SB Nation - Guy Whimper

The Offensive Line Part 2: The Transition

John Morgan — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:58:30 -0000

This is the season Seattle lost Steve Hutchinson and the foundation of its offensive line began to crumble. Walter Jones was still among the very best at his position, but he was 32 and would turn 33 less than a week after Seattle was bumped out of the playoffs.

That run was paved in part by Tim Ruskell's first ever pick, Chris Spencer, replacing an effectively retired Robbie Tobeck, and rookie Rob Sims replacing the irreplaceable Hutchinson. When Spencer and Sims helped spring an already washed-up Shaun Alexander for 108 yards and two touchdowns against the sixth-ranked Bears rush defense, all was right, Ruskell was in good graces and the future of the Seattle Seahawks seemed bright.

The line was crumbling though. Jones was approaching old, and the intolerance to pain medication that once stood as a testament to his greatness began to loom as a horrible "what if?" Sims could not replace Hutchinson. Chris Gray was 36. Without that insane left side to protect him, Sean Locklear could no longer be trumped up by contrived stats. Seattle was halfway between the collapse of an all-time great offensive line and a rebuilding effort that couldn't possibly be as successful.

Seattle did not invest much into rebuilding the line in 2006. The draft was a bit top heavy and talent poor. Seattle could have selected Guy Whimper with its Sims pick, Willie Colon, Chris Kuper or Jeromey Clary, but if Sims has maybe not been the most valuable lineman selected in the second day, he has been a good player for the pick and more successful than much of his class.

Seattle could have spent an earlier pick but didn't. It's almost impossible to argue that had Seattle kept spent its first or second round picks on offensive linemen, it would be a better team today. Its first round pick, Kelly Jennings, has busted, but so has Winston Justice, selected 39^th, and neither Deuce Latui, 41^st, nor Daryn Colledge, 47^th, strike me as significantly better players than Sims. It could have made a play at a tackle like Marcus McNeill, Andrew Whitworth, Jeremy Trueblood or Eric Winston, but it believed itself set at tackle, and it seemed to be.

Instead, Ruskell added Tom Ashworth. Ashworth was awful: Another body on the pile of winners and veterans that Ruskell has burdened the team with. But Ashworth was fourth string and therefore as likely to play as Kyle Williams. Sean Locklear had been healthy to that point. Ashworth was behind Jones, Locklear, Ray Willis and even Floyd Womack.

Injuries became a factor. Locklear missed five games. Willis missed 15 and was put on IR. Womack was starting at left guard. Locklear's injury forced Ashworth into action and he played like the fourth string tackle he was. The line did not play well and compared to 2005, it was awful.

The talent Ruskell had added was good. It was young and cheap and seemed promising. The line had declined from a peak it could not possibly reach again, but where it had been expensive, aged, but elite, it was now turning into cheap, young and serviceable.

Giants News: Giants Inactives for today

Jim Schmiedeberg — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:59:40 -0000

From Pat Hanlon:

Ramses Barden, Danny Ware, Aaron Ross, Adam Koets, Guy Whimper, Domenik Hixon, Clint Sintim, & Chris Canty...

On the plus side, Kevin Dockery and Hakeem Nicks will be active today

'Kudos & Wet Willies' ... finally

Ed Valentine — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:57:38 -0000

More photos » by John Smierciak - AP

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is sacked by Chicago Bears defensive end Adewale Ogunleye during the first quarter of an NFL preseason football game, Saturday in Chicago.

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Now that I am back home, here is your 'Kudos & Wet Willies' review of Saturday night's debacle in Chicago. Head coach Tom Coughlin said after the game that his team was "embarrassed." I watched every snap, unfortunately, and I don't disagree. Thank goodness the game didn't count.

Anyway, there were a handful of bright spots. I will start with those.

Kudos to ...

