Broncos role players could bolster ‘D’ Jints
SAN FRANCISCO — Von Miller, the MVP of Super Bowl 50, broke the spirit and soul of Cam Newton and the Panthers with his play on the field and broke the hearts of Giants fans with his take on his impending free agency.
“It’s gonna be a peaceful thing,’’ Miller said Monday morning.
No, no, a thousand times no. The Giants needed Miller to take a militant stand right there, the day after his Broncos devastated the Panthers 2410 with a fearsome and forceful display of oldtime defensive football. The Giants needed Miller, at the precise moment his bargaining power is at an alltime high, to state he led the Broncos organization to the mountaintop and now he wants to take on the greatest challenge of all — repairing the broken New York Giants’ defense.
Of course, this was not going to happen, but the way Miller and Co. bludgeoned Newton by shredding and embarrassing the Panthers’ offensive line was reminiscent of the Giants’ two most recent Super Bowl triumphs. Tom Brady was in the building at Levi’s Stadium, and watching Cam get sacked seven times — they hit him 13 times — he might have started twitching with flashbacks to Super Bowl XLII and XLVI, when the likes of Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and Jason PierrePaul abused and beat him down.
Miller will not hit the open market — the Broncos either will sign him to a megadeal or slap the franchise tag on him. The mandate for the Giants heading into the first phase of the offseason, free agency, must be to find players who can make a defensive impact — if not the impact of Miller, an impact that can lift the Giants’ worstranked defense from 2015 into respectability and beyond. It will not be Miller, but perhaps it can be one or two of his teammates, players who filled huge roles in containing Newton and ravaging the Panthers’ highscoring attack. Linebacker Danny Trevathan and defensive lineman Malik Jackson — both coming off valueinflating Super Bowl performances — are set to become unrestricted free agents and would instantly upgrade the Giants’ defensive roster. Everyone wants to get paid following a Super Bowl victory and not all of them can cash in and stay put. Maybe the Giants, with $50 million to spend in free agency, can rob from the defensive rich.
The first step in the decisionmaking process for general manager Jerry Reese is to sort out who stays and who goes. The Giants have a load of their own free agents, including defensive starters Prince Amukamara, Robert Ayers, Cullen Jenkins and PierrePaul. Ayers led the team with 9.5 sacks despite playing in just 12 games. Amukamara is one of the team’s top cornerbacks, but has been unable to stay healthy and his development seems to have plateaued.
The key move will be PierrePaul, who back in 2011 was a Millertype presence as a defensive disrupter. His permanently damaged right hand will factor in any new contract offer. The Giants want him back, but at their price, which will be less than half of what a star defensive end would command with two fully functional hands.
“There’s nobody else like him, unless you’re going to be able to get a Von Miller and you know that ain’t happening,’’ Umenyiora told The Post. “Who else are you going to get? It’s got to be JPP.’’
What version of JPP would the Giants be getting? Umenyiora finished his NFL career with 85 sacks — 75 with the Giants, the last 10 with the Falcons — and he was an expert on hitting, grabbing and dropping quarterbacks. PierrePaul managed just one sack in his eight games after returning from a July 4 fireworks accident while playing with a bulky club on his hand. PierrePaul hopes he will not have to use the wrapping in 2016 after yet another surgery on his hand, this one to return his right middle finger to some semblance of normalcy.
“Honestly, if they can find a way to get that bigass club off his hand, because to me he still looks explosive, he was making plays, getting in the backfield, it’s just at the end it was hard to tackle like that,’’ Umenyiora said. “These guys are so big and strong, you can’t just bring them down with one arm. If they can get a glove that would make it easier for him to hold on, he can still be a dominant player because he played really well. He wasn’t finishing because he couldn’t finish.’’
The Broncos’ defense finished off the Panthers. The Giants know the blueprint.