Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Curious Case Of Anquan Boldin

One of the Giants' highest priorities this offseason is going to be filling the hole on their roster left by the bullet that went through Plaxico Burress' thigh. Burress is probably going to make an "Up North Trip" for what went down in the Latin Quarter just after midnight on the morning of November 30th, thereby vacating his post as the #1 WR on the GMen.

I don't know what Jerry Reese is scheming up over in the Meadowlands, but I can tell you what Giants fans are thinking. They want Anquan Boldin in the worst way. They speak in hushed reverent tones and call him the "toughest player in the league". Except for Ed Valentine at Big Blue View, that is (I've added some subtle emphasis):
Cross Arizona's Anquan Boldin off the list of potential targets for the Giants at wide receiver. Tom Rock of Newsday does a great job calling out Boldin for his sideline tirade near the end of Sunday's NFC Championship Game. Mike Freeman of CBS Sportsline went even further, calling Boldin a 'jackass.' Boldin apparently continued his tirade after the game, refusing to celebrate the Super Bowl berth with his teammates. Sorry, I want nothing to do with a player who acts like that during and after the biggest game of his team's season. 'Kudos' to Pro Football Talk for the Freeman find.
Hear that, Jerry Reese? Cross the number one potential target at wide receiver in the league off your to-do list because some clueless hack of a "blogger" "want[s] nothing to do with [him]". Forgive me Ed, I thought you were going to give an ACTUAL REASON.

The Cardinals were running a one reciever set and obviously the human-like machine referred to as "Larry Fitzgerald" is going to be that one WR. Boldin probably wanted to be in the game. You just said it was the biggest game of the season, would you rather he sat on the sidelines with his helmet on, like LaGroinian Toemlinson?

I don't think we should judge his integrity and character from 10 seconds of FOX sideline camera shots. The media will no doubt take a rolling pin to this story and try to stretch it out over the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. Great, I hope that lowers his value this offseason and the Giants can get him for less. Who knows what was actually said? The sidelines in the NFL are probably an incredibly emotional place (I've never been), and I'm sure things are said and forgiven that the general public never hears a whisper of.

This guy wanted to play so badly, in fact, that after he was knocked unconscious by this hit in Week 3 and carted off the field, it took him only three weeks to return to the starting lineup. He had a broken sinus cavity, two fractures in his face, it took eight plates and a jaw wiring for the surgeons to repair it all and he (supposedly) didn't take any painkillers. I wouldn't have back to my job in three weeks, and I sit at a desk writing marketing research reports.

Before & After

My one concern with Boldin, is that he's only 6'1", 217. Most of the true #1 receivers in the league are taller than that. Calvin Johnson (6'5"), Plax (6'5"), Randy Moss (6'4"), Brandon Marshall (6'4"), T.O. (6'3"), Andre Johnson (6'3"), LFitz (6'3"). Unfortunately, I don't think Eli Manning is ever going to be a deadly accurate passer, and as a result, he'll need a bigger target to throw to.

I threw out the possibility of TJ Houshmanzadeh, who is going to be a free agent, because the Giants won't have to give anything up besides money and cap space. Up until this year, Housh has taken a backseat to the artist formerly known as Chad Johnson. TJ caught 905 of the 2672 yards thrown for by Bengals QBs this year, and has had more touchdowns than Ocho in each of the past three seasons. But he's 6'1", 199, and 31 years old.

The Giants aren't getting Larry Fitzgerald or Calvin Johnson. They aren't going to bring in T.O. if the Cowboys release him. I'd certainly rather have Boldin than Housh, but regardless of this dust up on the sidelines, the Cardinals aren't just going to give him away. They'd probably want some draft picks in return and I'm assuming it would be more than the 2nd & 5th the Giants got for Jeremy Shockey. Probably more like the 1st, 3rd and 6th the Cowboys (stupidly) gave up for Roy Williams.

I love Boldin, but the Giants might be better off signing Housh and/or seeing if one of the receivers in this year's draft, like Jeremy Macklin or Percy Harvin, falls to them at the 29th pick.

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I agree Boldin he may be a little small to be a true #1 (not implying he is that good but look at Steve Smith, Car and Marvin Harrison), but I wouldn't judge him that harshly on that one bonehead move.

    He may be a good fit with the Gmen, especially with their running game opening up the pass, which AZ hasn't had until 4 weeks ago.

    Drafting someone would be good, but after what Harvin did against Oklahoma, I don't see him falling to 29. Unless you can get him or Crabtree, you need to take a LB in the first.

    Also, we have yet to see really what Manningham can do given the chance. Its rumored that he doesn't know the routes, but that is just a rumor and I would give him the benefit of doubt based on how nasty he was at Michigan

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  3. Steve Smith and Marvin Harrison were purposeful omissions because I was trying to prove a point. Steve Smith is incredibly fast and jake Delhomme is fairly accurate... during the regular season.

    Marvin Harrison had Reggie Wayne on the other side of the field and Peyton Manning throwing him the ball. They are excpetions to the rule.

    As far as the draft goes, I'm down with taking an LB in the first round. Actually I'm pretty much okay with whatever Jerry Reese does.

    Manningham is okay, but he was drafted at the end of third round. When a guy with a recognizable name falls that far, it ain't just the weed that teams were worried about.

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  4. With Manningham the problem wasn't the weed charges, it was him lying about the weed charges and his combine Wonderlic test.

    He got a fucking 6 out of 50 on the Wonderlic test. This basically means that he is retarded, like literally retarded. But as long as he can catch and isn't so retarded that he shoots his own dick off I don't care.

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  5. Sounds like y'all are a bunch of "Shook Ones." Part I and Part II.

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