Giants Injuries Foil Plan for Depth

After the 2008 season, New York Giants general manager Jerry Reese sought to make one of the team’s cornerstones even stronger by bolstering the defensive line with free-agent acquisitions.
Giants Injuries Foil Plan for Depth
CATCHING ON FAST: Giants rookie wideout Ramses Barden #13 made several exciting plays during the first week of training camp. (Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)
8/24/2009
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/giants.jpg" alt="BAPTISM BY FIRE: Giants rookie linebacker Clint Sintim #97 may get onto the field sooner than he expected, due to injuries plaguing the defense.  (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)" title="BAPTISM BY FIRE: Giants rookie linebacker Clint Sintim #97 may get onto the field sooner than he expected, due to injuries plaguing the defense.  (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1804771"/></a>
BAPTISM BY FIRE: Giants rookie linebacker Clint Sintim #97 may get onto the field sooner than he expected, due to injuries plaguing the defense.  (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

After the 2008 season, New York Giants general manager Jerry Reese sought to make one of the team’s cornerstones even stronger by bolstering the defensive line with free-agent acquisitions.

Nabbing Chris Canty from the Dallas Cowboys and Rocky Bernard from the Seattle Seahawks, the Giants added two excellent interior pass rushers hoping they’d create a constant rotation of fresh linemen and a nightmare for opposing offenses.

But now with injuries mounting along their defensive line, linebacker unit, and secondary, the Giants are forced to go from feast to famine and find competent backups who can hold down the fort while the starters remain sidelined.

With the regular season only weeks away, the Giants defensive line is patchwork at best. Chris Canty remains out with a torn hamstring, an injury that usually takes anywhere from four to six weeks to heal. In another blow, lineman Jay Alford was injured in Saturday night’s loss to the Bears. Alford is out with an MCL injury and doesn’t figure to be back anytime soon.

The good news is Fred Robbins is returning to clog up the middle of the line, but the timetable on a full recovery remains uncertain due to the nature of his off-season surgery.

Rocky Bernard will also be back in the mix as he practiced last Wednesday and hopes to play against the Jets this week, but, as with Robbins, it’s unknown how long it will take for him to become 100 percent healthy.

Taking into account that Barry Cofield (knee), Osi Umenyiora (knee), Justin Tuck (foot) are also being hampered by injuries and limited to one-a-day practices, the situation does not look good for the Giants.

Also injured are Aaron Ross (hamstring), Kenny Phillips (knee), and Antonio Pierce (foot). Pierce left the Bears game early with a foot injury and is confident he will continue to play as needed. But how much the injury will slow him remains a question. His loss would be critical as he is essentially the quarterback of the defense.

Ross’s absence also hinders the defense, as the Giants are forced to play second-year man and backup corner Terrell Thomas. Thomas has played well in the preseason and during camp but the Giants would like to have both players as part of a healthy secondary.

As for safety Kenny Phillips, the Giants hope he can return to limited practicing. He is one of the team’s most promising young defenders and they can ill afford to have him sitting on the bench as the regular season looms.

After losing embarrassingly to the Bears, head coach Tom Coughlin discussed his team’s frustrating state of affairs with the N.Y. Daily News,

“I just think that for so long we’ve [read that] we’ve got so much depth. I don’t know what you’re watching, but the guys that are supposed to be the depth have hardly even practiced.”

“Until we get this thing straightened around with everybody on the field, this rotation and this depth that we’re talking about really is a non-factor right now.”

This is definitely not the ideal situation Coughlin had in mind when management spent over $40 million on the defensive line during the off-season.

In slight contrast to Coughlin, Antonio Pierce appeared a bit more optimistic and insists the lean times won’t deter his group from performing at a high level come September 13th.

Speaking to www.Giants.com, he said, “There are teams throughout the league that have the same problems we’re dealing with. Guys get nicked up this time of year, just getting back into the groove of it.”

“Guys have to go out there and perform. It doesn’t matter who’s lined up, how much money that guy made, where he came from, none of that matters.”

For the Giants, whoever is receiving a paycheck at this point will have to step up. With the injury bug striking early, the team has little time to contemplate, they just have to “go out there and perform.”