5. New York Giants
Quarterback Dave Brown remembers a December 1995 game
against Washington when the windchill hit -10° and the
winds were swirling around Giants Stadium. "I walked
by the Redskins'
quarterback, Heath Shuler, in the warmups," Brown recalls,
"and he was
having a terrible time. He turned to me and said, 'How the hell
do you play in this
place?'"
"Just luck, I guess," Brown
replied.
Some luck. A first-round supplemental draft pick in 1992,
Brown grew up waving a Giants pennant. Getting the starting
job in 1994 was a dream come true, but last season
everything bottomed out. Brown had the lowest quarterback
rating in the NFC and
directed a passing attack that finished last in the league.
Playing for a coach, Dan Reeves, who didn't much care for
him and who put him in a system Brown considered
inflexible, he was doomed to failure. He started O.K. in
some games, but things usually
turned sour. The two-minute drill was a disaster. He was booed
mercilessly.
"Did the fans think I didn't want to win?" he
says. "I'm competitive. I want to succeed so badly,
maybe too badly. It works on you. Once I was surrounded by
a bunch of kids getting autographs, and one of them said,
'Don't worry, Brown. Phil Simms stunk
his first two years,
too.'"
The problem was that Brown's two-year struggle stretched to
five. But after last season Reeves was forced out and the
Giants hired 48-year-old Jim Fassel—smiling, upbeat,
scholarly, a guy with a reputation for bringing
quarterbacks back to life. John
Elway's quarterback rating jumped 27 points in Fassel's first
year as the Broncos' offensive coordinator, in 1993.
Serving in the same capacity with the Cardinals last
season, he invigorated a fading Boomer
Esiason and coaxed some high-powered games out
of journeyman Kent
Graham.
Fassel was the Giants' offensive coordinator during Brown's
rookie season, and upon his return to New York he saw a
quarterback whose mechanics were flawed. "Dave didn't
have a fluidity about him," Fassel says. "He
looked hurried; he wasn't smooth and
confident on the drop and the set. He looked like he'd lost
his rhythm and timing, and he was anxious to get them back.
He was trying to power the ball. If the receivers weren't
where they were supposed to be, he'd throw the ball with an
anger to
it."
Putting a competent cast around Brown was Fassel's primary
concern in the draft. That his opinions were even noted was
a change for the Giants because, unlike Reeves, the new
coach had significant input in the personnel decisions
ultimately made by
general manager George Young. Florida wideout Ike Hilliard was
the
No. 1 pick. Faster players were available when the Giants' turn
came up with the seventh selection, but few collegians were
more productive last year than Hilliard. The Giants'
leading receivers last season, Chris Calloway and Thomas
Lewis, averaged a
dismal 3.0 yards after the catch. One of Hilliard's strengths is
his ability to create after he makes a
reception.
In the second round the Giants picked Tiki Barber, a
205-pound halfback from Virginia and an excellent receiver
who was originally penciled in as a third-down back. The
Giants traditionally have featured a big-back offense, but
Rodney Hampton had
arthroscopic knee surgery during camp and was expected to miss at
least the
opener. At week's end Fassel was leaning
toward starting Barber against the Eagles.
Over the past few years the Giants have addressed their
defensive needs. This season the objective is to make the
quarterback functional and provide him with enough
skill-position people. Next year the Giants will need to
shore up their offensive line.
Signing free agents hasn't been this club's modus operandi.
The Giants prefer to build through the draft. Now they're
doing it with a coach who has a way with quarterbacks.—Paul Zimmerman
SCHEDULE
SKINNY
A split of their first two games—home against Philadelphia
and at Jacksonville—would put the Giants in good shape
heading into the softest part of their schedule: home
against Baltimore, at St. Louis and back home for New
Orleans. That means New York
could be 3-2, maybe 4-1, when the Cowboys visit Giants Stadium
on
Oct. 5. Then again, if the Giants stumble out of the gate,
they'll be well on their way to their third consecutive
losing
season.
STRENGTH OF
SCHEDULE
NFL rank: 25 (tie)
Opponents' 1996 winning percentage:
.473
Games against playoff teams:
5
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