Tag: New York Giants

Tiki Barber: Giants should not sit Saquon Barkley

Former New York Giants great Tiki Barber doesn’t believe that its beneficial to cut down star RB Saquon Barkley for the remainder of the season.

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With the 2-8 New York Giants going nowhere and star running back Saquon Barkley still dealing with the after effects of a high ankle sprain, the consensus from fans and pundits is that the Giants should either severely limit – or even bench – Barkley until he’s fully recovered to avoid further damage.

His performance against the Jets on Sunday (13 carries for 1 yard) has everyone wondering if Barkley is hurting more than the team is letting on and many would like to see Barkley play closer to 100% than what they’re seeing out of him now.

That isn’t going over well with Barkley and head coach Pat Shurmur, who have scoffed at the notion of putting the Pro Bowler on the shelf.

“I do not agree with that idea at all. One, that’s not fair to my teammates and, two, when you say running backs have so many carries, yes, the average career length of a running back is not as long as other players,” Barkley told reporters on Tuesday.

“The mindset of sitting me out and resting me for the rest of the season is beyond me. I do not agree with it and it won’t happen. I’m going to keep going until I can’t go anymore. That’s the type of player I am and I’m going to do it for my teammates.”

Giants’ Ring of Honoree Tiki Barber, the Giants’ all-time leading rusher. agrees Barkley needs to stay on the field.

From TMZ Sports:

When we saw Tiki in NYC — the best running back in franchise history — we asked him if Giants brass should force Barkley to hang up his cleats until next season.

His answer … hell no.

“I don’t think they should shut him down. I think that would be detrimental to his psyche, ’cause he wants to be out there playing,” Barber tells us.

“I think limiting his carries might be smart going forward. Get Wayne Gallman some runs, and try to keep [Saquon] as healthy as possible.”

When asked if he had any intention of shutting Barkley down for the season, Shurmur was pretty sure of his answer.

“Absolutely not,” he told reporters on a conference call on Monday. That doesn’t mean they won’t curtail his usage though. Barkley believes his recovery will accelerate with the Giants heading into their bye week.

“This week, I’m going to focus on watching film and obviously the opportunities we get in practice, take advantage, like watching film of myself,’ he said. “The time we do get off, I get to spend time with my family, I get to spend time with my teammates. When I come back, after that game, I can get back to who I am and have that mindset, no matter what happened the first half of the season, last week, I am the best player on the field and when I touch the ball I make things happen. I’m going to get back to that. ”

 

 

Giants’ Saquon Barkley won’t be shut down, refuses to blame injuries for struggles

New York Giants RB Saquon Barkley refuses to blame injuries for his struggles and says he won’t be shut down this season.

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New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley has been a shell of his former self since going down with a high ankle sprain earlier in the season. And while his rapid return is admirable, it’s clear he’s playing hurt and only injuring himself more (shoulder) by trying to tough it out.

Not only has Barkley become a liability on the ground, his pass protection is nearly non-existent at this point and rookie quarterback Daniel Jones is suffering as a result.

Despite it all, Barkley refuses to blame injuries for his struggles, telling reporters on Tuesday that’s just an excuse used by weak players.

“To say that I’m not healthy, that’s just an excuse. Everyone is banged up, everyone is going through something and I’m not going to let that be an excuse for why I’m not having a successful season,” Barkley said. “The reason I’m not having a successful season is because I’m not making enough plays for my team.”

There’s a reason Barkley has a “C” on his jersey, but that should also come with the wisdom that sometimes being tough and risking your body does more harm than good. The Giants aren’t going anywhere this season and absorbing that wear and tear only pushes the running back that much closer to retirement when considering the life cycle at the position is far short than any other position on the field.

Ultimately, Barkley refuses to give in and won’t allow the team to shut him down for the season.

“One, that’s not fair to my teammates and, two, when you say running backs have so many carries, yes, the average career length of a running back is not as long as other players,” Barkley said. “When I think of the great running backs who played, Barry Sanders, Walter Payton, Thomas Jones, Curtis Martin, Matt Forte, yes, they had injuries throughout their career, every position has injuries throughout their career. Those guys were able to withstand a bigger workload back in the day than what we have now. Yes, you might get 300 touches, but your 300 touches might come with 250 carries and 50 catches. Back in those days Walter Payton in his second year had like 347 carries in 14 games and was able to have a long career and a great career.

“I’m not saying I want to put myself up to those standards because they are the best to ever do it and Hall of Famers. The way they were able to carry that workload and be able to have a successful career is the way I know I want to operate. I know the other great running backs in this league want to do that, too. The mindset of sitting me out and resting me for the rest of the season is beyond me. I do not agree with it and it won’t happen. I’m going to keep going until I can’t go anymore. That’s the type of player I am and I’m going to do it for my teammates.”

