Tag: Jeremy Shockey

Sterling Shepard climbs all-time Giants ranks in final game

In his final game as a member of the New York Giants, Sterling Shepard climbed the franchise ranks in receptions, passing Jeremy Shockey.

On Sunday, the New York Giants dominated the Philadelphia Eagles, 27-10, ending their season on a high note.

Entering the game, the longest-tenured Giant, Sterling Shepard, knew his time with the team was likely coming to an end.

Surely his three catches for 18 yards and one carry for six yards aren’t going to jump off the stat book. However, they were enough to help Shepard reach a milestone.

With Shepard’s final catch of the game, he passed former Giant Jeremy Shockey and moved into fifth place in franchise history for receptions.

“Yeah, it meant a lot. I grew up watching that guy and it was a special deal being able to get it. It wasn’t easy but my career hasn’t been easy. So, I didn’t expect it to be any other way, but it was a great feeling.” Shepard told reporters.

Like Shepard, Shockey was drafted by the Giants and spent the majority of his career with Big Blue.

If this is it, Shepard will finish just 18 receptions shy of his former teammate Odell Beckham Jr.

Shepard got to make his own entrance on Sunday:

The Giants were clearly trying to target Shepard in the red zone in the game’s final minutes to get him a touchdown. That didn’t happen but he still received a game ball following the victory and was selected to break down the team.

Shepard is a fan favorite. If this concludes his time with the team, his final game will be what moved him into fifth place on the Giants’ all-time receptions list and he did it in a win.

As the old adage goes, Once a Giant, Always a Giant.

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Rob Gronkowski says ex-Giant Jeremy Shockey was his hero growing up

Rob Gronkowski reveals that former New York Giants TE Jeremy Shockey was his hero growing up and that he even wrote him a fan letter.

Rob Gronkowski is arguably one of the best tight ends of all-time and somewhere down the line, will find his way to Canton, where he’ll be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

That’s a dream realized for Gronk, who grew up wanting to emulate some of the other great tight ends of his time.

But it wasn’t Tony Gonzalez or Antonio Gates or Jason Witten whom Gronk truly looked up to. Rather, it was former New York Giants great Jeremy Shockey.

During a recent appearance on Up & Adams with Kay Adams, Gronk recalled writing to his “hero” as a young teenager.

“When I was in ninth grade, it was write a letter to your hero or whoever you looked up to or whoever it was,” Gronk recalled. “We wrote a letter and mine was obviously to my hero, Jeremy Shockey. . . I was also a big fan of (Shockey) already. I knew all about (him) from being at the University of Miami.

“To this day, that’s the only fan mail I’ve ever wrote to anyone.”

Shockey was highly amused by the entire story and joked that he’d been writing to Gronkowski for several years without a reply.

Gronk admits he, too, never got a reply from Shockey but acknowledges that the letter may have never arrived.

In recent months, the two have formed a bond and become friendly, which seems fitting given their respective personalities. Shockey was Gronk before Gronk was Gronk.

Shockey was a first-round pick (fourth overall) of the Giants in the 2002 NFL draft and he had an immediate impact. Coupled with unique athleticism, Shockey was an extremely physical player who never shied away from contact — often seeking out defenders to bowl over — and whose emotions were worn on his sleeve.

The four-time Pro Bowler and two-time Super Bowl champion hauled in 547 receptions for 6,143 yards and 37 touchdowns in his career, which also included stops with the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers.

Shockey was a favorite of the late Wellington Mara, who the tight end admittedly loved.

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Top 10 seasons by a rookie TE: Pitts closing in on Ditka’s record

Pitts got within striking distance of the record, but he still needs over 100 yards with two games left to overtake Iron Mike.

On Sunday, Kyle Pitts passed Jeremy Shockey for the most receiving yards by a rookie tight end in the NFL’s modern era. While this is quite the accomplishment, there’s still one man that Pitts must pass to be the undisputed rookie TE champ.

Before he was the Super Bowl-champion head coach of the Chicago Bears, Mike Ditka set what’s been an unbreakable rookie record of 1,076 receiving yards for the Bears in 1961.

Pitts got within striking distance of the record, but he still needs over 100 yards with two games left to overtake Iron Mike. Here are the top 10 seasons by a rookie tight end.

Looking at the top 10 seasons by a rookie TE in NFL history

As Pitts looks to climb the ranks of NFL history, let’s take a look at the top 10 single-season yardage leaders among rookie tight ends.

After the Falcons lost their first two games of the season, many around the league began to question the team’s decision to use the No. 4 overall pick on Kyle Pitts, the highest a tight end has ever been selected in the history of the NFL draft. That skepticism is quickly disappearing after Pitts exploded for 17 catches, 282 yards and a touchdown over the past two weeks combined.

The Falcons’ Week 7 win over the Dolphins couldn’t have happened without the rookie’s career-high 163-yard performance. He caught two key passes on the team’s game-winning drive and looks like he’s ready to be Atlanta’s No. 1 option even with Calvin Ridley on the field.

Through six games, Pitts has 31 catches, 471 receiving yards and one touchdown. At this pace, the former Florida Gators standout will finish the year with 88 catches for 1,335 yards — which would be the most ever by a rookie tight end by quite a bit.

As Pitts looks to climb the ranks over the remainder of the year, let’s take a look at the top 10 single-season yardage totals for rookie tight ends in NFL history.

Justin Tuck, Tiki Barber among modern-era nominees for Hall of Fame’s class of 2021

Nine former members of the New York Giants are among the modern-era nominees for the Hall of Fame’s class of 2021, including Justin Tuck.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced the names of 130 modern-era nominees for the class of 2021 on Wednesday, and nine former members of the New York Giants made the cut.

