2 Packer ’backers go Blue
uary “once a Giant, always a Giant (and) for me, it’s only a Giant.”
Brady, 42, decided on Tuesday to leave New England to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
And wouldn’t you know, the Giants are scheduled to host Brady and the Bucs in the 2020 season. So Daniel Jones will go head-to-head with both the Bucs and Brady a second time, owning great memories of beating host Tampa in his firstever NFL start and flashbacks of a three-interception loss at New England in 2019.
Still, facing Brady in a Bucs uniform won’t be the same. It won’t be the same because Manning won’t be playing against him — their last regular-season meeting was Nov. 15, 2015, a 27-26 Patriots road victory.
And it won’t be the same because Brady will no longer be a Patriot.
What made Manning and Tom Coughlin’s Giants so triumphant in the 2007 and 2011 NFL seasons wasn’t just that they won Super Bowls. It was also that they’d beaten arguably both the greatest coach and quarterback of all time to do it.
Having Brady at the helm in Foxborough all these years was always a reminder of how great he and the Patriots were, and how clutch Manning and the Giants were for beating them when it counted most.
Those Lombardi Trophies certainly don’t go anywhere after Brady’s departure. But if you’re a Giants fan, part of you wishes he’d stayed a Patriot, just to give the Giants a chance to beat him one last time.
It is, after all, what Manning’s Giants did best.
The Giants piggy-backed on Monday’s free-agent signing of Panthers corner James Bradberry by adding a pair of Packer linebackers on Tuesday: Blake Martinez and Kyler Fackrell.
Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham coached both of them as Green Bay’s linebackers coach and run game coordinator in 2018.
The Giants also agreed to terms with Niners tight end Levine Toilolo and resigned special teamer Cody Core.
That’s on top of franchise-tagging defensive tackle Leonard Williams and tendering kicker Aldrick Rosas on Monday, and re-signing linebacker David Mayo and fullback Eli Penny last week.
Defense was the Giants’ focus out of the free-agency gate, and it had to be after GM Dave Gettleman spent a league-low $46.8 million of cap space on his 2019 defense.
They’re bringing in Martinez, 26, on a three-year, $30.75 million contract with $19 million guaranteed. And that warrants skepticism given his limited coverage ability and criticism that he has to be clean of offensive line blocks to make plays.
On the other hand, Martinez is considered a smart, solid, tackling machine (155 last season), and the Giants wanted a leader and good communicator in the middle of their defense.
It will remain to be seen whether they erred in choosing him, though, over two free-agent LBs who are much better in pass coverage: the Rams’ Cory Littleton (three years, $36 million with the Raiders) and the Browns’ Joe Schobert (five years, $53.75 million with the Jaguars).
Fackrell, 28, who is signing a reported one-year, $4.6 million deal, was only a complementary player in Green Bay last season. But he had 10.5 sacks starting seven games in 2018 and pressured the passer well last season.