Giants projected defensive lineup

With the some losses in the defense, the Giants are going to have some new faces in some key positions. Strahan left the Giants to retire, and is working as an NFL analyst for Fox Sports, Gibril Wilson bolted to Oakland and was rewarded a hefty contract, Kawika Mitchell signed a 5 year deal with the Bills, and once back up Reggie Torbor went to Miami.

During the Giants-Jets preseason game, Osi Umenyiora suffered a season ending knee injury. As seen here, Osi is being carted off to the team locker room.

In the last preseason game, the Giants lost super star defensive end, Osi Umenyiora, to a season ending knee injury. Osi, a key cog to the terrifying pass rush last season, had surgery this past week, and the doctors are very optimistic on a successful rehab. According to them, the surgery went very well.

Talks of Strahan coming back occured when Osi went down, and if the price was right (no pun intended), Strahan would come back from retirement and play for the Giants one more year with a one year contract worth to as much as 12 millions. Strahan contemplated coming back, but was happy in the position he was. Since Strahan was not coming back, 3rd year player Mathias Kiwanuka would be taking Osi’s spot on the depth chart.

Last year the Giants experimented with Kiwanuka, who had always been a defensive end in his football career, as a strong side linebacker. He was lost early on in the season but as soon as he had a grasp of his job, he did better. Now he is returning to his natural position, which shouldn’t be much of a problem for him to return to. The Giant’s had already been giving him some snaps in Training Camp before the Umenyiora injury. Teammate Justin Tuck, who’s going to be playing opposite of Kiwi, said he has looked good in camp as a defensive end. I believe Kiwi will do a nice job of replacing Osi, so much that he will be getting at least seven sacks, maybe even ten.

Now that the defensive end position is solved, who’s going to be playing the strong side linebacker, as well as the weakside? Danny Clark has been the front runner for the weak side job, and was the linebacker that had the most snaps at that position. Now that Kiwi has been moved, an oppertunity arises for 3rd year pro Gerris Wilkinson to play as the strong side linebacker.

I have felt this linebacking corps has been weak for years, Antonio Pierce has been the only one that has done a solid job, and I still think we can get an upgrade at the middle linebacker spot. This year I feel very uneasy about who we have starting. Clark has been a traveling team to team for some years now, and Wilkinson has been sidelined with injuries since we drafted him. It’s just going to be one of the things we have to keep a very close eye on this season.

Here is the starting projected lineup for the Big Blue defense.

DE: Jusin Tuck*

DT: Barry Coefield

DT: Fred Robbins

DE: Mathias Kiwanuka**

ROLB: Gerris Wilkinson*

MLB: Antonio Pierce

LOLB: Danny Clark*

CB: Aaron Ross

CB: Corey Webster

SS: James Butler

FS: Kenny Philips*

* = New Starters (note, Kenny Philips is a rookie)

**= Kiwanuka was a starter last season, but not at defensive end.

Clearly the defensive this year, with new faces at some positions. The pass rush will not be as good as last year’s, it will require more blitzing from the secondary and linebackers to even try to get as much pressure as they can. Spagnuolo will have something figured out, I have faith and confindence in him since he was able to turn around that defense last year.