Among them is defensive end and team captain, Justin Tuck, who is in his first year of eligibility, and running back Tiki Barber.

Tuck was a third-round pick of the Giants in the 2005 NFL Draft out of Notre Dame and went on to win two Super Bowl titles with the team over his nine-year stint in East Rutherford. He spent the final two seasons of his career with the Oakland Raiders before retiring as a member of the Giants (one-day contract).

In 2016, the Giants inducted Tuck into their Ring of Honor.

Barber was a second-round pick of the Giants in the 1997 NFL Draft out of Virginia and earned three Pro Bowl nods and one All-Pro honor during his 10-year stint with the team. Barber retired in 2006 and was indicted into the team’s Ring of Honor in 2010.

Barber remains the Giants’ all-time leading rusher (10,449).

The seven other former Giants who were listed among the 2021 Pro Football Hall of Fame modern-era nominees are running back Herschel Walker, tight end Jeremy Shockey, guard Chris Snee, punters Jeff Feagles and Sean Landeta, kick returner Brian Mitchell and offensive tackle Lomas Brown.

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Remembering the Giants’ biggest training camp fights from recent years

As the New York Giants ready themselves for the first padded practice of the year, here’s a look back at some of their biggest camp fights.

The New York Giants will put on the pads for the first time on Monday, which means tempers are likely to flare and fists may begin to fly.

That may sound dramatic, but it’s just the nature of NFL training camps. And when considering the Giants will also hold intrasquad scrimmages once per week, it seems almost inevitable that a few punches will be thrown.

With that in mind, here’s a look back at some of the biggest and most memorable Giants training camp fights from recent years.

AP Photo/Adam Hunger

2019: Lorenzo Carter vs. Nick Gates

The Giants didn’t do much fighting in 2019, but there were a few dust-ups.

One such incident came last August when linebacker Lorenzo Carter and offensive lineman Nick Gates got into a bit of a scrap.

While neither player swung at the other, there were a few shoves before teammates swarmed and pulled the two apart.

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Giants select Javon Walker in 2002 NFL re-draft

In Bleacher Report’s 2002 NFL re-draft, the New York Giants select wide receiver Javon Walker.

In 2002, the New York Giants held the 15th overall selection in the NFL Draft. They got a bit antsy as their turn to pick neared and traded up one spot with the Tennessee Titans to get their man — Miami tight end Jeremy Shockey.

The Giants gave up picks 15 and 110 to Tennessee, who chose defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth and cornerback Mike Echols with those picks.

In Bleacher Report’s re-draft of the 2002 NFL Draft, writer Brad Gagnon has Shockey going 9th to the Jacksonville Jaguars, so he wasn’t there for Ernie Accorsi to grab.

Instead, Gagnon has the Giants selecting Florida State wide receiver Javon Walker, who went 20th that year to Green Bay.

What actually happened: Traded up, drafted TE Jeremy Shockey 14th overall

Where he was actually picked: 20th overall by the Green Bay Packers

The New York Giants were also pretty solid at offensive tackle in these days, but they did lose a pass-catcher when Shockey went to Jacksonville in the top 10. Here, they sort of replace him by at least giving eventual franchise quarterback Eli Manning another talented target in wide receiver Javon Walker.

In Green Bay during Manning’s rookie year with the Giants, Walker caught 89 passes for 1,382 yards and 12 touchdowns. That was his only Pro Bowl campaign, but he also went over 1,000 yards with the Denver Broncos in 2006. It was downhill from there, but the Giants might take this chance, hoping to squeeze a little more out of the Florida State product.

At the very least, he would have provided a huge upgrade over Ike Hilliard in support of Amani Toomer (and, later, Plaxico Burress).

I don’t know how much (if any) of an upgrade Walker would have been over Hilliard or Toomer, who is the Giants’ all-time leading receiver. And there’s no way he was better than Plaxico.

The correct revisionist pick here would have been Miami safety Ed Reed, taken 24th by Baltimore, the only player in this draft class to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame thus far.

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Flashback Friday: Giants’ Jeremy Shockey outduels Brian Dawkins for TD

In our latest Giants Wire Flashback Friday, we look at one of the most memorable regular season plays in New York football history.

In running back Saquon Barkley, the New York Giants possess a well-respected weapon that the rest of the NFL has to account for. When healthy, he is as “beast-mode” as they come in this game.

But when it comes to being a beast in the NFC East, no Giant offensive player was more feared — or successful — than tight end Jeremy Shockey.

When the Giants selected the Miami star with the 14th overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft, general manager Ernie Accorsi didn’t look at him as just another tight end.

”I look at him as a weapon, something that we really needed,” Accorsi said.

Shockey turned out to be as special as the Giants had hoped. He would make an immediate impact on the Giants, becoming the standard for today’s pass-catching, physical tight ends and qualifying for the Pro Bowl in four of his first five seasons with the club.

But Shockey was a lighting rod of a player that angered his own team and fans with too much swagger and lacked focus both on and off the field. There were times when he had no peer. Then there were the times that had us all shaking our heads. He was traded after the 2007 season.

One thing is for certain, though. He made the Giants a team to respect, especially in the NFC East. In Shockey’s 10-year NFL career (six with the Giants), his teams had a 21-13 record against the Cowboys, Redskins and Eagles.

Here is a signature play where Shockey outdoes future Pro Football Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins for a touchdown.

To most NFL observers, this is a play between two players that were hated around the league. It was especially gratifying moment for Giant fans, though, who had a particular distaste for Dawkins.

As great a competitor as Dawkins was, all of his bravado wasn’t enough when it came to dealing with Shockey. Dawkins earned himself a place in football history with his aggressive play, but on this particular play, it was Shockey that got the last laugh — and word.

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