Justin Tuck can see the end from where he’s sitting, just like everybody else. His NFL career is winding down, even if he does have more years remaining than everyone seems to think.
Ask him, and despite the bitter disappointment of his play last season, he says he’s got another 6-7 seasons left. Ask Giants GM Jerry Reese, and he says Tuck’s “got a lot of tread left on his tires.” Ask scouts who’ve watched him, though, and they’ll talk of a player with diminishing skills, slower speed and a body that’s just been too beat up over eight NFL seasons.
Given all that’s at stake for the Giants and Tuck this season, they desperately need those scouts to be wrong.
Tuck, now at the old NFL age of 30, has said all the right things since last season ended about his renewed focus and commitment, his determination to prove he’s a better player, his dissatisfaction with his play in recent years. But as the Giants like to say, talk is cheap. The real game for him begins on Friday when Giants training camp opens.
That’s when Tuck will arrive with as much to prove as anyone on the roster, and maybe with more riding on his shoulders than anyone but Eli Manning. With Jason Pierre-Paul sidelined by back surgery at least through the summer, Tuck needs to prove he’s capable of much more than the nine sacks he has totaled the last two regular seasons.
Everything about the Giants’ defense is predicated on generating a pass rush — something they might not be able to do without a revived Tuck.
And without a revived Tuck there would be a personal cost as well, since he’s entering the final season of the five-year, $30 million contract extension he signed in 2008. It was once unthinkable that the Giants would let Tuck, one of their most popular stars, inch so close to unrestricted free agency. Now, based on his recent play, it’s hard to see them offering any kind of long-term deal.
So in other words, there’s not much riding on Tuck’s shoulders this summer: only the Giants’ defense, possibly their season and maybe his NFL career.
That’s why Tuck has spent so much of the last few months in self-evaluation mode. He told ESPN he even tried a Tony Robbins seminar in Los Angeles where he walked over hot coals to help find his own inner fire. He’s probably had more heart-to-heart talks with more people than he ever thought he’d need at this stage of his career, including one with Reese shortly after the season was over.
“Obviously Justin hasn’t played as well as we think he can play and what kind of player he has shown to be in the past,” Reese said a few months ago. “And he knows that. Justin and I recently had a really long conversation and talked about some of those things and he really wants to get back to the old Justin Tuck and be the player that we know him to be.”
What he should be, at this stage of his career, is Michael Strahan. Maybe he’s not on that Hall of Fame level, but he was supposed to be Strahan’s heir apparent as the face and heart of the defense. It’s a young, struggling defense now, and there’s no Strahan or Antonio Pierce to pull it together. The fiery Antrel Rolle is still a major factor, but in many ways the defense gets its pulse from Tuck.
The last two seasons, that wasn’t much of a pulse at all — except for six weeks late in 2011 when Tuck magically looked like his old self. In a six-game span he had 51/2 sacks and was a dominant presence on defense. The Giants didn’t lose any of those games — including a 21-17 win over New England behind Tuck’s two sacks in Super Bowl XLVI.
That bright spot was an aberration, though, not a turning point. In 2012, Tuck endured yet another injury-plagued season and said, “My performance was nowhere near what I envisioned for myself.” What he envisions in 2013 is a bounce-back season during which he’s a force again on defense and nobody thinks for a second that he’s almost done.
There’s a long way to go for Tuck and the Giants, and it won’t be easy up front without Osi Umenyiora (now with Atlanta) and the sidelined JPP. It’s Tuck’s pass rush now.
It’s Tuck’s defense. In some ways it’s Tuck’s team. And it better be Tuck’s summer, too, otherwise it could be the beginning of the end of Tuck’s Giants career.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f...ope-tuck-left-article-1.1407856#ixzz2a3pYhbIf
Ask him, and despite the bitter disappointment of his play last season, he says he’s got another 6-7 seasons left. Ask Giants GM Jerry Reese, and he says Tuck’s “got a lot of tread left on his tires.” Ask scouts who’ve watched him, though, and they’ll talk of a player with diminishing skills, slower speed and a body that’s just been too beat up over eight NFL seasons.
Given all that’s at stake for the Giants and Tuck this season, they desperately need those scouts to be wrong.
Tuck, now at the old NFL age of 30, has said all the right things since last season ended about his renewed focus and commitment, his determination to prove he’s a better player, his dissatisfaction with his play in recent years. But as the Giants like to say, talk is cheap. The real game for him begins on Friday when Giants training camp opens.
That’s when Tuck will arrive with as much to prove as anyone on the roster, and maybe with more riding on his shoulders than anyone but Eli Manning. With Jason Pierre-Paul sidelined by back surgery at least through the summer, Tuck needs to prove he’s capable of much more than the nine sacks he has totaled the last two regular seasons.
Everything about the Giants’ defense is predicated on generating a pass rush — something they might not be able to do without a revived Tuck.
And without a revived Tuck there would be a personal cost as well, since he’s entering the final season of the five-year, $30 million contract extension he signed in 2008. It was once unthinkable that the Giants would let Tuck, one of their most popular stars, inch so close to unrestricted free agency. Now, based on his recent play, it’s hard to see them offering any kind of long-term deal.
So in other words, there’s not much riding on Tuck’s shoulders this summer: only the Giants’ defense, possibly their season and maybe his NFL career.
That’s why Tuck has spent so much of the last few months in self-evaluation mode. He told ESPN he even tried a Tony Robbins seminar in Los Angeles where he walked over hot coals to help find his own inner fire. He’s probably had more heart-to-heart talks with more people than he ever thought he’d need at this stage of his career, including one with Reese shortly after the season was over.
“Obviously Justin hasn’t played as well as we think he can play and what kind of player he has shown to be in the past,” Reese said a few months ago. “And he knows that. Justin and I recently had a really long conversation and talked about some of those things and he really wants to get back to the old Justin Tuck and be the player that we know him to be.”
What he should be, at this stage of his career, is Michael Strahan. Maybe he’s not on that Hall of Fame level, but he was supposed to be Strahan’s heir apparent as the face and heart of the defense. It’s a young, struggling defense now, and there’s no Strahan or Antonio Pierce to pull it together. The fiery Antrel Rolle is still a major factor, but in many ways the defense gets its pulse from Tuck.
The last two seasons, that wasn’t much of a pulse at all — except for six weeks late in 2011 when Tuck magically looked like his old self. In a six-game span he had 51/2 sacks and was a dominant presence on defense. The Giants didn’t lose any of those games — including a 21-17 win over New England behind Tuck’s two sacks in Super Bowl XLVI.
That bright spot was an aberration, though, not a turning point. In 2012, Tuck endured yet another injury-plagued season and said, “My performance was nowhere near what I envisioned for myself.” What he envisions in 2013 is a bounce-back season during which he’s a force again on defense and nobody thinks for a second that he’s almost done.
There’s a long way to go for Tuck and the Giants, and it won’t be easy up front without Osi Umenyiora (now with Atlanta) and the sidelined JPP. It’s Tuck’s pass rush now.
It’s Tuck’s defense. In some ways it’s Tuck’s team. And it better be Tuck’s summer, too, otherwise it could be the beginning of the end of Tuck’s Giants career.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f...ope-tuck-left-article-1.1407856#ixzz2a3pYhbIf
