When the Giants won the Superbowl in the 2007 season, Steve Smith was the young inconsistent rookie who showed flashes of what was to come (e.g. the big third down reception on the last drive of the Superbowl). Three years later and Smith is now the Giants' most consistent receiver and the veteran leader of this group. At least he should be. Hakeem Nicks made a strange remark during OTA's that Sinorice Moss was the units leader--God help us. In any event, Smith is the Giants best receiver. He is also the most underrated WR in the league.
Nicks is the favorite to start alongside Smith. Like Smith in 2007, Nicks, although often inconsistent, showed flashes of brilliance in his rookie year (remember his up and down game against Philadelphia at home last year?). The issue for Nicks is going to be his health. He's been nicked up (no pun intended...OK it was intended) quite a bit in his young career and is currently battling a slew of minor bumps, bruises, and strains. The good news is injury woes are not uncommon for young receivers (I have no idea why but it seems rookie WR never stay healthy their first year) and Nicks showed he is resilient enough to come back from injury. I like Nicks this year--I like him a lot.
The sometimes dazzling, often infuriating Mario Manningham is likely to be the guy you see lined up in the slot this year. Manningham can make plays, but is a little too inconsistent to be an everydown player. The other wild card is Ramses Barden. The 6'6" second year receiver has once again wowed everyone in practice, and has once again--at least so far--failed to produce in games (even fake ones). Now he has a stress fracture in his back that will likely bother him all year. God knows I know nothing about being a 6'6" receiver, but I think it's pretty safe to say your back is pretty important. I fear Barden might have a rough go of it in 2010, but if he can battle through the injury, the Giants would love to use him as both a back-up and situational (i.e. red zone) wide-receiver.
The bubble battle is likely between Sinorice Moss, Derek Hagen, and Victor Cruz. I think Hagen is a lock at this point. He's a valuable special teams player and a solid back-up wide receiver. The Giants kept 7 wide receivers last year, so it's possible both Moss and Cruz make the roster now that Hixon is out for the year. But the Giants also only kept 3 safeties in '09, which turned out to be a critical mistake. I think they stick with 6 on the active roster and 1 or 2 on the practice squad. Cruz is obviously the fan favorite, but we should be cautious. He hasn't shown he can contribute on special teams yet, and if you're going to be the sixth wide receiver, you damn well better. Then again Moss hasn't done much in that department (or any other for that matter) either.
The dark-horse candidates looking to earn a roster spot--or at least a practice squad look--are rookies Tim Brown, Duke Calhoun, and Nyan Boateng. I've noticed both Calhoun and Boateng have been given a lot of looks on special teams in the first two preseason games, but it's hard to evaluate how they've done on TV. Brown, like Cruz, was impressive in camp but hasn't had a real shot to show what he can do in a game yet. He got good separation and made a nice catch on that long pass against the Steelers, but Bomar lead him too far to the outside. I think Brown (a Rutgers alum) has got a good shot of landing on the practice squad.
The Giants WR's are young and fast and are hopefully only going to get better. This could be a strong unit for years to come, and one of the few I'm not too worried about in 2010 (what a difference a year makes).
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