E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer
for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he is one of
only five sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls.
Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

By DAVE KLEIN
Fred Robbins is a pretty good defensive tackle. Make that a better than pretty good defensive tackle.

He played with uncommon skills for the Minnesota Vikings for four years, ever since they made him a second round draft pick back in 2000, and last year, his first with the Giants as an Unrestricted Free Agent signee, he played with, at least, consistency.

While everybody around him was getting hurt, Robbins played. He missed one game all season, in Week Six against Detroit. For the remainder of the season, before and after that one Game Inactive entry, he played right defensive tackle.

Oh, yeah, he also played right defensive end, left defensive end and left defensive tackle.

Right, one of those guys, hands down the Giants' most reliable defensive lineman in 2004.

So now he has returned -- his partner at the other tackle spot, Norman Hand, has not returned -- and he is going to be the anchor of the team's new defensive line. New line? What new line? Well, it's going to be new in that end Keith Washington is gone. He's retired, primarily because no other team gave the Unrestricted Free Agent an offer.

Now it's going to be young Osi Umenyiora at right defensive end, with an aging and injured Michael Strahan at left end. Hey, if Stray is OK, then that's a huge plus. But he's 34 and he had a torn pectoral muscle and it doesn't much matter what he says about feeling good and lifting more weight than he ever did before and chewing on truck tires, he hasn't proven a thing until he's in pads and a helmet and the guys on the other side of the ball don't have a vested interest in his well-being.

Lance Legree, who played a lot of defensive tackle as a reserve and then seven of the last eight games as a starting right defensive end, is gone. He did get an offer -- from the New York Jets -- and he should provide quality support even if he doesn't become a starter.

So let's recap. Strahan is back at left defensive end, probably. Umenyiora is the starter at right defensive end. That's for sure. William Joseph (that's not fair, stop giggling) is the left defensive tackle until he proves he really is a first round bust and not just a slow developing superstar.

And then there's Fred Robbins.

That's three out of four positions in question, to one extent or another -- Osi being the least concern, Joseph being the greatest, Strahan somewhere in between.

"Fred is a veteran and he can play all the position on the line," said defensive line coach Mike Waufel the other day, the first of two days all year when the media can speak to the assistant coaches except for asking stuff like: "You think this is Wednesday? Do you think it's day or night? Are my shoelaces untied?"

There are young players behind the starters. Waufle is in love with the two ends taken in the draft, Justin Tuck of Notre Dame and Eric Moore of Florida State. "You've got to feel fortunate that we were able to draft them," he said, and maybe that works for Tuck (third round) but if Moore (sixth round) actually plays your Lotto ticket is the winner. Guaran-damn-teed.

Well, Waufle will always have Robbins. He was on the Vikings, but inactive, when they lost to the Giants in the NFC Championship game, 41-0. Come to think of it, weren't all the Vikings inactive that day? It was 14-0 before the Giants got the ball and when they did the Minnesota defense couldn't have stopped Bucknell.

Sorry, Bucknell.

This is a nice time of year. The Giants haven't lost a game and the Eagles haven't won one yet. The Giants know all their players plan on actually playing, at least right now, which is more than the Eagles know about Terrell Owens.

Dallas hasn't done anything brilliant yet and Washington is having enough trouble just living long enough to get to training camp.

So right now things are good. You know, Jeremy Shockey showed up and looked good and didn't have to use crutches or a walker. Eli Manning seems better than he did last year, which is a good thing because he has to keep getting better, mainly because he is counted on as the next sainted quarterback on this team but also because his backups have names like Jesse Palmer and Tim Hasselbeck and Jared Lorenzen.

Things are good now. So don't think too deeply about the lack of depth or proven performance of the defensive line. That could ruin what looks like a perfectly nice weekend coming up.

EXTRA POINTS -- The Giants released offensive tackle Kyle Wallace, 6-6 and 295. ... He had been signed as an undrafted rookie on May 6. ... Wallace started 36 straight games at Georgia Tech and was one of four rookie free agents the Giants signed from the school, the others being tight end Darius Williams, center Andy Tidwell-Neal and safety James Butler.

New placekicker Jay Feely, another of the Unrestricted Free Agents signed during the off-season, will film a PSA (that's Public Service Announcement) in conjunction with The United Way. ... Entitled "Oasis," the PSA shows Feely and neighborhood kids in Santa Clara, Cal., cleaning up an abandoned lot and turning it into a park for the community.

Check out Dave's website at E-GIANTS where you can subscribe to his newsletters which run much more frequently than what is available here.
- Team Giants

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