NEWS » Bucky Brooks of NFL.com is out with an excellent piece

breaking down five things the rest of the NFL should learn from the once-again Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. Let’s look at those five things and see how they apply to the New York Giants.1) Focus on each player’s best traits.Brooks points to a number of players on the New England roster Giants Customized Color Rush Jerseys , especially wide receiver/running back kick returner Cordarelle Patterson and left tackle Trent Brown. Brooks, however, also lists a number of other useful players acquired by the Patriots.Valentine’s View: This has long been something I have thought the Patriots do better than anyone. They focus on what players can do to add value to their team, rather than what they can’t do as reasons to keep them off the field.A coach’s primary job is to put his players — and by extension his team — in the best possible position to succeed. You do that by figuring out what your players — all of your players — can do to help you and finding ways to use it. For the Giants, this might mean taking a hard look at whether using Evan Engram inline on 50.4 percent of his snaps, as they did in 2018, is the right thing to do. It might mean taking a hard look at whether using Sterling Shepard outside is maximizing his ability. HINT: It’s not.It means trying to uncover more players like Corey Coleman, rejected by other teams but a revelation for the Giants returning kickoffs. It means, after a year of James Bettcher getting to know his players, making sure players are being used in the right roles.2) Build a roster that features a number of versatile players.Brooks writes:Valentine’s View: I do think this is something the Giants are trying to accomplish. Pat Shurmur likes multi-skilled running backs, and even the move at fullback from Shane Smith to the more well-rounded Elijhaa Penny shows that. Giants wide receivers move around and function in a variety of roles. It’s not easy, though. Finding defensive backs with the skills to play multiple spots New York Giants T-Shirts , linebackers with an array of skills and defensive linemen useful against both the run and pass takes time.3) Place greater value on intelligence than athleticism.Brooks writes:Valentine’s View: I love this one, and I think the Patriots have proven how critical it is. Reality is, if guys have reached the NFL they are great athletes. All of them. Well, maybe aside from some of the kickers. If you’re a kicker and you’re reading, sorry. And if you’re Aldrick Rosas, I’ve seen the size of your biceps. I don’t mean you.I don’t mean to beat a dead horse or go back over ancient history here, but I kind of need to. This is one of the areas where I thought former GM Jerry Reese lost his way. It just seemed like Reese drafted a lot of players over the years based on their athleticism, based on what they looked like and measured like rather than what they played like.Reese got away with that when drafting the back-flipping Jason Pierre-Paul. It backfired drafting guys like Rueben Randle, Andre Williams, Owa Odighizuwa, James Brewer and others.There are rare athletes like Odell Beckham Jr. and Saquon Barkley. What separates the successful players from the unsuccessful ones at the NFL level, though https://www.giantsfanshop.com/hats , is often what is in between their ears and in their hearts. Can they learn and apply information? Can they study properly? Can they read and react quickly to what is happening on the field? That is a lot more important than how fast they run, how high they jump, or what they look like with their shirt off.4) Toughness matters.Brooks writes: Valentine’s View: Along with intelligence, this is another thing that is ultra-important and separates successful players and teams from unsuccessful ones. I think both GM Dave Gettleman and coach Pat Shurmur understand that trait, and value it. Witness a couple of the quotes used in Sunday’s post on the type of quarterback the Giants might be seeking to be the heir to Eli Manning.Shurmur:“I admire that. That’s really the most important thing, toughness and grit. You can be smart, you can be well-dressed, you can be well-spoken, but at the end of the day and it’s absolutely demanded in our sport, is your ability to be tough and gritty. Those are the attributes in people and especially in football players that is an absolute necessity in our business.”Gettleman:“There’s two kinds of players in this league, folks. There are guys that play professional football and there are professional football players,” Gettleman said. “And the professional football players are the guys we want. I don’t want guys that want to win. I want guys that hate to lose. That’s the professional football player. That’s what you want. So New York Giants Hoodie , it’s important.”Again, it takes time to find those players and populate your roster with them.5) It’s always about the team.Brooks writes: The Patriots don’t overpay for players. They just scout, and probably teach, better than everyone else. It’s how they replace Nate Solder with Trent Brown. It’s how they let the Giants pay for Shane Vereen and easily replace him. They do that over and over and over.There are no “me-first” or “look at me” guys on the Patriots. It’s about winning, and if you don’t buy in to doing whatever that takes then you don’t stay. No matter how talented. As the Giants move forward with Daniel Jones at quarterback, the move needs to be unequivocal, unconditional, and irreversible. Otherwise, the development of Jones could suffer.For that reason, it could make sense for the Giants to sever ties with Eli Manning.Earlier today, we suggested a retirement that would entail Manning getting a chunk of the remaining $10.4 million in 2019 base salary. If Manning isn’t interested in that, the Giants should seriously consider simply cutting the cord on Eli and moving on. Even if it means paying him the full amount of the remaining $10.4 million he’s owed.Yes http://www.giantsfanshop.com/Oshane-Ximines-Jersey , they screwed up. They should have cut Manning before Week One, avoiding the $11.5 million in base salary that became guaranteed as Termination Pay once the regular season began. But they shouldn’t risk screwing up Daniel Jones by having Eli hovering over Jones’ shoulder as Jones tries to reach his potential as quickly as possible.The Giants already made their $11.5 million mistake by keeping Eli on the team. They will potentially make it worse by keeping Eli around while trying to develop Jones. Absent a clear and complete and unmistakable commitment by Eli to embrace his new role and by the team to not waver and waffle and bench Jones for Eli later in the year, Eli should have no place on the roster, now that the Giants have made Jones the starter.Even if Eli is all in and the team will treat Jones as QB1 and Eli as QB2 with no chance of further flip-flopping, the media, the fans, and certain high-profile members of the Manning family could clamor for Eli to be reinstalled as the team’s quarterback, if Jones struggles. While Jones may have the mental toughness to withstand those catcalls, it would be better for them to not happen at all.They won’t happen if Eli isn’t on the team. The best play for the Giants, now that the quarterback of the future is the present starter, is to turn a half-measure into a full-blown removal of Eli Manning from the organization.