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mjhp911 wrote:G-Men say bye-bye to the Hefty Lefty...

http://www.courant.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sports/hc-nflup0624.artjun24,0,243985.story



Strahan joins the Fox Pre-Game show...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3457998



Bradshaw is still in jail...

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/giants/2008/06/20/2008-06-20_nfl_eyes_giants_running_back_ahmad_brads.html

The good news is Giants second year running back Ahmad Bradshaw has completed a 30 day prison sentence in the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail for a parole violation. The bad news is the parole violation is still under review by the NFL and Bradshaw could be fined or even suspended by the league. It sounds like Bradshaw did something illegal while he was a juvenile, and those records are sealed. When he was still at Marshall in 2006, Bradshaw stole an XBox, and received two years probation. He was already on probation for this undisclosed juvenile offense, and he violated it with the XBox incident, hence he needed to serve the 30 days in jail. This 30 day sentence slipped through the cracks until this summer. I hope the league realizes that Bradshaw’s record is clean since 2006 and decides that he should not be punished for his actions that occurred before he entered the NFL.

According to John Clayton of ESPN.com, the New York Giants have signed free agent offensive lineman Shane Olivea to a one-year deal.
Drafted by the San Diego Chargers in 2004, Olivea has started in 57 of 60 contests since his rookie season. Olivea was released by the Chargers in February, as G.M. of the Chargers A.J. Smith claimed Olivea had "lost his fire".Olivea was suspended for the first four games of this season, after reportedly violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. Olivea has since been reinstated by the NFL.

The New York Giants third round draft pick, Wide Receive Mario Manningham, has officially signed with Big Blue. The full details of the contract have not yet been released, but sources are revealing (courtesy of Ralph Vacchiano) that Manningham is locked in to a deal with the G-Men that will keep him in East Rutherford for four years. The only other tidbit was that he will receive some pretty notable bumps in his fourth year.

The Giants also announced the signing of rookie cornerback Terrell Thomas, the second round draft pick out of USC.

ProFootballTalk.com is now reporting that the NY Giants have secured Kenny Phillips to a 5-year, $11.5 million deal. The deal is done, according to one of the site writers, Michael David Smith.

Just got word that the Giants have been calling teams around the league to gauge interest in receiver Sinorice Moss for much of the past month, but the level of interest has been minimal. No word on what the Giants are looking for in return, but it's unlikely that the third-year wideout will bring in anything more than a 6th round pick, should the team move him. Since being drafted in the second round of the 2005 draft, Moss has missed 13 regular season games due to injury and put up 26 total receptions in the two seasons.
Teams that have reportedly looked into the possibility of acquiring Moss include the San Fransisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins.

Bradshaw to Serve More Jail Time After the Season? But He Won’t Be Suspended by NFL: According to the Bristol Herald-Courier, HB Ahmad Bradshaw is not through with his jail time. Bradshaw spent approximately 30 days in June and July in an Abingdon, Virginia jail supposedly due to a probation violation. What the original offense (which occurred when he was a juvenile) or subsequent violation (which occurred before the 2007 NFL Draft) still have not been publicly revealed. The paper says the actual sentence is a 60-day one and that Bradshaw will serve the remainder of the sentence after the 2008 NFL season.

Meanwhile, the NFL has said that they will not fine or suspend Bradshaw for the offense.

Phillips made an immediate impression on training camp when he came out .hitting. He spent most of his career at Miami as a strong safety, .playing in the box, but he's been unleashed here in .Albany as a free safety. That means he can fly across the field and put an upending hit on Brandon London during a drill, or come tearing up the middle to knock down .Reuben Droughns on a run.

"That's the part I like the most," Phillips said of the hits. "[The Giants' system] has allowed me to do things that I'm capable of doing as far as being in a position to take people's heads off."

Phillips has learned, however, that those hits come at a cost. They are, after all, his teammates. So the coaches have had to speak with him about blasting players in training camp, and it's something he's working on.

The Giants may not like that their own guys are on the other end, but they can hardly contain their enthusiasm about Phillips' physical play. When it recently was noted to Tom Coughlin that Phillips is making a lot of big hits on the practice field, the coach nodded. "That's why he's here," Coughlin said.

Phillips also has learned the defense even faster than the Giants hoped he would. He said he buried himself in the playbook during rookie minicamp and OTAs, just as he did when he arrived at the University of Miami and became an immediate starter.

"I figured if anything was going to slow me down, it would be me not knowing the playbook," Phillips said. "I went hard. I just stayed in my playbook as much as possible."

