The Giants won’t miss Manningham

Historically teams in The National Football League tend to overpay
players who came up big in the most recent Super Bowl. How can we forget
former Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis opening up the vault for
cornerback Larry Brown and kick returner Desmond Howard in consecutive
years after they became Super Bowl MVPs in helping The Dallas Cowboys
and Green Bay Packers win The Super Bowl respectively. Manningham will
definitely fall into that category after he caught five passes for 73
yards in The Giants Super Bowl victory over The New England Patriots.

Manningham’s tenure with The Giants could be summed up in one word,
“inconsistent”. Manningham has the ability to beat coverage, but will
drop passes that seem routine. In his four seasons with The Giants,
Manningham consistently dropped passes that quarterback Eli Manning will
put right on his hands. Manningham also tends to run the wrong routes
on plays or he will just take himself out of the play as was evident in
Super Bowl 46. Prior to The Giants game-winning drive where Manningham
made a big 38-yards catch on the sideline, the former University of
Michigan wideout ran his route too close to the sideline which
eliminated Manning’s chances of completing the pass to him. This mistake
by Manningham forced The Giants to punt.

Manningham was the third banana for The Giant receivers behind Hakeem
Nicks and Victor Cruz. Nicks and Cruz combined for 2,728 yards and 16
touchdowns in 2011. The Giants will not miss a beat in their receiving
corps if Manningham bids farewell to The Big Apple. Since taking over as
the general manager of The Giants in 2005, Jerry Reese has done a
tremendous job of drafting. Reese has built a reputation of drafting the
best athlete. Besides that, Reese tends to draft players that can sit
and watch for a year until their number is called and they can
contribute. This will be put to the test once again as Jerrel Jernigan
will be looked at to fill Manningham’s void on the roster. In 2011,
Jernigan was a third round pick coming out of Troy University. Jernigan
only contributed on special teams for The Giants as he was still a bit
raw, but he has tremendous ability after the catch. Manningham wasn’t a
finished product either when he came out of college, so there is some
potential in Jernigan.

The Giants are also hoping that wide receiver Ramses Barden will be able
to contribute more in the passing game. Barden was a third round pick
for The Giants in 2009 and he has been plagued by injuries. Barden only
played in eight games last season catching nine passes for 94 yards, but
he could see a bigger role in 2012.

The Giants have a system in place where they can lose players to free
agency and injuries and not skip a beat. This was evident last
off-season when The Giants were decimated by season-ending injuries to
key players such as cornerback Terrell Thomas and the departure of tight
end Kevin Boss and wide receiver Steve Smith. Many people left The
Giants for dead and they got the last laugh by hoisting up The Lombardi
trophy.