Grading the 2009 Giants: LB
February 9th, 2010 | by mike577 |Of the three defensive units, you would have thought linebacker would be a strong area for the G-men in 2009, partially because new defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan was the Giants’ linebackers coach before that. And MLB Antonio Pierce anchored a unit that was also bolstered by the free agent signing of Michael Boley from Atlanta.
But instead, Pierce’s season ended early due to a herniated disc in his neck, and Boley missed a few games to both a one-game suspension, and to injuries. And with or without Pierce and Boley, the linebacking corps. was mostly bad in 2009. They couldn’t stop the run, they tackled poorly, and they certainly didn’t help make an already weak pass rush better.
One bright spot was second year MLB Jonathan Goff, who took over for Pierce. Chase Blackburn filled in occasionally as well, and while he’s a serviceable player, he’s not a starter. Boley made a lot of tackles and was at times all over the field, but he also was forced into pass coverage a few too many times, and was a step slow too often. And Danny Clark will remind no one of Lawrence Taylor.
Rookie Clint Sintim barely saw the field, and that may change in 2010, as incoming coordinator Perry Fewell will want aggressive, speedy linebackers to attack the football and football carrier.
But to fully analyze just how bad the Giants’ linebackers were in 2009, look at one of their most relevant statistics–solo tackles. Boley had 65 of them, ranking him (yikes) 43rd among all NFL linebackers. Sure, he played in just 11 games, but still, a Giants linebacker was not on the board for tackles until Boley.
So with that, we need to give the linebackers a grade for 2009, and we will give them a D. Hopefully next year we’ll see some improvement. We have to, right?
Tags: Antonio Pierce, Atlanta Falcons, Bill Sheridan, Chase Blackburn, Clint Sintim, Danny Clark, defensive coordinator, Giants, herniated disc, Jonathan Goff, Lawrence Taylor, linebackers, linebackers coach, Michael Boley, middle linebacker, neck, Perry Fewell
