The Giants have signed 4th round selection Andre Brown. That leaves Hakeem Nicks, Clint Sintim and William Beatty unsigned.

To make room on the roster, the Giants cut Alex Derenthal.

The Giants have signed Travis Beckum, one of their third round picks. WR Hakeem Nicks (first round), LB Clint Sintim (second) and OT William Beatty (third) have not yet signed.

To make room on the roster for Beckum, the Giants cut DE Alex Field.

It’s possible he won’t be ready for the season opener against the Redskins. This will open up competition again between Gerris Wilkinson and Brian Kehl.

The Giants waived TE George Wrightster and OL Mike Fladell to make room on the roster.

This year he has Domenik Hixon who is 6-2 slated to start on one side, and the 5-11 Steve Smith on the other. Sinorice Moss who is set to play in the slot is only 5-8.

Eli Manning says there are some things he can’t do as easily with this group of receivers that he could with last year’s crop,

“Naturally, you just see them and you have to put it in a spot,” Manning said. “Some throws we threw to Plaxico, we might not be able to throw to these guys — some back-shoulder, high balls.”

On the other hand, some different throws should open up for Manning. He explains,

“But these guys will be able to run by some guys and get deep on them. So what you lose in something, you gain somewhere else.”

Hixon, Moss, and Mario Manningham can fly, but Hakeem Nicks, and Smith don’t have that kind of speed. What they can do is run nifty routes, and hang onto the ball.

It appears the Giants have a good mix at the wide receiver position. Don’t forget about Ramses Barden, who is 6-6 and should see some playing time this season, especially in the red zone.

So what can we expect from Manning and his new look receivers this year?

I think we will see them take more shots down the field. The reason being so they can keep opposing team’s safeties out of the box to open up the running game. Big Blue will look to use play action to hit medium and short range throws.

Manning went on to say,

“Some of the receivers might be a little smaller than what we’ve had in the past, but they have a lot more speed,” Manning said. “They can get deep on the corner backs and get over the top of them. That’s exciting. That kind of takes a lot of the reads out of things.

“You just say, ‘You’ve got a go-route. Let’s go win. Let’s go back to a little backstreet football and let’s see if we’re better than the other guys.’”

There will be an offensive challenge for the Giants this year, but they do have the talent at the wide receiver position. Also they have training camp and the preseason to work out the kinks.

Of course all that doesn’t matter until September.

Ex-Giant QB Tim Hasselbeck ripped into Burress, saying the following,

“If you want to wait for a guy to show up to meetings, if you want to have to beg a guy to run full-speed in practice, if you want a guy that would disappear in games because he doesn’t get the ball early — then look, Plaxico Burress is your guy.

“But if you don’t want those distractions, and you don’t want to deal with the other headaches that come along with Plaxico Burress, then you better stay away from him.”

“We create objectives, we create goals and we work towards accomplishing those things.  Just like in anything else, perfection.  But you know you are human, but let’s keep that as our goal regardless of that fact.  So we have had an outstanding off-season program.  The attitude has been really good for all of the OTA’s, for the work here in the mini camp.  The attitude has been great.”

“It is a longer stretch than normal for us.  I gave them some notes about the number of practices up there and how it is reduced.  Let’s face it; we don’t get the same number because we play the Monday night game.  So we have to make things count when we get them.  I wished them and their families, “God bless them for the summer.”  But they need to think long and hard about the disappointment of January in terms of what we have created for ourselves and how badly we want to prioritize our 2009 season.”

Other thoughts:

• Sinorice Moss looked great in camp before tweaking his hammy. Let’s hope he’s at full speed for training camp.
• It looks like the Giants are going to attempt to have a deep passing attack this season. Domenik Hixon is looking to improve off of last season where reports are that injuries slowed him down near the end of the year.
• Kenny Phillips looks stronger due to putting on some muscle in the past few months. Look for him to have a big season.
• Patricia Traina notes that the Giants defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan appears to be adding some new wrinkles. Patricia  wrote that the defense looks more aggressive, and is disguising more pressure packages. Look for more safety blitzes.
• Hakeem Nicks and Ramses Barden didn’t look out of place this spring, and I hope they make an impact this season.