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.

Is New York Giants’ MLB Antonio Pierce slipping?

During and after last season, there have been rumblings from fans and the media that Pierce has lost a step. He looked slow and out of place at times, and that was magnified by the play of Brian Westbrook, or the lack of play by Pierce.

Some say his mind wasn’t right after the Plaxico Burress shooting incident. So let’s take a closer look at Pierce:

The Good:

Pierce is a leader. He has the respect of his teammates.

Pierce has experience. He knows what to expect on the football field. He is a competitor and he is savvy. He may not get to every offensive player coming his way, but he knows where the play is going most of the time.

The Bad:

He is turning 31 in October. He has played in the league since 2001, when he was signed by Washington as an undrafted free agent. This will be his ninth season of taking a pounding, and it could be taking its toll on him.

Pierce has his worst statistical performance in five years last season. He had 95 tackles and just 1 and 1/2 sacks. He looked slow on several plays, although he never was the fastest cat in the litter.

So if in fact Pierce is declining what do the Giants have as far as possible replacements?

The Giants selected Johnathan Goff in the 5th round of the 2008 draft.  He is listed as 6-2 and 236lbs. He was injured most of last season and only totalled a whopping 2 special teams tackles. He is an unknown.

Chase Blackburn is listed as the backup to Pierce on the Giants depth chart. Is is adequate at best, but he not the long term answer. So that brings us back to Pierce.

2008 was a disappointing season for Pierce. His performance wasn’t up to par, and the Giants lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Eagles. It seems that he has put all of that behind him, and is ready to move forward.

As quoted in the Big Blue Screen Pierce has this to say about last year:

“The past is the past, you learn from it, you live from it. There’s nothing you can do about it. Why am I going to talk about negatives? It’s behind us. We’re trying to move forward. We’ve got new faces here. We’re trying to build a new team. This isn’t the 2008 Giants. A lot of things have changed.”

Pierce had this to say about himself:

“I’m just getting better,” he said. “It’s going to be the old A.P. It’s going to be a new look. I’m excited about it being a new year, new experience, and a different guy.”

Time will tell if Pierce will play like the old A.P. this season. He has the fire and desire…but does he still have the skills?

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.

Diehl was drafted by Big Blue in 2003 as a 5th round selection. He played right guard in 2003, right tackle in 2004, left guard in 2005 and 2006, and he has held down the left tackle position for the past two seasons.

When the Giants moved Diehl to left tackle in 2007 after cutting Luke Petitgout, they could only hope things would work out. So far they have.

Still, when the Giants gave Diehl a new contract last spring, it included escalators that would increase his pay if he stayed at left tackle. That may be a sign that they want him to push himself to stay at tackle…or it could mean that they plan on moving him back to guard.

Guy Whimper was drafted in the 4th round of the 2006 draft with hopes of becoming a left tackle in the future. In 2006 he was raw, in 2007 he was a back up and in 2008 he was placed on injured reserve on August 30th.

I remember John Madden saying the Whimper looked ready to start in the 2007 season. I believe it was the opening game against Dallas. 

Adam Koets was selected by the Giants in the 6th round of the 2007 draft, again to be a tackle.

William Beatty was a second round selection in the NFL draft in 2009.  He again will be groomed to be a left tackle. At 6-6 and 307 he was considered the most athletic tackle in the draft according to the Giants.

Why do the Giants keep drafting offensive tackles with the hope of them playing on the left side?

Diehl was abused by DeMarcus Ware of the Cowboys near the end of the 2008 season. Then again who wasn’t? Diehl has been on record as saying that he is a tackle and not a guard. But…

Beatty figures to be at least a year away from stepping in, and this could be Whimper’s last training camp if he doesn’t show signs of real improvement.

Where does that leave Diehl? For now left tackle is his position to lose. However, considering the drafts of the past few years, it looks more and more like the Giants would be more comfortable moving him back to guard. What do you think?

Flash back to the 2007 season. Justin Tuck had ten sacks rotating in with other players on the Giants defensive line. In the Super Bowl, Tuck was a monster, recording six tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble, and two QB hurries.

Can Mathias Kiwanuka duplicate Tuck’s success in 2007 in 09?

I say yes.

Last season Kiwanuka was up and down. While he did record eight sacks, an injury at the end of the Washington game set him back for the first part of the year. He said,

“I played the first four games at less than full speed,” he said. “I had so much tape on my ankle that sometimes I found it hard to lift my foot up, and that affected my initial burst.”

In addition Kiwi seemed to wear down late last season, similar to other Giants players.

Some fans question why the Giants picked up Chris Canty, and Rocky Bernard in the off season. Don’t forget it was the DL rotation in 2007 that helped the Giants reach the Super Bowl. Add Osi Umenyiora to the mix this year and Big Blue has the potential to wreak havoc this season on opposing quarterbacks.

When Kiwanuka came into the league in 2006 he had a very good season for a rookie. In nine starts he had fifty- five tackles, twenty-three QB hurries, four sacks, and two interceptions. He moved to SLB in 2007 and broke his leg on November 18th against Detroit. He missed out on the run to the Super Bowl, and that was hard to take,

“I understood what Shockey meant when he said all those things because I felt the same way,” Kiwanuka confessed. “As much as I wanted to be a part of that, in any capacity, I understood why I couldn’t. But I won’t lie to you. It hurt me deeply.”

2009 is a new season. A new slate for Kiwanuka,

“A lot (of ) this is still a dream,” he said about his NFL career. “Playing in the NFL is definitely a privilege that has to be earned. If you’re committed to working hard, doing what the coaches tell you, and focus on your job, which I am, there’s no reason why anyone can’t be successful.”

So can Kiwanuka duplicate the success he had in his rookie season? Absolutely. Look for him to have a great year. If all goes well the Giants defense could lead the league in sacks.

This year, Kiwanuka has a real shot of  playing in the Super Bowl. A shot he’s eager to take.

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.