FanHouse HakeemNicks

It was the fluke catch of the week. Sunday night at the Meadowlands, Giants rookie receiver Hakeem Nicks caught a tipped pass that had been intended for Mario Manningham and carried it all the way to the end zone for a 62-yard touchdown against the Cardinals. It was a shake-your-head play -- the kind the defense can write off as an excusable miracle, a bizarre bounce, nothing more than pure luck.

But they say luck is the residue of design, and the people who know Hakeem Nicks say that design is a huge part of his game. Coaches and teammates past and present describe Nicks as an intensely studious, hyper-prepared player who obsesses over his playbook and game scripts and would rather talk about route-running than anything else. Knowing Nicks means knowing that the seeds of that Sunday night play were planted years ago at Independence High School in Charlotte, N.C., where a coach named Tommy Knotts drills 16- and 17-year-old kids on something even NFL coaches struggle to get across -- the importance of film study.

Terrell Owens is an albatross. Mike Sims-Walker redeemed himself after a booty-call inflicted goose-egg. Just how good is Matt Schaub? Does Hakeem Nicks have his "big boy pants" on yet? How big an impact is Michael Crabtree going to have on the 49ers offense? Join Matt Snyder and Tom Herrera for this and much, much more in the Week 7 fantasy football podcast, as we welcome Frank Gore back and mock a fellow employee in the process.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- They may not yet have looked it this preseason, but the Giants are good. As currently constructed, they must be counted among the favorites in the NFC when the season begins in two weeks. Their biggest problem, however, is the same one they had last December -- their downfield deep threat is headed to prison and they don't seem to have anybody on the roster with whom to replace him.

So soon after the Plaxico Burress fiasco, the Giants don't necessarily want to pursue disgruntled Denver receiver Brandon Marshall. But they haven't ruled it out either, and how could they? You watch the Giants play, and the deficiency is obvious. They may well be one star receiver away from being a Super Bowl team. Which is why Saturday's game -- a game in which Steve Smith and Mario Manningham were dropping passes left and right -- would have gone down as another lost night if not for the spectacular fourth-quarter performance of first-round draft pick Hakeem Nicks.

With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet The ...
Team that wants you to believe they can win with anybody. That's right, it's the system and not the players. The Giants shed a bulk of their offense in the offseason, some by choice, others ... well not so much. Their franchise QB bid farewell to his top receiving options and a key running back bolted for free agency.

Yet, let's not worry too much. The Giants still have a monster with Brandon Jacobs, a ball-hawking defense that thrives on pressure, and some potential budding stars on offense. Will Eli shake off the tough offseason and put up those solid and consistent numbers we all crave? Well, maybe. Yeah, that's a good theme for owning most of this Giants offense. Do you trust (fill-in-the blank) ... "well, maybe."

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The most exciting thing that happened at New York Giants minicamp Wednesday was a press conference to announce Timex as the naming-rights sponsor for the team's new training facility here -- the "Timex Performance Center." It's a beautiful complex, but unless you're the ones pocketing $35 million from the deal over the next 15 years, this wasn't exactly the stuff of big headlines.

That's fine with the Giants, who got their fill of headlines at last year's minicamp.

Coming off a Super Bowl championship, the Giants convened last year amid loud, obnoxious Jeremy Shockey and Plaxico Burress contract controversies. Neither of those players was on the team by year's end, but they were here a year ago, and they were making it noisy. This year ... not so much. And Tom Coughlin couldn't be happier about it.

Plaxico Burress' immediate future remains uncertain -- there's still a decent chance he spends some time in the clink -- but this much is clear: the Giants have moved on. They released Plax in early April, and then used two of their first four draft picks on wide receivers at the end of the month. The Giants selected Hakeem Nicks 29th overall, and took Ramses Barden two rounds later.

Both are big receivers -- Nicks, 6-1, 215, has been compared to Anquan Boldin; Barden, 6-6, 226, is more physically similar to Burress -- but rookie wideouts are notoriously slow to transition to the NFL, sometimes taking two or three years to get acclimated. There are exceptions -- Dwayne Bowe and Marques Colston come to mind -- but I don't think the Giants are expecting Pro Bowl-type performances from Nicks or Barden next season.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- He looked good on the field, and he did fine in the press conference, which were the two parts of Hakeem Nicks' first day at New York Giants rookie minicamp that we got to see. To the scriblling, twittering, inquiring group of media that gathered at Giants Stadium this morning to check out the new guys, Nicks looked just like a first-round pick is supposed to look. He was quick, skillful, athletic and surprisingly polished.

Giants coach Tom Coughlin liked what he saw on the field, too. But that wasn't the only place Nicks was impressive on his first day as a pro. Coughlin also liked what he saw of the rookie out of North Carolina in the morning meeting.

Will Brinson was Easton-bound and Down for the Gatorade Replay of America's most important high school rivalry.

Eli Manning was kind enough to spend time this past weekend playing the role of "Honorary Coach" for Phillipsburg High School during the Gatorade Replay game in Pennsylvania. And he was even kinder to take time out of his always busy schedule to answer a few questions that FanHouse had to ask. Namely: what's it like to "coach" 30-something high school players, what does he think of the Giants drafting Hakeem Nicks, and did he and Peyton really (and awkwardly) text Matthew Stafford together? Full interview is after the jump.

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

With the departure of Plaxico Burress, and the failure (unwillingness?) to make an expensive trade for a veteran star, there was little secret how the Giants would attack the NFL Draft. They needed at least one receiver to help out Eli Manning and the unheralded returnees he has to throw to. Instead of settling for one, the Giants picked up a pair.

Instead of trading a bunch of draft picks for either Anquan Boldin or Braylon Edwards, the Giants elected to address the need to replace Plaxico Burress via draft. Nicks is a solid possession receiver and should see the field with regularity in 2009. Of course, the Giants have spent several draft picks on receiver in recent years -- Steve Smith (2nd round), Sinorice Moss (2nd), Mario Manningham (3rd) -- and they also added Domenik Hixon, so it's really tough to tell how everything shakes out as of now.

They'll be hoping Nicks develops into their go-to guy in the future, but the transition to that role in the pros will take more than a season. Let's check out the fantasy spin on the passing game after the jump.