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New York Giants By: Lester The New York Giants finished the season 3rd in the NFC East with a .500 (8-8) record. This was a major disappointment after winning the division last year. This year, the Giants finished with a 4 - 4 record in the division. They beat the Eagles twice, the Cardinals and the Redskins. Beating the Eagles twice is no reason to jump for joy. They did show that they can compete and beat the best when they gave the Denver Broncos their first loss of the season 20 - 16. The biggest blow of the season was an early knee injury to defensive back Jason Sehorn that he sustained while returning a punt. This was a Tyson like blow that the Giants seemed to never recover from. Offensively, the NYG finished 29th in total yards per game (278.4). Guess who finished ranked 30th? The Eagles! They were 29th on 3rd down efficiency and 28th in passing yards per game (160.4). The Giants used two quarterbacks during the 1998 season. The two QBs where Danny Kanell, who finished with a QB rating of 67.3, and Kent Graham, who finished with a QB rating of 70.8. They both threw for over 1,200 yards, but they only combined for 18 TDs while throwing 15 INTs. Kanell was the season starter and lead the team to a 3-7 record. Due to his ineffectiveness, Coach Jim Fassel made the change to lifetime backup Graham for the last 6 games. Graham produced and led the team to 5 victories in 6 games. The leading receiver on the team was Calloway. Calloway finished with 62 receptions and a third of the team's touchdown receptions (6). Ike Hillard followed with 51 receptions and Baker finished with 42. The bright spot was the Giants rushing game. They finished ranked 12th in rushing yards per game (118.1). The rushing game was lead by RB Gary Brown. Brown finished the season ranked 7th in rushing in the NFC. Browns season rushing total was 1,063 yards and 5 TDs. The last time a Giants back rushed for over 1,000 yards was during the 1995 season by RB Rodney Hampton. RB Charles Way was the team's second leading rusher with 432 yards and 3 TDs. Defensively, the Giants did not give up many points (rank 8th , 12.1/g). The problem was their offense didn't score many points (17.8/g). The defense did give up their share of yards, especially, rushing yards. The Giants rush defense was ranked 23rd, giving up 125.3 yards per game. This total per game is bad when your pass defense only gave up 197.9 yards per game. This average ranked the team at a respectful 13th. One reason why they did so great in pass defense was because the Giants were literally GIANTS in the sack department. They finished second in sacks only to the St. Louis Rams. Strahan lead the sack happy bunch with 15.0, followed by Bratzke (11.5), K. Hamilton (6.0), Jones (5.0), Armstead (4.0) and Harris (3.5). Let's not take anything away from the secondary, which finished with 19 INTs. Remember that this is 1 more than total touchdowns thrown by both of the Giants QBs. Ellsworth was the leader in INTs with 5. He also returned 2 of them for TDs. Sparks was a close second with 4. The Giants finished 28th in Punt returns (7.2) and 28th in Kick returns (19.5). Amani Toomer was their main return specialist. They finished 21st in Opponent Punt returns (11.1) and 22nd in Opponent Kick returns (24.2). What this amounts too is poor field position for the Giants and good field position for their opponents. Punter Maynard did an excellent job punting. He finished the season ranked 5th in gross average (45.2 yds/punt) and 7th in net average (37.8 yards/punt). Maynard's net average was good enough for 2nd in the NFC behind the Redskins Matt Turk. Kicker Brad Daluiso connected on 21 of 27 field goal attempts. He went a perfect 7 for 7 inside the 30-yard line. In the Red Zone, the Giants offense finished ranked 14th. They had 40 possessions in the red zone, which resulted in 21 TDs and 15 FGs. Their defense finished 5th. This is probably the main reason why they were still able to play .500 ball. Teams had 42 possessions in the red zone, which resulted in 18 TDs and 15 FGs. The Giants finished a (plus 2) in the turnover department. They committed 24 turnovers (9 fumbles, 15 INTs) and had 26 takeaways (7 fumble recoveries and 19 INTs). And finally, to no surprise, the Giants finished ranked 25th in time of possession. Sounds like it was a definitely long season for the Giants defense. The Giants have a few things that need to be done during the off-season. The first thing that the team did the day after the season ended was to sign free agent RB Gary Brown. He proved that he could carry the load for them in 1998. To make life better for Brown in 1999, Jim Fassel felt a change needed to be made with the offensive line. The first target was Offensive line coach John Matsko. Coach Fassel felt that more consistent play was needed at this position. So, in comes Coach Jim McNally, who coached for 15 years with the Cincinnati Bengals and the last 4 years with the Carolina Panthers. Free Agency and Off-Season The Giants have 15 free agents. Seven of them are restricted free agents. Six of their free agents were starters in 1998 and four were backups. On offense, they have OG Greg Bishop, OT Roman Oben (RFA), C Lance Scott and backup WR Amani Toomer (RFA). On defense, they have starters DE Chad Bratzke, CB Conrad Hamilton (RFA), LB Corey Widmer. The backups were LB Doug Colman (RFA), S Percy Ellsworth (RFA), and DT Bernard Holsey (RFA). The front office would love to keep their young offensive line intact. Look for them to re-sign OLT Oben. There is a chance the Bishop may not be re-signed, therefore, they may use their 1st pick on an offensive lineman. If Jason Sehorn comes back 100% as expected, CB Conrad Hamilton may opt to look for a starting job elsewhere. The Giants may opt to re-sign Bratzke and dump Cedric Jones big contract. They would also like to re-sign LB Widmer. Following is a list of the Giants free agents.
OG Greg Bishop Exposed to the Expansion Draft
DB Kory Blackwell Needs via free agency or the draft The Giants would like to improve on their offensive personnel. They need a young franchise QB. Coach Fassel needs to straighten out their QB situation. Word is that Fassel says the Graham is the leader going into the 1999 season. They may go after Kerry Collins in free agency. If they don't get him, they may be willing to use their 19th pick on Central Florida QB Daunte Culpepper. If they do this, Kanell would be the odd man out. Many Giants insiders like the upside of 3rd string QB Mike Cherry than they do Kanell's. To make new line coach McNally happy, the Giants may use their first pick to get an offensive tackle. Word is they like Wisconsin's 6'7'', 375lb OT Aaron Gibson with this pick. If they get him, they would probably move OT Scott Gregg to OG and put Gibson next to him at OT. If they don't re-sign Bishop, this scenario is a big possibility. If the Giants are able to get Gibson with this pick, they may target Washington's QB Brock Huard with their second pick. With the team having 3 LBs that are free agents, they could use a LB. Clemson's LB Rahim Abdullah may not be a bad draft choice. Other needs for the Giants are a pass catching TE. This position was a disaster in 1998. FA Pete Mitchell is a TE that they are interested in if the price is right. They also need a pass rushing DE on the right side and another RB to help Brown. Coach Fassel is not too high on RB Tyrone Wheatley. Others that the Giants are interested in during the draft are Syracuse's QB Donovan McNabb, QB Scott Covington, RB Sedrick Irvin, RB Mike Cloud, TE Rufus French, TE Jerame Tuman, OT Jon Jansen, OT Chris Terry, C Damien Woody and OG Mike Rosenthal.
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