because of the young punter (Dodge) and we didn’t get many plays made out of the gunner position in preseason.”
Hagan’s bad fortune was a stroke of luck for rookie Cruz, the rookie receiver who completed a rags-to-riches type story by making the team. The Patterson, N.J. native was not drafted out of UMass and was supposed to be little more than training camp fodder but he began making the plays the second week of camp and never stopped.
Surprisingly, another rookie receiver, Duke Calhoun, also made it – the only two rookie free agents to do so. The roster also includes five of the healthy 2010 draft picks and eight linebackers, meaning both Gerris Wilkinson and Bryan Kehl made the cut.
“We put the roster together in the best interest of our football team, the best way in which we felt would possibly balance off our numbers and still be very much aware the way in which you would rank the ability level of all the players on the team,” Coughlin said. “You’d like to think you’re ready to go in the first game and hopefully we won’t have to make as subtle adjustment as we go along.”
Andre Brown was a 2009 draft pick whose rookie season never materialized because of a ruptured Achilles tendon. He endured a long rehab and looked to have made it back near his pre-injury form, at times running well in camp and in the preseason games. He’s currently sidelined with a painful case of turf toe and with the trade for Darius Reynaud from the Vikings and the decision to keep D.J. Ware, Brown was deemed expendable.
At the start of the summer it seemed as if defensive tackle Jay Alford was a lock, even though he was coming off knee surgery that forced him to miss the entire 2009 season. Alford as a rookie in 2007 had an impressive sack in the Super Bowl and was thought to be a player the Giants could use for years to come. He never really came back strong from the injury, though, and he was done in when the Giants in the second round of this year’s NFL Draft selected defensive tackle Linval Joseph out of East Carolina. Also, the return to health and effectiveness of veteran tackle Rocky Bernard hurt Alford’s chances.
“It was competitive in that spot this year,” Coughlin said. “Even though we still feel like we have a ways to go to have the front that we say we have, it was a very difficult choice to have to make. Based on the competitiveness at the spot and the ability to rank the guys in terms of their production, we really didn’t, in all fairness, have a lot of choice.”
It is surprising but not shocking that Bear Pascoe was one of the cuts, considering he was the only tight end to make it all the way through training camp without experiencing any sort of physical problem. Pascoe endured through the summer but couldn’t make it onto the roster, as for now the Giants will go with only two tight ends – Kevin Boss and injured Travis Beckum (neck, groin), meaning they’ll be scouting the waiver wire for another able-bodied tight end.
“There was an awful lot of sentiment for Bear, because of what he was able to do,” Coughlin said. “There was an entire week in practice when he allowed us to practice. I had to cut some snaps out, he was the guy that kept us going. And when you’d go to him and think he might be a little fatigued, he’d say just the opposite – ‘Bring it on coach, I can do it.’ That attitude is a tremendous thing.”
Guy Whimper was about to enter his fifth season with the Giants but he never progressed to the point where he cracked the starting lineup. The late training camp addition of Shawn Andrews signaled the end of the line for Whimper, who was cut.
Otherwise, there were no big surprises.
The cuts:
QB Rhett Bomar
QB Dominic Randolph
TE Scott Chandler
DE Tommie Hill
DT Nate Collins
S John Busing (contract terminated)
OL Jim Cordle
OL Dennis Landolt
DT Dwayne Hendricks
WR Tim Brown
RB Gartrell Johnson
OL Jacob Bender
FB Jerome Johnson
WR Derek Hagan (contract terminated)
DT Jay Alford
DE Alex Hall (waived injured)
OL Guy Whimper (contract terminated)
OL Herb Taylor
TE Bear Pascoe
RB Andre Brown
S Sha’reff Rashad
S Matt O’Hanlon
CB Courtney Brown (waived injured)
CB Seth Williams
There likely will be a change or two before the start of the regular season. For now, these are your 2010 New York Giants:
OFFENSE (24)
Quarterbacks (2
): Eli Manning, Sage Rosenfels,
Running Backs (4): Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw, D.J. Ware, Darius Reynaud
Fullbacks (1): Madison Hedgecock
Wide Receivers (6): Steve Smith, Mario Manningham, Hakeem Nicks, Ramses Barden, Victor Cruz, Duke Calhoun
Tight Ends (2): Kevin Boss, Travis Beckum
Offensive Linemen (9): David Diehl, Rich Seubert, Shaun O’Hara, Chris Snee, Kareem McKenzie, Will Beatty, Adam Koets, Shawn Andrews, Mitch Petrus
DEFENSE (26)
Defensive Linemen (9): Justin Tuck, Barry Cofield, Chris Canty, Mathias Kiwanuka, Osi Umenyiora, Rocky Bernard, Dave Tollefson, Jason Pierre-Paul, Linval Joseph
Linebackers (8): Jonathan Goff, Michael Boley, Keith Bulluck, Bryan Kehl, Clint Sintim, Chase Blackburn, Phillip Dillard, Gerris Wilkinson
Cornerbacks (5): Corey Webster, Terrell Thomas, Aaron Ross, Bruce Johnson, D.J. Johnson
Safeties (4): Antrel Rolle, Deon Grant, Kenny Phillips, Michael Johnson
SPECIALISTS (3)
Kicker (1): Lawrence Tynes
Punter (1): Matt Dodge
Long Snapper (1): Zak DeOssie
