New York Giants Should Be Fine Without Osi and Blackburn

The New York Giants defense will be a little bit different this year. Gone in the past couple of days are two cogs of the defense in Chase Blackburn and Osi Umenyiora. However, Giants fans shouldn’t freak out about losing these two.

Let’s start with Blackburn. Blackburn came off the couch to help lead the Giants to the Super Bowl two years ago. There’s no question that without him, they may not have gotten there, and the defense last year was clearly better with him on the field than without. Let’s not go crazy though. This is the same guy that no one called throughout 2011. This is the same guy who was a special teams player (and a good one at that) basically all of his career before that. The Giants should be good enough to survive a loss like that.

Let’s look at Osi now. This is the same guy who hasn’t had a double digit sack season in four years. He is the same guy who the team wouldn’t play except for in pass rush situations because he was such a liability against the run. This is the same guy who would constantly complain about his contract every summer.

The Giants should be okay on defense without these two. Matthias Kiwanuka can move back to the defensive end spot where he belongs. Dan Connor and some sort of rookie (whether it’s Manti Te’o or not) can fortify the middle. The Giants will be okay on defense without these two.