T-Rock's Take on the Giants

Today, we'll talk about who's on the bubble -- or. more accurately, who's safely in the bubble and who's on the outside looking in. Tomorrow's game may clear some things up, but I'm betting the hard choices won't be made easier when the "Pats" -- i.e., the 36-odd guys you've never heard of that Bill Belichick suits up tomorrow -- come to town.

This is, of course, as scientific and accurate as can be. So here's who's on the bubble, with my well-researched, well-informed feeling on who's in and who's out...

DB Curtis Deloatch: Could have been a goner if not for E.J. Underwood's season-ending shoulder injury. He's still not assured of a spot but he's looking better and better for the fourth DB slot. Verdict: Bubble Boy

DB Frank Walker: Always a fun guy to have around, and he's had a solid camp. But the numbers game may push him out after three seasons. Verdict: Costanza

DE Eric Moore: Giants tried to make him a LB last season. Should've spent more time making him aware that time in the NFL is short -- he was, according to a couple players, the most-fined player last season. Now, he's behind Adrian Awasom, who doesn't really have a legit chance to make the team. Verdict: Costanza

DE Jonas Seawright: Hasn't exactly lit it up in camp with a real opportunity to get some playing time, but he's still got that all-important potential -- at least until the Giants draft another Barry Cofield next April. Verdict: Bubble Boy

DE Damane Duckett: In the same situation as Seawright, but a year older. That's never good. Verdict: Costanza

WR Michael Jennings: You know how I feel about the man. He made just about everyone's camp with his big personality and, frankly, even bigger improvement -- did anyone seriously think he had a chance to make this team in July? But it's hard to make the numbers work: With such a need for defensive depth, the Giants really can't afford to keep six WRs. And they already have Chad Morton to return punts and kicks. But MJ will get work in the NFL somewhere and he can be proud of that. Verdict: Costanza

WR Willie Ponder: Writing's been on the wall since Day 1 of camp. Like Jennings, he'll find work. Verdict: Costanza

TEs Wade Fletcher and Darcy Johnson: No shot. Verdict: Costanzas

OL Rich Seubert: A tough call. The turf toe has set him back; so has Grey Ruegamer's good play in essentially the same role. Coughlin kept Seubert last season because of the sheer toughness it took for Seubert to recover from the broken leg; I say the coach keeps him again as insurance. Verdict: Bubble Boy

LB Carlos Emmons: I really thought he was the one to go for much of camp, but his versatility should make him stick. Will the Giants keep seven LBs though? Seems like a lot. Verdict: Bubble Boy

LB Reggie Torbor: I also thought Brandon Short might be the odd man out, but might it be Torbor? He's only played strong side, which Emmons can play; he hasn't had the most dazzling camp; and it's looking more and more difficult for the Giants to justify seven LBs. A real puzzler. Verdict: Costanza

OK, if my calculations are correct, the Giants will have eight OL, seven LBs and only two TEs. Perfect!!!

We'll see what goes down in 72 hours...

The team won't announce anything until Tuesday, but the first round of cuts were informed of their dismissal this morning and aren't around... Here is who's gone:

QB Rob Johnson, TE Boo Williams, RB Little John Flowers, FB Greg Hanoian, CB Brandon Williams, P Travis Dorsch, LB Thomas Carroll, G Julius Franklin, DB Vontez Duff, T Ben Herrell, DT Sir Henry Anderson, S Jason Shivers and WR Triandos Luke.

That gets the Giants down to 77. They have to officially be down to 75 by Tuesday.

Johnson is the biggest name, but hardly the biggest surprise -- he was not good enough in camp and didn't prove his arm was back to full strength. He may catch on somewhere else, but this may be it for him.

Frankly, Boo Williams is the biggest shock -- he had the most experience in the battle for the third tight end, and Wade Fletcher and Darcy Johnson haven't shown a whole lot of late. Perhaps, as last season, the team's third TE is in someone else's camp.

And now get out. That was the message from Tom Coughlin to us media types on the last day of Albany camp -- he actually followed up the first two things with "Don't knock each other over getting out of here," which was also his message to his players. In a few minutes, I'll be heeding his advice, but here's my last update from up north before the Giants move back to the Meadowlands and I don't get to watch practice anymore.

About the only stuff of note from the last practice... WR Sinorice Moss was running on the side and Coughlin thought Moss might have been able to practice today. Which means that Moss should actually see the field on Sunday, almost a full months since his quad strain.

