Four months after Osi Umenyiora threatened to retire if he wasn’t starting, the defensive end remains right where he started the offseason. With the second team.
Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News passes along that Matthias Kiwanuka opened minicamp as a starter opposite Justin Tuck, with Umenyiora working with the second team. We expect the two players to rotate plenty during the regular season, but it looks like Umenyiora still may sit on many rushing downs.
The story is another reminder what a good job the Giants did in February by essentially patting Umenyiora on the head back, saying that his threat was cute, and telling him to get back to work.
(PFT magazine buyers will note that I used roughly the same line there. Sue me.)
The Giants are one of the toughest teams to predict this season -- nothing would surprise us -- but it’s impressive to think they will have Umenyiora and first-round pick Jason Pierre-Paul coming off the bench.