T-Rock's Take: Inside the Giants

Glad to see Plax has showed up to this camp. Now if we could only pry Shockey away from Miami to get in some reps up here in NY.

This just in... Eli Manning told the New York Post that Jeremy Shockey has sent him a text message saying he will be in New York on Monday.

Looks like Plax and Shockey have finally figured out that if Manning fails they would have taken part of the blame if they didn't show up.

Eli has no more excuses. I hope he realizes his honeymoon with NY fans is officially over and it is time for him to produce and assume leadership of the team.

Eli doesn't make excuses. Like his older brother, he is maturing into a good QB. It helps when you have Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James in their prime for most of your career. I like Plax, but give me Marvin Harrison over 99% of any WR out there these days.

Looking forward to seeing the results of 80 and 17 showing up. Bout time. Hopefully we won't see anymore of those temper tantrums when they don't get the ball. Showing up your QB is never good chemistry.

Everyone needs to stop knocking on Eli. When he plays good, you're all in love with him. When he plays bad, you're quick to pull the trigger. He's only three years into this league, entering his fourth.

The loss of Petigout won't hurt us. David Diehl should be fine at left tackle, and Rich Seuburt can get plugged in at guard. Should the line stay healthy, and should Plaxico not give up on plays, Eli Manning will be a pro bowler this season.

Mark my words.

John -

Eli has been treated very fairly by Giants fans for three years. It is time for him to produce.

We traded away what turned out to be two all-pro (Rivers and Merriman) players and a great kicker to get him. In addition, we are paying him a King's ransom salary that appears to have been structured in a way to back end the cap impact. His salary appears to be inhibiting our ability to get free agents and likely was the reason we had to dump Petitgout.

Think about it.....we had huge salary cap relief from the Barber retirement and Arrington/Emmons leaving the team. These facts plus the annual increase in the cap should have left lots of room but it apparently didn't. The only reasonable explanation appears to be Manning's contract.

I don't think it is unreasonable for fans to expect results this year. We have waited patiently for three years. It is time for Eli to step up to the plate and produce on a consistent basis. If he doesn't produce, I would hope the front office would have the guts to admit its mistake or at a minimum begin moving in a direction consistent with limiting our losses.

Joe -

It takes at least three-to-four full starting seasons for the game to slow down for young quarterbacks.

You keep forgetting Eli has only started two full seasons, entering his third.

I completely expect Eli to show us something this season, but he's already showed us something the past two seasons, with those comeback wins against Denver and Philly.

I'm confident that our o-line will be solid. If Toomer doesn't produce like he once did, then we have Steve Smith to fall on. In saying this, I believe Eli will have a better season this year, after all, his QB rating has risen every year.

Plaxico and Shockey showing up for camp in May is a really good sign, but that doesn't mean the Giants will have the #1 offense in the league. This will however be a solid offense and have plenty of reliable scoring weapons during the course or any game. My main concern about the Giants isn't about Eli, it's about the defensive secondary. It doesn't matter if they score 300 or 500 points for the season, if the defense doesn't stop the opposition from driving right down the field (e.g.playoff loss to philly just to name one)in the 4th qtr. we won't win many games anyway!!

Joe; I disagree on your assessment of Eli's contract. If you remember, JR just activated the clause in his contract that keeps him from being a FA after this season and makes him a Giant thru 09 or 2010. It was either this or re-structure his deal completely which would have cost the Giants more money with a signing bonus which would have effected our offseason even worse.

Secondly, the release of Arrington actually cost the Giants money. They had to pay him an additional amount of guaranteed money which was owed.

Philip Rivers has LT and Antonio Gates and has not proven to me anything other than he can hand off to the league's MVP and let him carry them.

Merriman would have been great, but as Acoorsi said, when you have a chance to pick up a Franchise QB, you take him. They would have paid big money to whomever they took that year b/c they drafted #4 which demands a big contract regardless.

Its not a sprint, its a marathon my friend. We need a stronger D, a healthy Sinorice Moss, and a different Defensive scheme and we will be ok.

KC -

Let's take your points one by one.

1) I'm not sure what you are disagreeing with regarding Manning's contract since I think you make my point for me. My point was that it was initially structured to back end the cap impact. The initial structure included the buy out clause that we exercised this year. Since we exercised it, we will now be amortizing that buyout over 07-09. 07-09 represent the last half of his contract (i.e. the back end).

2) Your write-up implies that the only choice that we had was either to restructure the deal or execute the buy-out. You forget an important third option - let his contract expire in 2007. Had we not excersized the byout we could have picked Quinn up for a bargain at #20 (another decision I hope we don't regret).

3) I'm not disputing we would have paid a lot at #4. However we wouldn't have also given up two all pro players and a kicker. Are you seriously telling me that at this stage of the game you would take Manning over the combination of Rivers and Merriman?

4) You imply that Accorsi made the right decision by trading all of these picks away for a franchise quarterback. All indications are that there were two franchise QBs that came out of that draft and neither one is named Manning.

I hope as much as anyone that Manning turns around and becomes a great QB. However, his near complete collapse towards the end of last season was very disturbing to me (and others that are trying to look at this objectively.) In addition, his accuracy has been a consistent problem. He never seems to hit receivers in stride.

I (and I believe the majority of Giants fans) are willing to give Manning 1 more year to demonstrate that he has the right stuff. Let's see what happens and I hope I am wrong for the sake of the franchise.

I've sat back far too many times and let you talk your nonsense.

Not today.

You're stupid, Joe. Flat-out stupid.

I don't mean to be rude, but seriously... Brady Quinn over Eli Manning? That almost had me choking on my dinner while I read that.

Eli faltered the last half of the season when Luke Petigout and Amani Toomer went down. If your best left tackle isn't there to protect your blindside, and you have half of the defense covering Shockey and Burress, with no help from the second reciever, can you seriously expect anyone to produce "Playstation 3" numbers behind center?

I don't think so.

For another, shut the hell up about his contract. What does his contract have to do with how many touchdowns he throws?

Have a good day.