Each game made it more and more obvious the ill-fated shot that Plaxico Burress put through his right thigh might have cost the Giants a repeat Super Bowl appearance.
The passing game went south late in the season, with Burress suspended for the final four games and unable to participate in the playoffs after getting put on injured reserve following his self-inflicted accidental gunshot wound.
No receiver was able to come close to picking up the slack, not in yesterday’s 23-11 playoff loss to the Eagles, and it is clear that a big-play target is atop the Giants’ list of needs for next season.
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Could that target again be Burress?
“Sure, if everything goes right, yeah,” general manager Jerry Reese said in the locker room following the game. “Absolutely.”
Burress has legal issues to deal with and possible incarceration, but Reese did not close the door on No. 17 again playing for the Giants.
That is one of the major decisions for Reese, who also has some difficult roster decisions to make with his two 1,000-yard running backs, Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward, both set to become unrestricted free agents.
“We’ll go right into our evaluations, and we’ll see where we are and what direction we want to go,” Reese said. “We’ll spend this week evaluating our own team and we’ll see what happens.”
That process, Reese said, begins today.
Said Jacobs: “I don’t have any doubt in my mind I’ll be here. I think I will be here, and that’s that. I’m putting myself on this football team next year.”
Ward was more emotional. “I would love to come back and be a part of this, but it’s not up to me, it’s up to the front office people,” he said.
“I’m always going to be a Giant, no matter if I’m here or if I’m somewhere else. This team gave me my start, and I’ll always be in debt to them.”
Reese, in his first year as GM a year ago, held aloft the Vince Lombardi Trophy. But he didn’t get out of the divisional playoff round this time.