Maybe the Eagles are learning. The “dream team” free agent signings of Nnamdi Asomugha,
Vince Young, Ronnie Brown, and Steve Smith didn’t amount to much in the win
column. Newly signed Giant Cullen
Jenkins admitted this week that the frenzy around the 2011 free agent signings
made it hard on the team. Heh, Heh...I said hard on. Anyway, this
year’s Eagles’ free agent class--while short on name power--provides much needed
depth at reasonable prices. Even
the Giants fans are getting a little worried that the Eagles might be figuring
out the right recipe for success.
Thank god they don’t have a quarterback. But even if they know the secret, let’s just promise to
not let Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder in on it.
I’ve never really gotten too worked up about the free agent
signing period. For most of my
adult life Giants’ free agent signings were generally castoffs that were on
their last legs by the time they arrived in New York. For every Kareem McKenzie or Plaxico Burress signing, the
Giants shot themselves in the foot (thigh?) with aged superstars like Dorsey
Levens, Carlos Emmons, Brian Mitchell, and LaVar Arrington. Those first three names just made me a
little bit more concerned about the Jenkins signing. Maybe we should keep the Eagles stink out of the Giants
locker room.
It has also been pretty rare that the Giants have lost
players in free agency that have come back to bite them in the ass. You’ll be hard pressed to find a Giants
fan clamoring for the days when players like Gibril Wilson or Steve Smith or
Kevin Boss donned Giants blue.
Sure, the loss of Barry Cofield a few years back stings now that the
artist formerly known as Chris Canty has moved on. And I personally wasn’t thrilled to see The Black Unicorn
move on to greener pastures (where is it exactly that a unicorn frolics?) but ever
since Shockey left, the Giants have done just fine with a “next man up”
mentality to the tight end position.
Maybe Osi ends up on a team that can put him to good use as a
situational pass rusher but I for one won’t miss seeing backs like Alfred
Morris or Shady McCoy run right around his end.
As for Kenny Phillips, I read somewhere that he is going to
learn to hate the Giants. Well
then, with deference to Eric Cartman, I hate you Kenny. I wish you about as much luck in
Philadelphia as your friend Steve Smith had. You were a real good Giant who never lived up to full
potential because of injury. We’ll
always have Super Bowl 46. I’m
sure the Eagles’ doctors were well aware of the degenerative condition that is
eating away at your knee. I can’t
imagine that a gaping hole in your knee is the reason why 30 other teams failed
to offer you any more than the veteran minimum.

I’m moderately enthused by the Brandon Myers signing. Sure he can’t block but he did catch 79
balls last year. And he is a dead
ringer for Carson Palmer so he has that going for him which is nice. Speaking of Palmer, I can only imagine
how giddy Louis Murphy was to find out that he will now be receiving the ball
from Eli Manning rather than from JaMarcus Russell or Bruce Gradkowski or
Palmer’s corpse or more recently from Cam Newton. I’m indifferent on this signing. Murphy’s numbers have generally rivaled those of Domenick
Hixon and he is likely to be behind Nicks, Cruz, and Randel on the depth
chart.
I’ll admit that this hasn’t been my favorite offseason. It is never fun to see champions like
Ahmad Bradshaw or Michael Boley or (I suspect) Osi Umenyiora leave the Giants
family. But I understand. There’s a saying on Giants blogs, “In
Reese We Trust.” He deserves
it. Two Super Bowls in five years. I’ll keep telling myself that.