Giants Press Conference

[Duke Raoul]

Duke Raoul enters the Giant’s Public Relations room and steps up to the microphone. He clears his throat and begins to speak…..

I would first like to thank all of you for coming today. This is our first meeting of the 2006 season. We have a lot of things to talk about and I would like to use today’s meeting to discuss the recent roster changes our team has made. I will discuss the new faces that our fans will be seeing this season and will also take some time to talk about players who have moved on to other teams. I will be seeing most of you throughout the year and want to focus today’s conference on roster changes.

OUT
QB Maddox (84)
FS Stoutmire (83)
WR Carter (77)
FB Smith (79)
HB Dayne (76)
G Lucier (64)

IN
G Newberry (93)
G Allen (91)
FS Pool (87)
P Gardocki (86)
CB Onyenegech (77)
QB Griese (76)
HB Reese (65)
LOLB Bullard (63)

So lets get to it. I feel that our draft went really well. We were able to add a very talented Free Safety in Brodney Pool. Pool has the tools to be one of the league’s better defensive backs. We were pleased to sign him to a 7 year deal which should keep him in New York for a long time. We also added a great Cornerback in Chijioke Onyenegecha. We plan on using Chijioke as a nickleback and believe be should be able to pressure the passer and make some big plays for us this season. He will get a chance to learn the ropes from corners William Peterson and Marlin Jackson. The remainder of our draft picks were released in order to free up cap room and pursue free agents. We feel that we found two talented young players who can really contribute to this franchise. Other rookies may be added to the roster at a later date if it helps improve the team.


Pool & Onyenegecha

I am very pleased to tell you that we went out of our way to improve our O-line for the 2006 season. Our offensive line was one of our weak spots last season and the pressure Eli faced resulted in more interceptions than we expected. We brought in heavyweights Jeremy Newberry and Larry Allen to help provide better protection for Eli and create some room for our running backs. We plan on converting Allen to a Center because of his speed and want to use Newberry as our starting Left Guard. Newberry was with the 49ers last season when they went to the Super Bowl and Allen is a league icon who is still one of the best in the business. We feel that these players will provide an immediate impact on our team and help us contend with the league’s elite teams. Newberry and Allen are both respected players who should help our offense.


Newberry & Allen

We traded a couple of 7th round draft picks for Punter Chris Gardocki. Chris played last season in Pittsburgh and we feel he will be our starter this season. We wanted to add an older punter who could help us with field position. Chris has great awareness and the physical tools we were looking for so we are pleased that he is on board.


Gardocki

Our management team felt that we did well in the draft and added some key players through trades, but we wanted to fill in some holes through free agency. We were really counting on coming to terms with free agent Nick Greisen. Nick has played very well for us the last couple of seasons and we are pleased to have him aboard after signing him to a 7 year deal. This kid is still young and he has done everything that has been asked of him. He was the runner-up defensive player of the year in 2004 and we hope he continues his great play for us in the 2006 season. We were going to do whatever it took to re-sigh Nick and feel he will continue to make big plays for us.


Greisen

We also re-signed OLB Wesly Mallard. Wesly told me that he is looking forward to continuing his career with our team and that he wants to do everything in his power to help our team win games. We plan on using Mallard on special teams and feel he could step into a starting job if needed.

I spoke with back-up quarterback Tommy Maddox and he voiced his frustration with his role. We released Tommy so he could look for a better opportunity elsewhere and we wish him nothing but the best. He is still a decent QB who can win games but we felt like we could add a cheaper QB who would be a better fit. There was no cap penalty for releasing Maddox, so we did so and then signed Brian Griese to a 3 year deal with is very cap accommodating. Brian is an intelligent individual who is capable of stepping in if needed. He impressed us during our interview and we are glad to have him in a Giants uniform.


Griese

We also released Ron Dayne because it made sense financially and allowed Ron the opportunity to find more playing time elsewhere. Ron was due to make $1.51M this season and we felt it made more sense to release him in favor for another running back who could be signed to a more cap friendly contract. Jonathan Reese was signed to replace Dayne. Reese is not expected to see much playing time as we have three talented backs in Tiki Barber, Walter Reyes and Heath Evans.

Back-up Full Back Deltron Smith was also released to make more cap room. His $980k salary was a bit too high for our liking so we made him free agent. We can use this money to sign another FB in the future if needed.

Speedy WR Tim Carter will be missed and we wish him the best with his new team. I feel that we have 3 great WRs and we were just not willing to spend close to $2 million for a WR who would be 4th on our depth chart. We feel that Taylor Stubblefield and Jamaar Taylor are more than capable of stepping up and filling in at the #4 WR spot.

Free Safety Omar Stoutmire was not re-signed after we decided to draft Brodney Pool. We toyed with the idea of moving SS Shaun Williams back to FS, but thought a Safety combination of Pool and Williams would be a better fit.

