Plaxico Burress (after the suspension), Amani Toomer, Steve Smith, Domenik Hixon, Sinorice Moss, and Kevin Boss at tight end. This thought came to my head a couple weeks ago when Troy Aikman was criticizing the lack of production coming from our TE's (to replace what Shockey gave us). I realized that our offense really has evolved to the point where we don't necessarily depend on those one or two players to carry our passing offense anymore. Except for certain situations where Plaxio clearly cannot be stopped (eg: the St. Louis game), Eli's tended to spread to ball very evenly. I saw this trend developing in last year's playoffs, but I think some of your receivers have shown enough growth over the offseason to the point where it really may be the strongest point of our offense. It's certainly defined our passing game.
The G-Men are the deepest team! Jerry Reese is so money. I will point out that the O-Line and the QB sure help the receivers look soooooo good. (Never mind that some of these defenses are a little suspect. )
Before the suspension, I'd have said no. But... now... very possible. Its amazing Hixon was able to step in and produce like he did. Granted, Seattle's defense.... yada yada. I do wonder if he could keep it up over a course of a season (obviously, not a 1600 yard season... but I wonder if he could get 800 yards...). Smith was someone we (Dallas) supposedly were high on. Sucks to see him do well. Moss has been a bust for you guys, for the most part. Toomer is still a solid vet. Plax... well, we know what he is.
Hixon played well down the stretch last year and has been lighting it up all preseason and regular season. He flew past quite a few receivers on the depth chart. Tyree may have trouble seeing the field when he returns.
I honestly believe the only reason Tyree is still on this roster is because of that miraculous Super Bowl catch. Sinorice Moss had a nice game and certainly has the talent to be a solid third receiver on a team, but I feel like he'll be the odd man out next season. Hixon's really been NY's best kept secret. The coaches have been nurturing the guy for a while now and have always been happy with his progression. The Seattle game was basically his coming out party.
Manningham doesn't run a great 40 time. Yet somehow, in Michigan, he was a deep play threat. Weak. You guys are pretty stocked at WR.
Good to see they did so well without Burress. Hixon did a really good job and Jacobs ran the ball well too.
Somehow that worked in college. With his route-running ability and physical attributes, I see him becoming a more athletic Amani Toomer. It'd be cool to have a Michigan guy become the replacement for a Michigan guy.
I'd say that whats impressed me most is what Chutney brought up in the beginning. Manning has no apprehensions about throwing to anyone on this team. I don't know how many of you guys watched the Vikings- Saints game but every time Frerrotte threw it to Wade or Allison it was the last read and a holding his breath type of deal. Eli has faith in receiver 1-6, hence why we won the super bowl, the throw to Tyree was a bit lucky but it was faithful. Thats why I think Plax probably won;t make the pro bowl again this year just because we will have so many receptions towards so many different targets he'll probably on;ly get about 1100 yards. I remember Aikman doing his TE math on the air and I laughed at his idiocy. He said that the Giants would be down 60 receptions automatically because of Shockey being gone. But Boss will catch at least 25, Smith will get at least 15-20 more from being used more often and we didn;t use our 4th WR that much last time around and no we have an overload with Moss, Manningham, and Hixon.....
I think Troy was trying to make the point that with the loss of Shockey, like you said, it puts you down 60 receptions... and that other guys need to step up to alleviate that loss. And it looks like they have. Hell, you lost Burress last game (far more important to your offense), and you didn't miss a beat. Guys stepped up.
Shockey's absence would've been felt much more in the blocking department, but to his credit, Kevin Boss has improved a lot in that aspect over the offseason. I'm not going to lie by pretending that I'm not surprised by how easily we've played without Shockey. I figured his absence would be felt at some point, but it really hasn't.
Coughlin/Gilbride never wanted to feature the TE in the offense. They feel much more comfortable with a good possession receiver in the slot. Shockey got split out wide a lot, and that takes away a lot of his advantage. He was never open and he dropped a lot of balls - a lot of which were poorly thrown because Eli would force it to him to "get Shockey involved". Sinorice Moss was supposed to do that job three years ago, but it was Steve Smith that finally gave them the weapon they needed. That's why the Giants wanted to keep Shockey. He's better than Kevin Boss at both blocking and catching from the TE position. Shockey doesn't want to catch two balls a game and grind the rest of the time, so he acted like a dick and got himself traded.
ohhh I can't wait for Steelers/Giants! If Boss has improved at blocking like you said Chutney, it'll show in that game.