Barkley is going to keep going until his physically can’t anymore… It’s admirable, but this is precisely why general manager Dave Gettleman got heat for selecting Barkley over quarterback Sam Darnold in 2018.

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Should Giants take a flier on CB Vernon Hargreaves?

There’s no room in the New York Giants’ secondary for cornerback Vernon Hargreaves, who was released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Tuesday.

The New York Giants’ secondary is young and challenged at the moment and could use another experienced hand until all of their rookies and younger players get up to speed.

That being said, there’s no room for cornerback Vernon Hargreaves, who was released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Tuesday.

Why? The Giants are in bad enough shape without bringing in a player whose heart isn’t in his work.

From Nick Shook of NFL.com:

“After thoughtful consideration over the past few weeks, coach [Bruce] Arians and I came to the conclusion that we needed to make this change,” Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht said in a statement. “Decisions such as this are always difficult, but I felt it was in the best interest of our team to part ways with Vernon at this time and allow him to explore other opportunities. We are disappointed that it did not work out here for Vernon and we wish him continued success moving forward.”

Hargreaves’ standing with the team saw its first significant in-season warning sign over the weekend, when Arians benched the cornerback due to a lack of hustle. This came months after Arians held Hargreaves out of an OTA session because he felt as if the defender wasn’t ready to participate.

Hargreaves was the 11th overall pick out of Florida in the 2016 NFL Draft and has not lived up to his draft status. The Giants have already passed on him once when they selected Eli Apple directly in from of Hargreaves in that draft, so it makes no sense why they would want him now.

The Giants already have Janoris Jenkins on their roster, a veteran whose effort has been questioned at times as well this season. At the current time, the Giants have three young corners they are developing – DeAndre Baker, Sam Beal and Corey Ballentine and are planning on getting them into the mix along with another rookie, Julian Love, so there aren’t many reps for Hargreaves even if they decided to pick him up.

Pat Shurmur will continue calling plays for Giants

Pat Shurmur held an impromptu press conference on Tuesday, telling reporters that he will continue calling plays for the New York Giants.

The New York Giants enter their Week 11 bye with a 2-8 record and are currently mired in one of the worst stretches in franchise history, but despite that, there will be no changes — very literally no changes.

Despite clamoring from an extremely frustrated fan base, the Giants do not intend to fire head coach Pat Shurmur, who has also made it abundantly clear that he’s not going to fire anyone on his staff.

Moreover, Shurmur refuses to give up play-calling duties — a consistent gripe for anyone who watches this team on a weekly basis.

In other words, the Giants will return in Week 12 sporting the exact same coaching staff, the exact same schemes, the exact same play-calling and, for the most part, the exact same personnel.

This is what Big Blue is going to roll with negative results be damned. The collective unit is stubborn as a mule and can’t seem to grasp why things are going wrong and in the literal definition of insanity, continue to do the same thing expecting a different result.

Should the Giants continue to bomb out on the back of a head coach who refuses to change a thing, then perhaps Shurmur’s job security becomes a little less secure going into the offseason. After all, an essential willingness to continue to lose without any change will not be something co-owner John Mara and Steve Tisch view in a positive light.

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Giants re-sign Evan Brown to practice squad

The New York Giants have re-signed offensive lineman Evan Brown to their practice squad.

The New York Giants made a flurry of roster moves earlier this week, signing tight end Scott Simonson to the 53-man roster and adding three to their practice squad after the Carolina Panthers signed cornerback Corn Elder to their active roster.

The three other additions came by way of tight end Garrett Dickerson, wide receiver Alex Bachman and long-snapper Colin Holba.

As a part of those moves, offensive lineman Evan Brown was waived off of the 53-man roster just a few days after having been promoted from the practice squad. But after clearing waivers, Brown is now back.

The Giants announced late on Tuesday night that Brown was re-signed to the team’s practice squad.

The 6-foot-2, 302-pound Brown signed with the Giants as a rookie free agent out of SMU following the 2018 NFL Draft and went on to make their 53-man roster, where he resided for all 16 games last season despite not playing in a game.

This season, Brown was waived as a part of final cuts, but was promptly re-signed to the team’s practice squad, where he had remained until last Saturday when the roller coaster began.

If a corresponding roster move was needed to make room for Brown on the practice squad, the Giants have yet to announce it.

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Will Giants attend Colin Kaepernick’s NFL workout?

Colin Kaepernick will reportedly hold a workout in Atlanta on Saturday and the New York Giants are invited — but will they attend?

The New York Giants have a substantial amount of problems, but one area they are unlikely to address any time soon is the quarterback position, where rookie Daniel Jones seems to have a good handle on things (except the football, that is).