Offensive Guard Wayne Lucier will not be returning to New York this season as we had no need for his services and felt confident with our current O-line.

In closing, I would like to say that we have by no means set this current roster in stone. We feel that we have a solid base of talented players that could take us to the post season. We will do whatever is needed to improve this team in order to be a contender for this season and for many seasons to come. I appreciate you time and look forward to meeting with you again in the near future.

Are there any questions?

[TheBillster]

Your team looks really improved on the first view, but what do you think about your division rivals? You mentioned your teams goal is the post-season. So, do you really feel your team has all it takes to have a great season with the Cowboys and the Eagles on your division?
And, who will be your starting RB, still Tiki or will you go for a change and give the starting job to promising Walter Reyes?

[Duke Raoul]

Thank you for the queston Mr. Billster.

We can only focus on our team and getting the most from our players. Other teams in our division have been busy lately adding FAs, signing draft picks, etc....but we can not focus much attention on that right now. I can tell you that I feel that we match up well with the Cowboys, Redskins and Eagles at this point. We were able to get Larry Allen from the Cowboys and anytime you take a division rival's icon it helps. I feel that we have caught up and passed a couple of teams as far as O-line talant. We have a great young QB in Manning and a solid group on both offense and defense. Trust me, I have gone through the current rosters for all teams in our division and looked for each team's strengths and weaknesses. We will do everything in our power to exploit weaknesses and use our team's strengths to get some wins.

We as a team feel that the playoffs are our main point of focus. That being said, we will have to take it one game at a time. I believe that we have the players and management needed to be a contender and we hope to improve our play throughout the year.

As for your last question, we plan on using both Barber and Reyes. I am not going to name our regular season starting HB at this point because we have yet to see how each of them does in the preseason. We've experimented with both players at the FB position and want to get them both into games if possible. We could end up using one back in certain formations and the other back in other formations. It also depends on who we are playing and how the backs have been performing. Performance is huge and I've told our coaching staff that I want to reward great play. Chances are that more playing time will be rewarded to the back who is more efficient and making bigger plays. Barber is a decent receiver, so you could also see him play some WR in some situations. Both of these players will get their share of carries and we hope that they both perform well for us.

Next question please.

[DaBearsGM]

How high are your expectations for Brodney Pool, do you think he will be an impact player from day 1?

[Duke Raoul]

We think we found a big player in Brodney Pool and we expect him to make some big plays for us. One look at this kids attributes and you can see why we are impressed. He is still growing, but at 6'3" and 198 lbs, he has a physical advantage over most wide receivers and should be able to easily defend most tight ends when needed. He has good speed for a safety and we feel that his jumping and catching skills could lead to plenty of interceptions. We did'nt have many interceptions last season and we hope his presence in the secondary will help lead to more turnovers. We hope that he can put up some good numbers this season, which in turn will help the team get plenty of victories. We expect great things from this kid and feel that it is only a matter of time before the rest of the league notices what a skilled player he is.

Are there any more questions?

[T.O.F.N.]

What are your future plans with Michael Strahan?

[Duke Raoul]

Michael Strahan is a proven leader and has put up big numbers for our team. He is not only a beast on the field, but a leader in the clubhouse and someone who demands respect. I had the oppertunity to speak with Michael about his future as he appears to be nearing the end of his legardary career. Michael expressed to me that he would like nothing more than to win a Superbowl with the Giants. He is a competitor and winning means alot to him. Michael will always be remembered as a New York Giant no matter what happens from this point on. He is not the type of person who would come to me and ask to be traded. With that said, we do have the option of trading him to a Superbowl contender if we find ourselves out of the playoff hunt heading into the trade deadline. We used our franchise tag on him, so we would not take any kind of salary cap penalty by trading him and it would free up close to $8 Million dollars. At this point, we plan on keeping Michael in the New York until he retires, but we also have the attractive option of trading him and using Reggie Torbor (85 OVR) at LE.

We've had some talks in regards to trading Strahan, but so far there have not been any serious offers.....just GMs looking into the possibility of making a future deal. Ideally, we can get off to a fast start and put all these questions to rest because we will not trade him as long as we are playing good football and in a good position to make a playoff run.

Are there any more questions?

[T.O.F.N.]

How many wins do you think it will take to win the division?

[Duke Raoul]

I believe that 10 wins will assure us of a playoff spot. I am not sure if it will allow us to win our division or not, but it would be a solid record and would likely result in a playoff spot.

I believe that the NFC East is one of the league's premier divisions. It looks like one team in our division is rebuilding and there will be three teams contending for the division championship. We finished last season with an 8-8 record, but we feel that this record should have been better. I think we played some of our best football on the road and it resulted in a 5-3 road record. Our play at home and within our division was lackluster and we want to improve on these areas this season. I think that we should be able to make the playoffs if we improve our home and division records.

Are there any more questions?