Team Giants

Giants 2001 What's new for this season

Giants Opponents for 2001
Home:
Washington, Dallas, Arizona, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Green Bay, Oakland, Seattle
Away:
Washington, Dallas, Arizona, Philadelphia, Minnesota, St. Louis, Denver, Kansas City

Head coach Jim Fassel is 4-0 in season openers, and the Giants have a tough one coming up. They will open the season on Monday night, Sept. 10, in Denver against the Broncos in the first game at Invesco Field at Mile High.
"To open at Denver, against a team that will be picked to win its division and possibly go to the Super Bowl, in their new stadium and in a Monday night atmosphere, it will be a very big challenge for us," Fassel said. "And I've always placed a lot of emphasis on our opening games. We need to get off on the right foot."
The Super Bowl champion Ravens will play the Vikings in Baltimore in the second Monday night game. It has been standard practice for the Super Bowl champion to open the season on Monday night, but it seems that the Giants beat out the Ravens in this instance.
The schedule has the Giants playing 7 games against 2000 playoff teams: 2 versus Philadelphia and 1 apiece against Minnesota, St. Louis and Denver on the road and New Orleans and Oakland at home.

To see the opponents for all the NFL Teams: NFL 2001 Opponents

NFL 2001 week-by-week schedule

2001 NFL week-by-week schedule

NFL POSTSEASON SCHEDULE
Wild Card Weekend January 5-6
Divisional Playoffs January 12-13
Conference Championships January 20
Super Bowl XXXVI, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans. January 27
AFC-NFC Pro Bowl, Honolulu, Hawaii February 3

Coaches
Head coach Jim Fassel was signed to a new four-year, $10.7 million contract, and the Giants gave one-year extensions through 2002 to all his assistants. Jim Fassel has gone one step further for his coaches. He plans to take them and their wives, plus the trainers, equipment and video staffs and their wives, for a long weekend in Puerto Rico in May. "It's hard, with the hours we work and the pace we are under, to get the wives and everybody else, and get away and relax and have a good time," Fassel said. Fassel said it's his way of saying, "Thanks, good job this season."

FREE AGENTS
The free-agency period begins March 2.
Teams are supposed to be at or below the salary cap — $67 million — by then.

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS - players who have accrued four or more NFL seasons and are free to sign with any team unless given a franchise or transition tag.
RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS - players with three accrued seasons.
The player's current team has a right of first refusal on offers from other teams.
If the team chooses to let a restricted free agent leave by opting to not match an offer, the team will receive draft-choice compensation from the player's new team.
EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS FREE AGENTS - players with less than three accrued seasons.
They do not have the right to change teams if they are offered a contract from their current club.
FRANCHISE PLAYER - A team can declare a player to be a franchise player.
He must receive a one-year contract offer at the average of the five highest-paid players at his position, or 120 percent of his salary the previous year, whichever is greater.
The player can still negotiate with other teams, but it would cost them a pair of their first-round draft choices.

Giants Unrestricted Free Agents (updated as signings occur)
RB Tiki Barber - Signed, 6 years, $25 million, $7 million signing bonus.
CB Jason Sehorn - Signed, 6 years, $6 million a year, $10 million signing bonus.
DT Christian Peter - To Indianapolis, 2-years, $2.55 million, $700,000 signing bonus.
P Brad Maynard - To Chicago, 5 years, $5.25 million, $1 million signing bonus.
K Brad Daluiso
LB Ryan Phillips - To Oakland,
QB Mike Cherry
OC Derek Engler
TE Pete Mitchell - To Detroit, 1 year, $715,000 - (490,000 and a $225,000 signing bonus).
LB Pete Monty
FS Omar Stoutmire

Giants Restricted Free Agents
FB Greg Comella - Signed, 1-year, $512,000.
WR Joe Jurevicius - Tendered
CB Emmanuel McDaniel - Signed, 1-year, $512,000.
CB Ramos McDonald - Not Tendered - signed with Oakland.
DT George Williams - Not Tendered.

Giants Unsigned
Cedric Jones - To the St. Louis Rams

Free Agents signed from outside the Giants ranks (updated as signings occur)
DE Kenny Holmes (Titans) - Signed, 5 years, $20 million, $5 million signing bonus.
P Rodney Williams - signed as a free agent
K Matt Simonton - signed as free agent
P Tony Umholtz - signed as free agent

Notes on Giants Free Agents

According to The Sporting News: "Among those not expected to be re-signed are kicker Brad Daluiso, tight end Pete Mitchell, defensive tackle Christian Peter and quarterback Mike Cherry.
The team already has a capable replacement for Peter in Cornelius Griffin, who looked like a star in the making as a rookie. Peter figures to seek a chance to start elsewhere. But there are no obvious successors to Daluiso or Mitchell.
Jaret Holmes, who backed up Daluiso for most of the season, is a potential replacement, but the team figures to bring in competition for him. Dan Campbell is the kind of two-way tight end the team wants, but it is not certain he will be up to the job, so Accorsi will be on the lookout for tight ends in free agency or the draft."

Free Agents announced signed by the Giants on February 16, 2001
Many of these players have previous experience with the Giants, either from training camp or from their practice squad.

RB Omar Bacon
RB Lloyd Clemons
DL Lavell Ellis
OL Jim Goff
OL Scott Kiernan
OL John Kuzora
S Clarence LeBlanc
QB Leon Murray
WR Quinton Spotwood
WR Anthony Tucker
TE Adam Young

More Free Agents signed by the Giants
DE Kenny Holmes - From Tennessee, 5 years, $20.2 million, $5 million signing bonus.

