Notebook: Giants Hire Two, Eli Has a New Gig, and More
The Giants have hired Kyle O’Brien to fill the team’s newly created senior personnel executive position and Drew Wilson to fill the vacancy assistant strength and conditioning coach role.
O’Brien comes to the Giants from the Lions, for whom he worked the previous five years. In his first season with the Lions in 2016, he was the team’s director of player personnel. The following year, he was promoted to the vice president of player personnel.
The Harvard-educated O’Brien began his NFL career as an intern with the Jets player personnel department in 1999. He also served as the Jaguars’ director of college scouting for three seasons (2013-15), one season as a national scout with the Chiefs (2012), and nearly ten seasons with the New England Patriots player personnel department in various roles.
Wilson, 42 years old, replaces Thomas Stallworth, who left the Giants after three seasons to become the Atlanta Falcons’ strength and conditioning coach. Wilson previously served for four years as the director of football strength and conditioning at the University of Colorado. A career-long college coach—Wilson also had stints with Maryland, Connecticut, Kansas, and Florida State—this is Wilson’s first NFL job.
Eli’s New Gig
For 16 seasons, Eli Manning was the picture of calm even in the face of the most ferocious blitzes.
That training appears to have helped Manning find his groove in front of a television camera. Manning, who has hosted Saturday Night Live and who has appeared in endless commercial both on his own or with at least one member of his famous football family, is now set to host “Eli’s Places” which will premier on ESPN+ next fall.
Eli’s older brother Peyton already hosts Peyton’s Places on the network, which just was renewed for a third season in December. So it seemed only natural that Eli would join his Hall of Fame-bound older brother with a show of his own.
In a promo for the new program, Peyton razzes Eli as only Peyton can do. Check out the clip below.
NFL Could Delay Start of Free Agency if Cap isn’t Set
Usually, by the end of February, NFL clubs know the upcoming league year’s salary cap and have begun planning accordingly. But this year, thanks to the economic fallouts caused by the global pandemic, the only information teams have had regarding the cap is that it wouldn’t dip below $175 million, a number that just a few short weeks ago was adjusted to a $180 million floor.
This lack of direction has made it difficult for some teams to plan for the long term. With there still no final salary cap number on the horizon, there is talk that the league may push back the Tuesday deadline to designate tagged players, which, if that happens, could potentially delay the March 17 start of free agency.
https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1368921945555824643
So what does this mean for the giants? If the Giants can’t reach an agreement with Leonard Williams before the start f the new league year, they are expected to apply the franchise tag on the defender to keep other teams from poaching him. But without knowing what they’d be working with in terms of dollars and sense, that could potentially screw up projections for other free agency moves they might be looking to make.
However, any potential delay won’t affect any decisions the Giants make with Leonard Williams and the franchise tag. If he is tagged again, by rule Williams would be automatically granted a new tag with a 20% increase tacked on to last year’s total.
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