Reese's Giant purge
BY RALPH VACCHIANO
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Jerry Reese's first move as the new general manager of the Giants was big and unexpected.
And he might just be getting started.
Showing that he's serious about making the Giants a younger, healthier team, the first-year GM said goodbye yesterday to three expensive, injury-plagued veterans - left tackle Luke Petitgout and linebackers LaVar Arrington and Carlos Emmons. Combined, the trio missed 23 games last season and was due nearly $8 million in salary this year.
Just moments after the Giants announced that Petitgout had been released, his main backup, Bob Whitfield, announced his retirement on Sirius NFL radio - a move that may have been done because he was about to get cut, too. And there still could be more cuts coming, with receiver Tim Carter and kick returner Chad Morton - two other injury-plagued Giants - possibly on the chopping block, according to a source.
The release of Emmons wasn't much of a surprise, since he was hardly healthy during his three seasons with the team. But the axing of Arrington and Petitgout was a shock. Arrington had just completed the first year of a seven-year, $49 million contract, and said he was progressing nicely in his rehab from the torn Achilles he suffered on Oct. 23.
Petitgout was the Giants' best lineman and was having his finest season before he broke his leg on Nov. 12, and was so valuable that the team refused to place him on injured reserve until the final week in the slim hope he'd be available for the playoffs.
"Luke has been a valuable performer for our team," Reese said in a statement released by the Giants. "Throughout his career he showed his versatility and toughness. Because of that, this was a difficult decision, but it was one we felt we had to make to take the first steps in improving our team for 2007. Carlos has had a tough time staying on the field consistently because of injuries the past couple years. LaVar's situation is unfortunate because he was just starting to really become a factor in our defense at the time of his injury."
"These are difficult decisions," Tom Coughlin added in the same statement. "But as Jerry and I looked at the roster, they are decisions we felt we had to make."
Neither Reese nor Coughlin was available to explain the moves any further, but a team source said they were all the result of a combination of factors - reliability, durability, performance and money. Injuries have destroyed all three of Coughlin's teams with the Giants, and were a huge factor in last season's second-half collapse. That's a problem Reese is determined to correct.
And the three players who were cut were huge parts of the problem. Emmons, 33, had missed 11 games over the last two seasons and hadn't started all 16 games since 2001. The 28-year-old Arrington - who called the Giants "a class organization" yesterday and indicated he's considering retirement - has had two knee surgeries and Achillies surgery in the past three seasons, in which he's played only 23 games.
Compared to those two, the 30-year-old Petitgout has been relatively durable, though he's been plagued by a chronically bad back.
Cutting them not only gives the Giants a chance to get younger, more durable players at those positions, it also saves them $1.6 million against the 2007 salary cap. Add in the savings from two retirements - Tiki Barber's retirement became official yesterday - and the Giants have cleared about $6 million in salary cap space, leaving them approximately $20 million under the $109 million cap.
That could make Reese a major player in the open market, where he is expected to focus his efforts on linebackers and cornerbacks. David Diehl, who started the final two games of last season at left tackle, is the most likely candidate to replace Petitgout. And Rich Seubert could step in and replace Diehl at left guard, especially if free agent center Shaun O'Hara is re-signed.
