Eli, Vereen, Jennings, Darkwa, Beckham, Harris, Tye, Flowers, Pugh, Richburg... honestly, everyone else? OK, you can throw in JPP, DRC, and Hankins (even though he had an underwhelming year). But the rest are jags. Prince I want to say I would love to keep but since returning he hasn't been very good in coverage. He's a great tackler, though. With his injury history I'm not confident in a potential big deal he gets is worth it. But... Trevin Wade, Jayron Hosley, Tremaine McBride... Goddamit Reese.
He's playing through that injured pectoral which he admits continues to bother him even after the 4 weeks of rest, etc. Prince when healthy is very good. The "when healthy" part is the concern as you said. The reality is this team is not in a position to subtract good players from this defense right now. Prince is someone we should absolutely make an effort to retain, IMO.
JPP is a much more difficult proposition. If we can keep him for the right money, sure but if some other team is going to overpay him considering the hand situation - you have to let him walk. No way he gets franchised again and no way the Giants are going to sign him to a big deal.
Jayron Hosely should have been cut two seasons ago. McBride was a fine backup a season or two ago but he's hit a wall. Wade is a fine for depth, IMO. He's had his moments but thats the type of player you want to play in certain nickel/dime packages but who shouldn't see more than 20-25% of the snaps in a given game.
The amount of holes on this team right now is obscene. Ranking in order of need (IMO, of course) and if we stick with a 4-3 defense because we just don't know what a new coaching staff is going to do.
1.
Defensive End - Honestly? We need at least 2-3 from the draft and/or FA. Owa should be back next season and it would be great if he develops.
2.
Safety - Landon Collins had plenty of rough spots but he played much better than I expected of him after we drafted him. He isn't a rangy free safety though and frankly the Giants need a ball hawk. The safety play this season has cost us games more often than not. Collins isn't going to suddenly develop into Ed Reed.
3.
Defensive Tackle - A healthy Hankins will be big for the defensive line and Jay Bromley will need to continue to develop but outside of that - Cullen Jenkins is 100 years old and the drop off behind those three is the size of the grand canyon. This needs to be addressed if we want to return to the days of a dominant defensive line.
4.
Wide Receiver - It's the Odell show in NY. The drop off in skill players has been discussed and with Cruz being a big question mark - a #2 is desperately needed. Randle is not that guy (he won't even be a Giant next season). Dwayne Harris is not that guy.
5.
Linebacker - It's time for this front office to quit fucking around with the linebacker position. At what point is Jerry Reese and company going to tire of watching the middle of the field be exploited endlessly? Its time to expend resources on an inside linebacker worth the type of contract they gave Beason (who did exactly what was expected of him - sat out injured). Or any linebacker, really. Devon Kennard has a bright future if he can stay healthy.
6.
Offensive Tackle - This may be less of an issue if Will Beatty is open to a contract restructure and moving over to RT for the remainder of his career. It could also be a non-issue is the Giants want to move Flowers back to RT and keep Beatty at LT if they want to give Flowers time to develop his technique (which he needs). Either way, Flowers is the future at LT. Bobby Hart could be an answer at RT for us next season but either way - the Giants need to settle the RT spot and they need depth on the line desperately.
7.
Guard - Maybe this one deserves to be higher up than tackle? An argument could be made because Geoff Schwartz has been a bust of a free agent signing. When he's on the field, he's quite good. Getting on the field is a whole other issue since he's missed so many games with injuries at this point you wonder what the Giants are even paying for. John Jerry is a fucking joke and any depth behind him isn't even worth talking about. Justin Pugh is all we have at Guard right now.
8.
Running Back - Rashad Jennings can be the work horse the Giants need but he also has an injury history which may have played into his snap count being more controlled. Not to mention, he'll be 31 years old. Vereen and Darkwa are nice complimentary players but we need a work horse.
