Already dog days in New York
It's hard to make Tom Coughlin a sympathetic figure, but the torrent of bad news about his Giants is making it possible. The team's best player, Osi Umenyiora, is out two months. According to Chris Mortensen, Eli Manning is out "at least" a month with a shoulder injury (Although local guys are sticking to their story that Eli has a chance to play this week). We'll see.
Everyone's favorite second running back Brandon Jacobs is out 3-5 weeks with a sprained MCL. The Giants are calling him week-to-week.
The only people happy in this mess are New York's upcoming opponents: Green Bay, Washington, and Philadelphia. As we saw Sunday night, this is not a team built to win defensive struggles.
Derrick Ward looks like a capable running back that can do a little of everything. He's not a huge concern for New York after being in their system and could make a decent flex option in fantasy leagues. The issue is the 270-pound hole at quarterback. Jared Lorenzen is a lot of fun to watch as a fan, but he's a walking sack. The chances of Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer building on their excellent Week 1 efforts over the next month are slim. Burress goes from the highest scoring fantasy wideout of the week to someone worth benching against a great Packers secondary.
It's a shame. Watching last night's game, I got visions of a fun season for the Giants. Their pass defense looked so bad that it was easy to imagine Eli Manning slinging the ball around to his suddenly deep receiver group. Fantasy owners shouldn't consider dropping him until we know more, but the ESPN talking heads were concerned the injury could last a while. The whole mess makes me want to make the Eli Manning face.
Comments
Today is a tough day to be a Giants fan.
From a fantasy perspective this sucks all the way around.
I think fantasy teams can find a replacement at QB pretty easily.
Hopefully teams that had Jacobs as their #2 RB have a decent #3 to plug in for a little while.
I think Plax suffers ALOT though. Maybe the new QB throws a ton to him.
Posted by: Shane-O | September 10, 2007 06:38 PM
yeah, i thought it was going to be rough being a falcons fan this season. and it is, but i've had um... (however many days it's been since the vick s*** hit the fan).. to steel myself up for it. and i'm prepared. 3 of my best buds are dolphins fans, and i watched them endure harrington last year. and having been a falcons fan for my entire life , i know tougher than those nuts when it comes to losing seasons.
but DAMN i feel bad for the giants right now. everyone wanted to see jacobs smashing people, like a young jamal lewis, but even bigger and stronger. we got to see it, well, really only on 1 play (where he got hit at the line and dragged 3-4 guys for 6 yards). eli finally starts playing like he should, putting tiki's foot in his mouth, and then whoops, there he goes.
i feel for you, guys, i really do. and the sad part is, my team is still gonna do worse than yours.
Posted by: The Dox | September 10, 2007 06:40 PM
As the previously proud owner of both Manning and Jacobs...this is great news.....
Posted by: Matei | September 10, 2007 06:55 PM
i don't know... bad news for eli and plax i guess. was good to see them both do well for a change (altho it was only one game).
but you guys are acting like losing jacobs for 3-5 weeks is akin to vick breaking his leg in preseason. for all the hype, jacobs has done nothing yet. so annointing him a "bigger and stronger" jamal lewis is a little early, don't ya think? you're talking about a guy with a total of 140 carries for 538 yards. let not's light the candle of remembrance just yet.
Posted by: matt | September 11, 2007 09:43 AM
I picked Jacobs in second round because all the rotoworld hype on him. This is a killer. I had Cadillac as a RB3 and well we know what happened to him. Then my RB4 Chester just lost his job. My best RB was #5 Dunn as he bested Steven Jackson for me.
Should I drop Chester Taylor for Derrick Ward? I can only carry 5 RB's and I don't know if Ward will do anything if Eli is out.
Posted by: Patrick | September 11, 2007 10:19 AM
Jacobs was my RB2 and I am wondering if I should pick up ward and drop demetrius williams. I already have Ahman Green, Jerious Norwood and Chris Brown. I can easily start Green v Indy and if I avoid taking Ward I move to the top spot in our non-reset waiver order. I think I'll stand pat. Ironically I also have Burress and I think he'll drop significantly with Dough Boy throwing.
Posted by: givner | September 11, 2007 04:58 PM
oops ... meant green v panthers over brown v indy. Not sold on brown yet.
Posted by: givner | September 11, 2007 05:00 PM