Blurb from Gillbride, bad news about Beckum but good news on Manningham:
June 18
Q: Beckum is a different kind of player than you have had. Effect of him being limited in OTAs and minicamp due to injury?
A: It is hard. You hope that they can recover. But I think we have seen over the last couple of years when a guy has missed this period and missed part of training camp – Steve Smith didn’t really contribute until the end of the season. Mario Manningham didn’t do much at all last year for us. It is hard to make this time up when you have missed it and you keep your fingers crossed, you hope he is a quick learner, you hope that he can maybe develop more quickly than the average guy. But history shows that if you don’t go through this time period or you miss much of camp, it is hard to be ready and contribute during your first year. And so that is why – he is one of the guys - …..but you see a guy – Mario, he is showing some things that we thought he could do which we never saw last year. Now all of a sudden he is doing it because he is actually practicing. He is actually learning. It is one thing to hear it in the meetings, it is completely different to actually experience it on the field; learn, “Oh, this is what you meant.” It is like the light goes on. It didn’t necessarily fall into place for him in the meeting, now it does. So he is one of the guys you say, “Hey, maybe we got a guy. Maybe he can do what we thought he could do.” So it is disappointing because we thought Beckum would be a guy that we would put out in space maybe and prove a difficult matchup for defenses. And I don’t know. He missed this whole time. It certainly sets him back and you don’t want to say he can’t do it, but he will be one of the unusual ones if he can.
Q: Were you putting in new things for him because he is a different kind of guy than you have had?
A: No, not really. Plus it would be a chance – you are always looking to put your best 11 matchup – who matches up best for you, gives you your best chance. And putting him in space – I hate to ever compare – but it kind of gives you a Dallas Clark kind of guy if that makes sense….. Is it a linebacker? You would like he is going to be quicker and hard to match up with. If it is a secondary guy, then he is bigger and strong. Maybe you could run the ball a little bit more. He ought to match up pretty well blocking. So that is what we are anxious to see. We know, like Steve Smith has proven, he can play inside and he is hard to match up. You are always looking for more than one guy or they start ganging up on that one guy that can do it. So we were hoping that he could give us that – be one of those guys for us.
On going deep this season:
Q: You talked a lot about throwing the ball down the field. Is seems like they might be quicker to get down there, but the window is smaller. How do you handle that with your quarterback as far as down the field accuracy?
A: I think it is the same with any throw. It is, “How do you get open?” And each guy is different. And I think we have talked about it. A Larry Fitzgerald is going to get open and catch the ball his way. When I was with the Oilers they were all little and they all got open and Warren Moon had no difficulty throwing them the ball. But you have to create your separation. And so you are not going to create it with strength and jumping up over somebody not necessarily. So can you create it with your quickness, with the sophistication of your movement and the way you set your routes up? Again, knock on wood, this spring a couple of guys showed some things. And that was encouraging to see. Can they do it against somebody else? It remains to be seen. But there is no reason why they can’t. That is what is encouraging. I think they will be able to do that. Now, it is a different kind of a throw if you don’t have that kind of separation? You don’t get the distance from that defender. It is a tougher throw because you are not as big a target. And you are maybe not able to go get the ball just because you are bigger and stronger – like a Plax reaching up and grabbing it. You can’t do that so you have to do it a different way. But I think we feel – and I’m saying the same thing over and over again – that these guys look like they had the quickness and the speed and now we have to make sure that they progress in their sophistication of their route running to give them a chance to get the separation so that the quarterback can feel good about throwing the ball.
Q: So when they don’t get that separation, do you tell your quarterback -- Plax sometimes didn’t look like he was open – there was a guy there, but he was open – one on one. But you tell these quarterbacks that they have to be careful?
A: No. It doesn’t take long to figure out who you can still throw the ball with and they will go get it and who is not going to be strong enough to get it; who can you throw behind and is he quick enough to adjust and to come back and get the ball. I think you will know pretty quickly who is going to do that. And as you throw – that is what I tell the receivers, “You have got to understand, it is not just me and Sully and Chris deciding, ‘hey, this guy can do this,’ quarterbacks are formulating opinions, too. And they see the guys that do it in practice, “Hey, I can count on this guy” or “He doesn’t fight for me, he doesn’t make the play when you are covered like that.” So it not just me saying, “Hey, we can call this or we can call that.” He is making those same decisions. So it is so important that you do things in practice in a way that earns the confidence of the quarterback. Because there is no question that it influences their decision.
) but there is no way that the Giants 3rd round pick this year that they traded up to get is going to be fighting for a roster spot.