The running backs: Brandon Jacobs 'Laron'd' Bears' middle linebacker Brian Urlacher, and that made my night. If I ever think about Saturday night again, that's what I want to remember. Danny Ware ran 8 times for 34 yards, caught 4 passes and had an impressive 34-yard kickoff return. Ahmad Bradshaw had 6 carries for 54 yards. Derrick who? There is nothing wrong with the stable of running backs the Giants still have.
Jonathan Goff: The young middle linebacker was all over the field in the second half. I had been wondering if Goff was on the roster bubble. After his impressive work Saturday, I don't think so.

That's about all the good stuff I can remember. And, no, I'm not going back and watching this bit of ugliness again. Let the coaches and players suffer through that.

Wet Willies ...

The hardest question here is .... where to begin. I think I will start with ...

The first defensive unit: All of it. Every last one of 'em. This is supposed to be a dominant, historically good Super Bowl caliber group. Even without Antonio Pierce or Kenny Phillips. Instead, the front seven got blown off the ball so often they looked like an expansion team taking the field for the first time. Pathetic. No linemen in position, no linebackers coming up to make plays, more missed tackles than they had pretty much all of last season. I don't know what they were trying to do, but Bill Sheridan's front seven played as bad as humanly possible in the first half. Now, to single out some players.
Chase Blackburn: Nice stats with six tackles, but Blackburn was terrible subbing for Pierce in the middle. On Ike Forte's 32-yard touchdown run, Blackburn got blown at least 15 yards off the line of scrimmage by a single blocker. I'm not sure I have ever seen a professional linebacker get pushed back like that.
C.C. Brown: Pray with me that this guy does not have to play many meaningful downs this season. He made 8 tackles, but he missed a whole bunch more. And Brown cannot cover anyone. On one play Devin Hester blew about 10-12 yards past the safeties (Brown was closest), and Jay Cutler managed to overthrow him. I don't even think Brown knew Hester was back there.
Guy Whimper, Andrew Carnahan, Orrin Thompson, Cliff Louis, Terrance Pennington: The sooner the Giants get all of these backup offensive linemen off the roster the better. Terrible is not nearly a strong enough word to describe the work of these guys in the first two exhibition games.
Carl Banks: Now, I loved Banks as a player. What Giants' fan doesn't? And I know Saturday night was awful to watch. But Banks' negativity and condescending 'we were better in the old days' tone didn't help. He was critical of anything and everything right from the beginning. He even went so far as to criticize, and circle a player on the monitor, for apparently missing a tackle -- when the runner was already three yards out of bounds. C'mon, Carl. The game was bad enough, and you made it worse. Sideline 'reporter' Howard Cross didn't help much, either.

Land of the Giants: More from Monday night's victory over Carolina

Ed Valentine — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:00:21 -0000

More photos » by Kathy Willens - AP

New York Giants' Danny Ware, left, is congratulated by teammate Guy Whimper after scoring a touchdown against the Carolina Panthers in the second quarter Monday night.

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Admit it. You enjoyed watching Monday night's 24-17 victory over Carolina by our New York Giants. But, you were holding your breath the whole time (well, not literally) praying that no key Giants were injured.

I know I was. So, I was thrilled that the Giants -- as far as we know -- came out of the game unscathed.

I was also thrilled to see that Osi Umenyiora, who lost last season due to a pre-season knee injury, looked like the Pro Bowl Osi of old in his short stint. It is also great to hear how Umenyiora felt about his first game action in a year.

Honestly, when I was out there, it felt like I had never really left. I’ve been here so long -- maybe if I had been here for like a year or two years, but I mean seven years…I felt right at home.

File this one in the 'What, you expected to solve all the world's problems in one night?' department. The Sporting News came to the brilliant conclusion after Monday night that the Giants still don't know who will get the lion's share of playing time behind starting wide receivers Domenik Hixon and Steve Smith. Umm ... gee, that was a hard thing to figure out. Get used to it, because my guess is that is going to change several times as the season goes along. I was just happy that guys like Mario Manningham and Ramses Barden got open, and caught what came in their direction. As long as the receivers catch what comes their way, the Giants will be fine.
Great quote from Danny Ware on his 36-yard touchdown reception, a screen pass in which he blasted past tackle Guy Whimper as though the 302-pound tackle was stuck in cement.