Rookies Barry Cofield and Gerris Wilkinson appear to be starting Friday's game at tackle and weak-side linebacker. Brandon Short is healthy, but he's been running second-unit WLB with Carlos Emmons still out. Wilkinson has been with LaVar Arrington and Antonio Pierce the past two days and Cofield has been in William Joseph's spot alongside Fred Robbins all week.

I'd imagine Coughlin is going to see how much these two can handle on Friday and their play could go a long way towards determining some roster spots. If Wilkinson excels, that could be trouble for Emmons or Short.

And I'm off... More tomorrow before the big game.

Oh, and for Andrew -- No. 2 is usually quite bad for anyone, but in this case, Lorenzen being No. 2 is a good thing. I trust he would not be offended.

From Albany, at least...

The familiar five did not practice: T Luke Petitgout (back), G Rich Seubert (toe), C Shaun O'Hara (knee), WR Sinorice Moss (quad) and LB Carlos Emmons (neck). None of them will play Friday.

Eli Manning and the first unit will play at least a half, Tom Coughlin said last night. And Jared Lorenzen will go in with the second-teamers on offense for the first time. Coughlin said it's just Lorenzen's turn, but maybe it'll mean something more of Lorenzen has a good game. Tim Hasselbeck will play last and Rob Johnson... Maybe we'll see him again, maybe we won't. Coughlin wouldn't commit and frankly, he just hasn't shown enough to be relied upon.

We'll have some young players to watch for the game on Thursday.

No Emmons (neck), no Moss (quad), no Petitgout (back) and a limited Sam Madison (hamstring). LaVar Arrington (knees) had swelling and pulled the chute after a few plays.

Highlights: Two nice catches on deep balls by Tim Carter in 1-on-1 drills; on the first, he beat Curtis Deloatch down the middle, then got mad after Deloatch fell on him. The two jawed all the way back to the group and had to be separated by defensive coordinator Tim Lewis.

Lowlight: A helmets-off fight between rookies Gerrick McPhearson and Anthony Mix. Rare to see a WR and a DB tussle out in the open like that. The players enjoyed it, but Tom Coughlin did not. "There's no place for that," the coach said afterwards. As with a Tyson Smith-Tony Jackson slugfest the day before, Jeremy Shockey helped play peacemaker.

One practice and one jog-through to go...

Today was the print guys' sitdown with Tom Coughlin, a half-hour plus of questions in a more relaxed setting than we usually get with the coach.

Haven't transcribed the whole deal yet, but here are some quick takes on the topics discussed:

On Eli: The QB's competion percentage is up in camp over last season to all quadrants downfield. And Eli's maturity is not a matter of having more information thrown at him -- he's just synthesizing the same amount of stuff he's been getting from the coaches since he came into the league.

On LaVar: Coughlin expects great things from Arrington and expects to give No. 55 the flexibility to be great -- i.e., making him a two-down player to keep him fresh.

On his relationship with Plaxico: Coughlin echoed Burress' words to me last week. "People are who they are," the coach said, adding that his door is always open. Burress countered with, "It's not just on me to make that move." I don't think these kids are ever going to make it happen, people. But if they win -- and they both seem to want to win -- who cares if there's no chemistry between them?

On Shockey and his all-out personality: Coughlin never took Shockey's "(Coughlin) can be an ass sometimes" comment the wrong way. He knows that No. 80 only does things one way and that's fine with the coach. "I don't think you'd want him any other way," Coughlin said.

On "changing the culture" of the team: That was something Coughlin wanted to do from the outset, mostly by getting players to work through injuries and commit to going above and beyond for the team. The best example of that this camp is Tim Carter, who is learning to play with pain, and play well.

And, finally, Coughlin gave us our MJMD... Strangely, I was the only one to ask about Jennings. "I've been pleased by what he's done," Coughlin said. "He's made himself into a punt returner, having worked on that all off-season."

More to come after practice...

Pretty uneventful practice today, aside from a real throwdown between LB Tyson Smith and FB Tony Jackson on a punt-coverage drill -- haymakers and everything! -- and DE Mathias Kiwanuka showing he really can't stay away from QBs, when he knocked down Jared Lorenzen and drew the ire of Tom Coughlin.

