KIDS & PLAY
Coughlin doesn’t rely on rookies often but these 3 are exceptional
PHILADELPHIA — In an ideal world, Tom Coughlin would want a team filled with veteran players. He’d want men in key positions with long resumes who had already done enough in the NFL to earn his trust.
But that’s just not the way it works in this win-now, salary-capped era.
“This day and age in professional football, they have got to help early,” Coughlin conceded. “That’s the whole deal for us.”
It’s a good thing for him, then, that it appears the Giants struck gold in the 2014 NFL draft, in what might turn out to be GM Jerry Reese’s best and most immediately productive group since his vaunted Class of 2007. On Sunday night in the Giants’ crucial NFC East battle i n Philadelphia, three rookies will either be starting or i n starter-like positions — guard Weston Richburg, running back Andre Williams and receiver Odell Beckham. And a fourth — linebacker Devon Kennard — might have joined them, if he hadn’t pulled his hamstring a few weeks ago.
Before this season is over the Giants expect all of them to be key contributors. And if they are, it’ll be their biggest and best draft haul since six of the seven 2007 picks contributed as rookies to the Giants’ Super Bowl XLII run. In the years since then, Coughlin had earned a reputation as a coach who was reluctant to play rookies. Clearly that’s not the case anymore. “I think the nature of our game is you only have them for a short amount of time, so they have to make a contribution,” Coughlin said. “Obviously they have to be prepared to help your team. We have had a few guys that have gotten a lot of playing time here early on and have started to step
up.” That’s a credit to Reese and the scouting department, who
had a questionable run after that ’07 draft due to a combination of some bad mid-round picks and some bad injury luck with their top selections. It’s too early for long-term judgments, but they seem to have redeemed themselves nicely with their choices in the draft in each of the last two years.
In 2013 they took Justin Pugh in the first round, when many thought he was a reach. All he’s done is start 21 straight games at right tackle. Their second-rounder was Johnathan Hankins, who leads the Giants in sacks (2½) and is developing into one of the best defensive tackles in football. And their third-rounder, Damontre Moore, has shown flashes of being a terrific situational pass rusher as part of the rotation at defensive end.
Add in Beckham (1st round, 2014), who had an outstanding debut last Sunday, Richburg (2nd) who has started all five games at left guard and Williams (4th), who will start for the injured Rashad Jennings against the Eagles, and the Giants have an unusually high number of young players with bright futures on the field at the same time.
And isn’t that what Giants co-owner John Mara basically called for at the end of last season, when he was lamenting the Giants’ personnel issues after a 7-9 season and wondered “why it took us three years to find out that Jerrel Jernigan can play.” Like everyone, Mara was surprised to see Jernigan — the nowinjured receiver and 2011 third-round draft pick — catch 19 passes for 237 yards and two touchdowns in the last two games of last season.
And like everyone, Mara also realized those games were also the first time Jernigan really had an extended chance to play.
“Sometimes you have to put younger players in the game,” Mara said at the time, “and give them a chance to fail or succeed.”
That’s clearly what the Giants are doing now, whether it’s because of a philosophy change or because injuries (to guards Chris Snee and Geoff Schwartz, Jernigan and Jennings) have given them no choice. The rookies still have to earn their keep and find a way to keep Coughlin and their teammates believing. Now they just get to do it during games instead of practice.
It’s not easy. But they’re getting plenty of help, too.
“I think as a rookie you do want to earn the respect of your peers and the coaching staff, there’s no doubt about that,” Jennings said. “But as a veteran, you want to eliminate that pressure. ... So if you can eliminate that cloud of peer noise and remind them they’re just playing football and cheer them on, pat them on the back and correct them with some love, that’s how you build a team.”
Coughlin knows that, too, but he also knows that trust can be fleeting for a rookie. Two years ago he was prepared to give a huge share of the offense to a rookie, first-rounder rookie David Wilson, until he fumbled on his second NFL carry on opening day in Dallas and landed in Coughlin’s doghouse for most of the season.
As Coughlin said of his current rookie class: “They have to prove they are trustworthy, no doubt.”
If they do, Coughlin is willing to prove that he’s willing to play them — even though his natural instincts would be to lean on players who have done it before.
“That is the ideal,” Coughlin said. “It doesn’t always happen that way, as you know.”