Yeah, I saw him, he didn’t have to go block anybody so I just ran past him and tried to get in the end zone. If I would’ve got tackled, I probably would’ve yelled at him, and told him he had to get up in front of me.

Steve Serby of the New York Post breaks down David Tyree's competition as he fights for a roster spot. Be sure to vote in our Tyree poll over in the right column and let us know if you think he makes the season-opening 53-man roster.
Eli Manning as Forrest Gump? Not sure I like Barbara Barker's analogy. I do agree, however, with her conclusion that the Giants will get their money's worth from Manning over the next seven seasons.

I think it's safe to say Manning isn't the best player in the history of the game. In fact, it's pretty safe to say he isn't the best player in the game today. He doesn't deserve to make more than Tom Brady, more than Ben Roethlisberger, more than his brother Peyton.

Yet by having his contract expire for the right team at the right time, Manning has become the NFL's $96.5-million man. And the weird thing is, just as it was hard to get mad at Forrest Gump for his good luck, it's hard to get mad at Manning for doing the best he could with the incredible situation that was handed him.

At least this is what I was thinking last night as I watched Manning play one quarter and throw only three passes in the Giants' preseason opener against Carolina.

It didn't matter that some of my sportswriting brethren were cracking jokes about Manning now having made $7.65 million per completion so far. It didn't matter that about half the fans at the stadium were wearing Manning jerseys and that they certainly would have liked to see a little more air time from Manning than a pair of 13-yard completions.

What mattered is that Manning did the job he was supposed to do. And if he continues to do that, the Giants are going to get more than their $96.5 million out of him.

Of course, all anyone cares about is the end of the season. And the bet here is the Giants' seasons are going to have more happy endings in the next seven years with Manning than they would without him.

Football Outsiders Almanac, New York Giants, Part III: The offense

Ed Valentine — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:00:16 -0000

More photos » by Mike Groll - AP

New York Giants offensive linemen Shaun O'Hara (60) and David Diehl (66) hit a blocking sled during Giants training camp at UAlbany.

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We continue our look through the 2009 Football Outsiders Almanac summary of our New York Giants with a look at this year's offense.

We have been over and over the wide receiver situation. If you are a Football Outsiders' devotee you know they have done exhaustive research and concluded the Giants were actually better last season without Plaxico Burress than they were with him. I am not going to belabor the receiver issue any further. You can buy the Almanac or download the free Giants chapter if you want to read that portion.

Instead, I thought I would look at some of the other points FOA makes regarding the Giants' offensive success.

The FOA makes the assertion that the group most vital to the success of the 2009 Giants is not the receivers or the running backs. Rather, it is the offensive line.

The place where New York has impressively managed to avoid injury for two years running is on the offensive line. No starter has missed a regular-season game for two seasons. It’s a remarkable accomplishment,
considering that no other team has seen its starting five linemen make it through two consecutive seasons without missing a single start since 2003. In 2002 and 2003, both the Chiefs and the Vikings managed to pull off the feat; neither made it to three years, although the Chiefs’ starters only missed a single game in 2004; the Vikings’ linemen missed 18 games in each of 2004 and 2005.

For the Giants, the basis of their team’s strength is in the combination of the offensive line with fullback Madison Hedgecock, so losing even one player for any period of time would be a huge problem. When Kareem McKenzie struggled with a back injury last year and had to come out for periodic extended breathers in the middle of games, he was replaced by utility lineman Kevin Boothe, who proceeded to nearly get Eli Manning killed. The team has only Boothe and second-round pick William Beatty for recognizable backups, so an injury to a key player like right guard Chris Snee or center Shaun O’Hara could be disastrous for the offense.

