After coming up short in their bid to repeat as Super Bowl champions, the New York Giants have a lot of issues to contend with this offseason. From potentially losing both their coordinators; to figuring out which band members to retain from Earth, Wind, and Fire; to once again trying to ace the college draft, General Manager Jerry Reese certainly has his hands full. But no issue stands out more than resolving what they will do with Plaxico Burress and the wide receiver position.
Notwithstanding the old cliché about "defenses winning championships," wide receiver is the position most critical to Big Blue because it's the position most intimately connected to the Giants main man Eli Manning. New York has invested in Eli, and he's rewarded them with a Super Bowl, but the disappointing end of the season revealed he's still not a quarterback who can shoulder an offense on his own. And so Reese, faced with a currently not-good-enough receiving corps without Burress, needs to work on adding targets for his $120 million dollar would-be gunslinger.
There will be options to explore: the NFL draft promises a deep class of wideouts this year, and while free agency lacks any huge names (possession-guy TJ Houshmanzedeh is the top prize), guys like Anquan Boldin, Ocho Cinco, and Calvin Johnson have been floated about as potentially being available. And the Giants do have a couple extra picks this year via the Jeremy Shockey trade.
But rookies rarely have an immediate impact as a primary target -- unless your name is Randy Moss -- and trades are so difficult to execute, so Reese will probably have to make do with what's available on the open market. And one intriguing name likely to be available is future Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison. Which could lead to an interesting twist of fate that affords the Giants an opportunity to get in on some of that Manning-to-Harrison as the Greatest Quarterback-Wide Receiver Combo In History fame.
Admittedly, Harrison isn't a perfect fit for the Giants, for the same reason he may be cut by the Colts; he's aging and no longer good enough. All things considered, however, a scenario where in lieu of landing an established star the Giants draft a receiver, but need veteran depth and time to groom him; Harrison could make a lot of sense as a one or two-year deal to help school the kids. He should command more attention than Amani Toomer (no disrespect to the Giants lifer).
If not the dominant target Eli needs, at least Marvin will add to New York's burgeoning Association of Wide Receivers United To Hold Guns (AWRUHG); the Jints have the largest AWRUHG chapter in the country.
