Of course, the focus is on Terrell Owens because that’s what happens when a guy is a great player and he also chooses to preen as he basks in the spotlight.
The new Eagle receiver undoubtedly will be trouble for a Giant secondary that may not have cornerback Will Allen available. But the Giants still believe they have an advantage that isn’t getting trumpeted as boldly.
The two mainstays in their receiver corps, Amani Toomer and Ike Hilliard, have been together for eight years, and for all of that time they’ve gone against the rival Eagles, they’ve battled against Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor.
Twice and sometimes three times a season Toomer and Hilliard tested themselves against the two talented, physical and smart corners, winning some confrontations, losing others, always competing at the highest level.
“It used to be ‘OK, we got Troy and Bobby this week,’ it was a good battle,” Hilliard said.
The battle was won by the Giants nine straight times before the Eagles countered by taking five of the last six. The game within a game, though, is no more, making Sunday’s season-opener at Lincoln Financial Field a new beginning.
Both Vincent and Taylor are gone, as the Eagles decided this past offseason not to pursue the two veteran free agents. Vincent landed in Buffalo and Taylor is in Seattle, and their replacements, Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown, are first-year starters with talent but not nearly the experience of their predecessors.
“Experience is something you can’t make up for,” Toomer said.
“The way the game changes, it’s crazy,” added Hilliard. “It will be a little bit different for us personally, Amani and myself, been playing together going on eight years now and to see a different group of guys in Philly as far as a starting core as far as the corners are concerned, it will be weird not seeing 21 [Taylor] and 23 [Vincent].”
Will weird be good for the Giants? Both Sheppard and Brown are full-time starters for the first time [Sheppard was the nickel back last year] but no strangers to the field. The two have a dozen starts between them and were supposed to reach this level.
The Eagles prepared for the departures of Vincent and Taylor as meticulously as possible, drafting Sheppard in the first round in 2002 and Brown on the second round the same year.
The pedigrees are there but these are huge shoes to fill.
“Those guys did a great job for me here,” Philly coach Andy Reid said of Vincent and Taylor. “Things didn’t work out in this crazy cap era we’re in.”
With Vincent and Taylor, the Eagles had two extremely physical corners who knew all the angles. “They were one of the toughest,” Toomer said, “because they knew the defense really well. Now we’re play against some guys, I don’t know ’em. It’s gonna be fine.”
It remains to be seen if the Eagles, who prefer to blitz from the opening kickoff to the final play, will be as aggressive up front with diminished experience on the back line. It’s perhaps the most looming question the Eagles must answer.