It's paid off. After spending most of the early parts of camp finding his footing with the second team, Phillips was promoted to the starting unit for a series of full-squad reps Thursday. He admitted that it was awkward for him after playing with the backups for so long, but he also called it the .defining moment of his rookie camp so far.

mjhp911 wrote:Hmm, why give up on him so soon?

Bradshaw's apparently been getting a lot of reps on the field in camp... hopefully, he won't get zapped too badly by Goodell for his stint in the slammer (which was precipitated by an event prior to us signing him, no?).

mjhp911 wrote:Meh, so-so game. I like how some of the kids performed, but as a whole, we've got lots of work. The 2 rookie defensive backs look great, but Phillips needs to dial the celebrations down a notch. Carr didn't look half bad out there.

The Giants’ young secondary added a little experience today when they signed former Raider Stuart Schweigert.

Schweigart, a third-round pick of the Raiders back in 2004, started 42 games for Oakland in the last four years. But the Raiders’ secondary got a little crowded during the offseason when they signed former Giants safety Gibril Wilson, and Schweigart was eventually released by his only NFL team on May 20.

Two weeks later he signed with the Washington Redskins, but they released him early last week.

Schweigart has 315 tackles and four interceptions in 63 career NFL games. He played 15 games last year with 10 starts, and he had two interceptions and four passes defensed.

The Giants also signed DE Antonio Reynolds, who they had originally signed as a rookie free agent out of Tennessee back on May 6, only to release him eight days later.

To make room for the new guys, the Giants cut S Nehemiah Warrick (knee) and DE Robert Henderson (ankle), who were both injured in the Giants’ preseason opener on Thursday night.

OT Shane Olivea, the former rising star for the Chargers whom the Giants signed last month, has been placed on injured reserve with a back injury.

Olivea was cut by San Diego after a battle with painkillers affected him on and off the field. The Giants, confident his troubles were behind him, signed him to a one-year deal and hoped he would provide solid depth behind RT Kareem McKenzie.

However, Olivea hurt his back early in camp after one of his most impressive practices. The team was hopeful he was improving but he never returned to the field. (Olivea is expected to be released with an injury settlement once he gets healthy.)

Also, DE Antonio Reynolds was waived/injured because of a hamstring injury. Reynolds was signed on Sunday to replace DE Robert Henderson, who was also waived/injured with an ankle injury.

Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News reports kicker Lawrence Tynes is out for Monday’s preseason game with and injured left (plant) leg. The Giants signed a familiar face to take over the kicking duties, Josh Huston who competed against Tynes for the vacant kicking job last season. Interesting fact: If Tynes was hurt during a game, linebacker Chase Blackburn is listed as the emergency kicker and would assume kicking duties. He can do it all!
Vacchiano also reports that the offensive linemen are wearing shirts that have “Time For A Change: Toomer ‘08″ printed on them. This is a joke aimed at Shaun O’Hara, who lost his team captain status, which was awarded to Amani Toomer.

The Giants claimed OL Cliff Louis off waivers today. The 6-8, 315-pounder was recently cut by the Cleveland Browns, after he spent the entire 2007 season on their practice squad. He fills the roster spot vacated yesterday when RT Shane Olivea (back) was placed on injured reserve.

The Giants waived receiver Michael Jennings and placed Super Bowl hero David Tyree on the Physically Unable to Perform list, as they inched closer to the 75-man roster limit they must hit by 4 p.m. today. Neither move was a surprise since Tyree was sidelined with a knee injury all summer, and Jennings was far down the depth chart of a deep receiving corps.

Tyree, according to the NFL’s PUP rules, will be eligible to return starting in Week 6 of the NFL season. He can return to practice anytime between the day after the sixth week and the first day of the 10th week. When he returns to practice, he begins a 21-day window where he can practice without being activated. At the end of the 21 days, he either needs to be added to the active roster or placed on season ending injured reserve.

The Giants also reached an injury settlement with DB Terrance Stringer and waived him off injured reserve. And they signed LB James Terry.

Well, now it’s official: Osi Umenyiora is on injured reserve.

A full recovery is still expected, but you won’t see Umenyiora in uniform again until next June, at minicamp, at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the Giants made another couple of moves as they reached the NFL roster limit of 75. They waived/injured receiver Craphonso Thorpe (and no, at the moment, I can’t remember what his injury is). They were also awarded receiver Marcus Monk off waivers from the Chicago Bears.