Articles on signing Free Agents
SportsLine - Signing free agents on downside of career costly.
Giants.com - Giants Sign 11 Free Agents
The Sporting News - Comella could leave as a restricted free agent
The Record - Draft should slow free agency flurry

Articles on the salary cap and salaries
One move a team might make to get some salary cap room, is to sign a player to the lower veteran minimum, and then give him the rest of his salary as a signing bonus.
For salary cap purposes, the bonus is pro-rated over the remaining years of his contract.
For example, Jets quarterback Vinnie Testaverde, due to earn a base salary of $5.6 million in 2001, reduced his salary to $477,000 (the veteran minimum), and took the difference in the form of a signing bonus. This deal created $4 million in salary cap room for the team to use to sign other players this year.
The Jets also made some other unusual moves on this contract, which you can find below.

The Record - Salary and bonuses in 2000.
The Daily News - Giants had success with wise spending
The Daily News - Jets use creative salary cap clause

The Draft - April 21-22
The Giants will draft 30th in the first round.
The rest of the NFC East - Arizona drafts 2nd, Washington 15th and Philadelphia 25th. Dallas traded their first-round pick to Seattle last season.
The Giants were awarded an extra fifth round pick for the upcoming NFL draft. It turns out that 31 total picks were awarded to 16 teams. Under terms of the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, a team losing more or better compensatory free agents than it acquires in a year is eligible to receive compensatory draft picks. Working with the formula developed by the NFL Management Council, not every free agent lost or signed by a club is covered by this formula based on salary, playing time and postseason honors.
For the Giants, the NFL considered PK Cary Blanchard, FS Percy Ellsworth, WLB Scott Gaylon, DT Bernard Holsey, and LT Roman Oben as "lost" and QB Jason Garrett, LG Glenn Parker, CB Dave Thomas, and OC Dusty Zeigler as "signed".
This year, the compensatory picks will be positioned within the 3rd through 7th rounds based on the value of the compensatory free agents lost. Compensatory picks can not be traded .

Articles on the Draft
SportsLine - Draft 2001: Mock Draft
ESPN - Mel Kiper's Mock Draft
SportsLine - Draft 2001: The Top 50 prospects
ESPN - Mel Kiper's Top 25 prospects

The Sporting News - Giants Draft preview
NY Daily News - Chargers Won't Pass On Taking Vick
The Star Ledger - Giants' strategy changes
The Record - Giants setting sights on all corners of draft
Giants.com - Accorsi Talks Draft, But Keeps Team's Plans Under Wraps
Giant Insider - Which way is New York looking?
The Record - Vick heads short list of quarterbacks
The Post - Giants Hoping a Gem Falls to Them at 30
Giant Insider - Which way is New York looking?
Giants.com - Current Giants Recall Draft-Day Memories
The Record - Pinned in a corner
The Daily News - Deal Could Be In Big Blueprint
The Record - Giants draft: Dirt on Smoot may scare them off

NFL Dates and Schedules
Feb. 8 - Deadline for clubs to designate franchise and transition players.
Feb. 21 - NFL Europe League Draft.
Feb. 22-26 - Scouting Combine, Indianapolis, Ind.

March 1 - Deadline for submission of qualifying offers by clubs to their restricted free agents whose contracts have expired and to whom they desire to retain a right of first refusal/compensation. Deadline for clubs to submit offer of minimum salary to retain exclusive negotiating rights to their players with fewer than three seasons of free agency credit whose contracts have expired.
March 2 - Veteran free agency signing period begins.
March 2 - Trading period begins.
March 13 - NFL Europe League training camps open.
March 25-29 - NFL Annual Meeting, Palm Desert, Calif.

April 12 - NFL Europe League training camps close.
April 16 - Signing period ends for restricted free agents.
April 20 - Deadline for old club to exercise right of first refusal to restricted free agents.
April 21 - NFL Europe League season begins.
April 21-22 - NFL Draft, New York City.

May 22-23 - NFL Spring Meeting, Chicago, Ill. One item tentatively scheduled if not decided on earlier, is the realignment of teams for the 2002 season. The most popular version leaves five of the current six divisions relatively intact.
NFC East: Giants, Cowboys, Eagles, Redskins; NFC North: Bears, Lions, Packers, Vikings; NFC South: Falcons, Panthers, Saints, Bucs; NFC West: Cardinals, Rams, 49ers, Seahawks; AFC East: Jets, Bills, Dolphins, Patriots; AFC North: Ravens, Bengals, Browns, Steelers; AFC South: Texans, Colts, Jaguars, Titans; AFC West: Broncos, Chiefs, Raiders, Chargers.
News Story - Realignment Will Move You.

June 1 - Deadline for old clubs to send tender to unsigned unrestricted free agents to receive exclusive negotiating rights for rest of season if player is not signed by another club by July 15. Deadline for old clubs to send tender to unsigned restricted free agents or to extend qualifying offer to retain exclusive negotiating rights.
June 15 - Deadline for old clubs to withdraw original qualifying offer to unsigned restricted free agents and still retain exclusive negotiating rights by substituting tender of 110 percent of previous year's salary.
June 23 - NFL Europe League regular season ends.
June 30 - World Bowl 2001, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

July 22 - Signing period ends at 4 p.m. ET for unrestricted free agents who received June 1 tender.

Aug. 6 - Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.

Sept. 9-10 - Kickoff 2001 Weekend.

Dec. 31 - Regular season ends.