DT Barry Cofield worked as the nose tackle with the first unit alongside Fred Robbins and Brandon Short was in at weak-side LB because Carlos Emmons returned to the sideline with his neck burner. Coughlin reiterated his "everyone has to play" mantra, but Emmons could easily become the 2006 version of Barrett Green -- a steady contributor but just unable to stay on the field.

Back in Albany for one final training camp segment. Practice starts in about 90 minutes and here's an injury update:

C Shaun O'Hara (sprained left knee) was cryptic but ultimately confident that he will be ready for the Sept. 10 opener against the Colts. "Three weeks is a long time," he said. "If I'm not out there, then I'm probably on another team."

G/C Rich Seubert (turf toe) said he would try to do individual drill work today and may resume full practice by tomorrow or Tuesday. No way Tom Coughlin plays O'Hara against the Jets, so Seubert getting a few snaps at center with the first unit would be helpful for Seubert.

WR Sinorice Moss (world's worst quad strain) finally said the word "frustrated" about his situation. Since Coughlin's said it roughly a dozen times, Moss was wise to admit this isn't how he wanted to start his NFL career. Maybe seeing Tim Carter finally break off a big gain on the end around dampened Moss' mood. Moss hoped to resume practicing before the team breaks camp on Wednesday.

LT Luke Petitgout (back) scoffed when asked if he were practicing today. "Why not?" he said with a smirk. We'll see about that.

Lastly, Coughlin made mention of LB Tyson Smith's second consecutive good game on special teams and at the weak side. Now, no one's saying Carlos Emmons or Brandon Short is in imminent danger of being gassed, but if Smith is more than capable on teams, Gerris Wilkinson is doing the same and the Giants already have a special teams beast in Chase Blackburn, suddenly Emmons and Short don't look quite so valuable, especially with neither at 100 percent.

Just something to think about with the preseason winding down.

More to come...

Well, it was kinda warm, and I nearly ran through an entire bag of sunflower seeds...

And about the only interesting play of the day was the final play of practice, when Eli Manning's two-minute drill pass went off Tim Carter's chest and into CB E.J. Underwood's hands, ending the drive and the day. About the best news of the day was that every starter except Sam Madison (hamstring) is slated to play on Thursday against the Chiefs -- I know, I know, I've been writing all camp that sitting out starters isn't so bad, but if they're healthy, let 'em play. Tom Coughlin wants it that way, and what I want doesn't mean much to the coach.

Madison will actually be a game-time decision, so the entire projected starting offense and defense could see the field. Which even I will say is a good thing for the Giants to get some chemistry going. Coughlin said he will rotate all five tackles in with the first unit, seemingly giving no preference. Barry Cofield and William Joseph shared 3-gap tackle duties alongside Fred Robbins today.

WR Sinorice Moss went down to the city for an evaluation on his strained quad. Coughlin's heard enough of the questions on Moss' seemingly minor injury, and so have I, frankly. The kid's out, the coach is ticked, and I'm guessing Moss has a long way to go to earn Coughlin's accolades.

Saving the MJMD for game night. If he takes another one to the house, I hope Chevrolet gives him a sponsorship deal. Or maybe he can get the Nike swoosh on his gold teeth.

The Giants are approaching the second of their four preseason games -- and the debate over how much preseason is too much is, frankly, not one for players to debate; football games make money, period. I hear there's other careers out there besides football player, Clinton Portis.

Anyway, this is the time when Tom Coughlin wants to see some cohesion and progress from his starters. And his starters... they want to make it to the regular season in one piece. Antonio Pierce told me this morning that he let his bad ankle get more and more sore through the first two weeks of camp to the point where he needed last night off.

"I should be more on top of it," he said. Luke Petitgout's chronically bad back acted up too. Amani Toomer said minor hamstring issues are an annual training camp occurrence.

Basically, this is not a team that's searching for an identity -- they found the makings of one last season and are looking to further it going into this season. So when Chris Snee goes down or Jeremy Shockey takes an accidental shot to the head, it seems worse than it would have been a year ago because the Giants hadn't accomplished anything yet.

So the nagging injuries need to be taken care of now, so they aren't a problem later. As Plaxico Burress said today, "We don't need to be killing ourselves right now."

Of course, there's always a chance that the starters won't have the game speed and chemistry they need by Sept. 10. But they all need to be on the field for that.

I'll update off practice later this afternoon.