My take: I have to agree that this is an area that worries me. It has been well-documented that even the center-quarterback exchange has been difficult in camp for any center not named O'Hara. Boothe is now on the shelf with a pectoral injury, Beatty is not ready, no one knows how much Tutan Reyes has left, or if Guy Whimper and Adam Koets can actually play.

All I can say is, cross your fingers and hope we don't have to find out.

The FOA had this to say about Manning.

The once-embattled quarterback had his best season as a pro in 2008, improving his completion percentage and yards per attempt while cutting his interceptions in half, although it’s worth noting that his six dropped interceptions were tied for thirdmost in the league. Manning still has accuracy issues — his rating of 80.9 percent on our accuracy index (see Appendix) was below the league average of 82.6 percent, and 26th amongst quarterbacks who threw at least 100 passes, but he has improved his accuracy on crossing routes and short out patterns.

My take: Eli will never be a model of perfection, or a guy who piles up great numbers. He is flawed, but he wins. That is what counts.

The Almanac also has a little nugget about offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. I'm sure the Gilbride haters in the crowd will appreciate it.

Kevin Gilbride took some heat for his play-calling against the Eagles in the Divisional round loss, but the problem was less with the scheme and more with the execution. Gilbride has had a habit of wearing out his welcome, though, so it wouldn’t a surprise to see the blame fall on him if the offense gets off to a slow start. Head coach Tom Coughlin appears to have moved on from his old drill instructor style of coaching permanently, but again, it’ll be interesting to see what happens if the team does struggle at the start of the year.

My take: Gilbride has a ton of different offensive weapons with a wide variety of skill sets. His job is to find the right ways to use those skill sets, and watching him try to figure it out will be one of the most fascinating -- and, I'm sure, most talked about -- stories of 2009.

New York Giants training camp: Monday morning practice report

Ed Valentine — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:39:50 -0000

I am back at New York Giants training camp, and here is your Monday morning practice report.

Coach Tom Coughlin was asked about the state of the Giants as the second week of camp cranks up.

"We're a long way from where we need to be, but there is a process here," he said. "We're throwing so much at 'em that everything is new almost every day. We're a week into it and we're not getting the execution that we're looking for, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.

Overall the defense has played pretty well ... caused the offense a lot of problems."

The secondary was particularly impressive, despite players being flagged on a couple of occasions for pass interference penalties (NFL officials are in camp).

"They're playing well and they'll get even better in the days to come," Coughlin said. "We've had a few of the deep balls, which is not what you're looking for. Hopefully, that'll come around as well."

Rough go this morning for David Tyree. A pair of drops, one on a sideline route the other on a go route when his defender had slipped and he was all alone. He bobbled, but hung on to a third ball. You have to root for Tyree, but he can't afford a lot of days like that.
Defensive tackle Fred Robbins took snaps with the first defensive unit during 11-on-11 drills, the first time he has done so since returning from microfracture surgery. Robbins even stayed in despite a light rainfall that made the field a bit slippery.
Among the players who did not work this morning were Corey Webster, Hakeem Nicks, Aaron Ross, Osi Umenyiora, Cliff Louis, Barry Cofield, Maurice Evans and Guy Whimper. No serious injuries in that group.
It's pretty obvious that Rhett Bomar is right now No. 4 on the Giants quarterback depth chart. Twice during practice, once in 7-on-7 drills and once in 11-on-11, Bomar got exactly one play. In 11-on-11, he took advantage of his only snap with a beautiful seam route to Mario Manningham, who made an even better catch.
Couple of other notes: Eli Manning completed a go route to Sinorice Moss this morning over Terrell Thomas. ... Defensive tackle Tommie Hill had a sack of David Carr. ... Chase Blackburn picked off an ill-advised pass by Carr. ... Kevin Dockery intercepted Andre Woodson when Derek Hagan fell down.

[NOTE: I won't be attending tonight's practice. Today is my wedding anniversary, and I haven't managed to stay married for 24 years by being stupid. So, I am taking my wife to dinner. By the way, check the 'Transcripts' page for a host of recent interviews.]