For that reason, it seems unlikely the team will send representatives to Atlanta on Saturday where controversial quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, is currently slated to hold a private workout and interview session.

That is, of course, if Kap and his management go through with it.

Although Kaepernick has tweeted his excitement about the workout, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports there is an ongoing disagreement over the date of the workout, with Kaps’ representatives pushing the NFL to hold the workout on Tuesday of the following week or a later Saturday.

It seems more than a little curious that Kaepernick & Co. would want to wait even longer for an opportunity to return to the NFL, but that’s for another website and set of authors to debate.

The question is, with an invitation extending to all 32 teams, will the Giants attend if Kaepernick actually goes through with the workout and doesn’t mysteriously bail because things aren’t exactly the way he wants them?

The belief is that Kaepernick still wants to be a highly-paid starter, and that’s not going to happen with the Giants even with their need for a quality backup going into 2020. And even if he resigned himself to being a back-up, it seems unlikely that co-owner John Mara would sign off on Kap in The Big Apple.

“All my years being in the league, I never received more emotional mail from people than I did about [the national anthem protests],” Mara told Jenny Vrentas of MMQB in 2018, adding that the team never discussed signing Kaepernick. “‘If any of your players ever do that, we are never coming to another Giants game.’ It wasn’t one or two letters. It was a lot. It’s an emotional, emotional issue for a lot of people, more so than any other issue I’ve run into.”

Kaepernick caused a country-wide stir with his decision to kneel for the national anthem in protest of what he perceived to be racial injustices, which is a trend that exists in the sports world to this day.

But in Mara’s mind, it would be way too much of a distraction for a player who likely wouldn’t see the field.

Still, several current and former Giants have spoken out in favor of signing Kaepernick, including Michael Strahan, Saquon Barkley and Antoine Bethea.

The support in the Giants’ locker room aside, don’t expect Big Blue to send a representative to Atlanta on Saturday because there isn’t a place on the roster for Kaepernick and no logical potential use for an aging backup quarterback who has been out of the league for years after opting out of his San Francisco 49ers contract and turning down the Denver Broncos.

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Former Longhorn Malik Jefferson waived by Cleveland Browns

Former Texas Longhorns linebacker Malik Jefferson was waived by the Cleveland Browns on Tuesday

On Tuesday, former Texas Longhorns linebacker Malik Jefferson was waived by the Cleveland Browns.

Jefferson is in just his second year as a pro. He was drafted in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals.

With the Browns in 2019, Jefferson only made an appearance in one game, and that game came in week one against the Titans. In that game, Jefferson recorded just one tackle.

Hopefully, we see Malik find a new home soon. After all, he was a third-round pick last year for a reason.

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WATCH: Quandre Diggs gets first interception with Seahawks

Watch as Seattle Seahawks defensive back Quandre Diggs gets his first interception with his new team

A few weeks ago, former Texas Longhorn defensive back Quandre Diggs was traded from the Detroit Lions to the Seattle Seahawks. Last night, Diggs saw his first action with Seattle in a clash between the San Francisco 49ers.

The 49ers went into this Monday Night Football matchup as the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL. The Seahawks were able to stun the 49ers in San Francisco, winning in overtime by a score of 27-24.

About midway through the 3rd quarter, Diggs was able to intercept 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo with the score being 10-7 in favor of San Francisco. This interception led to a Seahawks touchdown, giving them the lead.

On the night, Diggs was able to tally two tackles, one of which was solo, a pass defense, and this interception.

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WATCH: Saquon Barkley on idea of being shut down for season: ‘It won’t happen.’

Reigning NFL Rookie of the Year Saquon Barkley is continuing to deal with an ankle injury, but he insists he has no plans to sit and rest the lower limb.

The Giants season is far from a winning one as the team sits at 2-8. Reigning NFL Rookie of the Year Saquon Barkley is continuing to deal with an ankle injury, but he insists he has no plans to sit and rest the lower limb or to nurse a new shoulder injury that required an x-ray following Week 10’s game.

Barkley missed weeks four, five and six then returned to action. Sunday, though, the star was all but eliminated from Giants 34-27 loss to the Jets (2-7) — he gained merely one yard on 13 attempts.

Tuesday, Barkley made it clear that the idea of him shutting things down for his health is far from one he likes.

“The mindset of sitting me out and resting me for the rest of the season is beyond me,” Barkley said, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN. “I do not agree with it. It won’t happen. I’m going to keep going until I can’t go no more. That’s the player I am and I’m going to do it for my teammates.”

Barkley averages a poor 2.6 yards per attempt since returning from his ankle sprain and the upper body issue makes him weaker than his norm from top to bottom, but expect the competitor to keep playing.