NY Giants' Mathias Kiwanuka Performing Well In 2006

Another Great Article By Giants Beatwriter & Blogger Arthur Staple of NEWSDAY-My comments at the end.

Kiwanuka doing more than expected
December 13, 2006

This final season for Ernie Accorsi hasn't exactly gone as he'd planned. He probably figured the Giants would improve on last season's 11-5 record and go deeper into the playoffs before he retired after 36 years in the NFL. Instead, his prized quarterback has been under fire, his Hall of Fame defensive end is injured and his potential Hall of Fame running back is retiring along with Accorsi.

But the season can still be redeemed. And a large part of how the Giants withstood the barrage of injuries and poor play over their four-game losing streak can be traced to a decision Accorsi and his staff made in April, one that was seemingly a head-scratcher at the time.

The Giants traded down in the first round of the draft and selected Mathias Kiwanuka, a long, lean defensive end. "You can never have too many pass rushers," Accorsi said at the time. It sounded like a hollow cliché then: With Pro Bowlers Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora and improving second-year DE Justin Tuck, where would Kiwanuka play?

Accorsi is hardly feeling vindicated now. Just relieved that Kiwanuka not only has played, but done a very solid job for a rookie. For three games, he was the only true pass rusher on the field for the Giants, with Strahan out for five games and counting, Umenyiora out for six and Tuck done for the year.

"He's saved us," Accorsi said yesterday. "It's like a rookie pitcher. You start him off in middle relief to work him in slowly, but he ends up in the rotation. Kiwanuka didn't just end up in the rotation, he was our No. 1 starter for a month."

True, the Giants didn't win in that month, and Kiwanuka figured prominently in two of the losses. His failure to put Vince Young on the ground was one of many costly mistakes in the loss to the Titans. His fumble after an interception gave the Cowboys life in the first quarter when a Giants score could have made things difficult for Dallas.

But Kiwanuka hasn't missed a beat, or a play. He's been on the field for every defensive snap since he took over for Umenyiora against the Bucs seven games ago, and he still has kickoff and punt coverage duties.

That he quickly recovered from both errors - and from having his Cadillac Escalade stolen out of the Giants Stadium parking lot, which would be enough to push you or me over the edge on its own - speaks to the other reason Accorsi drafted Kiwanuka.

"Even after those two unfortunate events, I didn't worry about him the way I would another rookie," Accorsi said. "He's such a serious, mentally strong kid. He's had to do a lot more than we'd have thought this year, and under fire, too. This stuff is only going to help him."

It's helping his wallet, too. According to a person familiar with Kiwanuka's contract, the rookie could earn an extra $150,000 on top of his $275,000 salary for 2006, $50,000 for playing 60 percent of the defensive snaps and having four sacks, which he reached in Charlotte on Sunday, and $100,000 for being named first-team All-Rookie. He and No. 1 overall pick Mario Williams of the Texans seem to be shoo-ins at end. Kiwanuka also can trigger escalators in his 2010 salary with the sack and playing-time numbers this season if he stays on course.

Strahan already is a near-certainty to miss Sunday's game and a real question mark to return before the playoffs. "If we didn't think he was coming back, we'd have put him on IR," Accorsi said. So Kiwanuka will be counted upon to provide Umenyiora with a capable complement the rest of the way.

It's a far cry from April, when Accorsi told his coaching staff that he "wasn't drafting a guy to stand next to me in the tunnel."

You really can't have enough pass rushers.

And my Take: No, you really can't have too many Studs on the D-line. I remember sitting at the draft With Zennie, and Next level Scouting's and now Yahoo Sports' John Murphy and being mildly surprised that The Giants would select another Defensive end except for depth. That was 7+ months ago. Guess Ernie Accorsi thought ahead, knowing that Strahan wouldn't play forever.