Letters to the Editor: January 28, 2013
It is the time of the year where we all like to play GM. The way i see it is dependent on free agency. Will they use Free agency to find OL help and use the draft for LB and DL or vice versa? – Chris. H.
Chris, while you are correct that free agency comes before the draft, what you are forgetting is that teams are evaluating their contracted people and there might be free agents that become available that no one counted on (i.e. Antrel Rolle a few years ago), and there also might be guys who today are projected to be free agents but who might re-sign wih their current teams before free agency kicks off on March 12. So, as I suspect I’ll say several times more this off-season, let’s wait and see what happens – there no point in rushing to worry about the draft of free agency right now.
Thinking back to last years poor defense stats the only thing that seemed to improve was the takeaways. That has been Fewell’s specialty wherever he coached. How many turned into scoring drives? As we know it requires read and react technique and mostly cover 2 schemes which the offenses – especially those with good slot and TEs take advantage of. Now add the Pistol and running QBs, as long as they last, and what defense will we need in 2013 to handle that? We do not have speed in most of the Defense positions.
On the offense side we will have to get some more screens and wheel routes, more hurry up and cut some of the QB reads at the line and just go at it. When Eli changes plays at the line with almost no time left in the chess match the opposing D knows we have to snap the ball and gets a real advantage in speed over the lineman play and movement. Are there stats on that scenario of success and failure of Eli and OC changes?
Also, losing David Gettlemen reminds me last season when we lost the QB coach to become the OC at Tampa. At some point during the season and definitely as the season ends our needs and strategy and tactics to sign free agents and draftees become fixed. The issue still centers around do these coaches, front office staff and mgmt. sign confidentiality agreements that would prevent them from sharing our plans with their new team? Understood that it still is a crapshoot re talent availability, needs and a team’s draft position, etc., but it would also seem that just like companies there are non-compete or time length restrictions of divulging your predecessor company. – Terry D.
Terry, I’ll be completely honest with you – I don’t have exact answers to the interesting questions you raise in your letter. I don’t yet have the final stats in my hand. As for handling the pistol offense, I would say take a look at the Pittsburgh – Washington game as if I recall correctly, the Steelers did a pretty good job of shutting down the Redskins in that game. Also, we don’t know how many times Eli is changing the play at the line of scrimmage, so no, there’s no stat that exists as far as I know of.
What I can answer for you is the questions raise din the third paragraph of your letter. I don’t think it’s any great secret about what every team’s needs are, and given that Gettleman left before the Giants draft board was drawn up, I don’t think you have to worry about anything.
To add to that, he left before the Giants completed the evaluation of their current personnel, so I’m not sure how much in terms of “state secrets” he can take away. I’ll also point out that when Mike Sullivan left the Giants to become the OC of Tampa, even with his knowledge of the Giants defense, etc., that really didn’t help the Bucs bet the Giants, now did it?
