True Blue

The three sixes

The Giants will have back-to-back selections in the sixth round thanks to the compensatory pick granted them by the NFL. They have their own pick at 198 followed by the compensatory choice at 198. They also have the 194th pick, the Green Bay sixth-rounder they received for RB Ryan Grant.

With the 32 compensatory picks in place, here are the Giants overall selections:

Round          Pick

1                 31

2                 63

3                 95

4               130

5               165

6               194 from GB for RB Ryan Grant

                 198

                 199 (compensatory)

7               To KC for PK Lawrence Tynes (239)

Extra sixth

The Giants will get an extra sixth-round pick in the upcoming NFL draft.

They will get that coveted 199th pick in the draft thanks to the compensatory selection they received from the NFL Monday. That will give them three selections in the sixth round, their own, the Packers (for RB Ryan Grant) and the compensatory selection.

The 199th player selected in the 2007 draft was offensive lineman Drew Mormino of Central Michigan by Miami. He spent his rookie season on IR with a shoulder injury.

Last time the Giants had the 199th pick they selected WR Willie Ponder in 2003.

The league based the pick on the Giants losing TE Visanthe Shiancoe, PK Jay Feely and CB Frank Walkers through 2007 free agency while signing only LB Kawika Mitchell and QB Anthony Wright.

A total of 32 compensatory picks were given to 15 teams by the NFL. The Redskins, Bengals, Falcons and Ravens received the highest selections, all thired-rounders.

No see Osi

DE Osi Umenyiora remained in Atlanta Monday as the Giants began their off-season program at Giants Stadium. Umenyiora's agent, Tony Agnone, said he expected Umenyiora to remain in Atlanta "for quite some time."

Does that mean into training camp? "What date is it today?" Agnone said. "There's a long way to go until then."

Yet it's obvious the Giants lone Pro Bowl player from their championship season is unhappy with his contract, which is scheduled to pay hm $1.7 million this season and an average of about $3 million per year over the next five seasons.

Agnone also represents guard Chris Snee, who is entering the final year of his 5-year deal. Snee's 2008 salary jumped from some $700, 000 to $2.39 million because of escalators that were activated by his playing time the past few seasons. But Agnone said he and the Giants have not talked about an extension since the team offered a new deal during last season's bye week.

And Agnone's other client, Michael Strahan, remains in Africa where he has gone on a safari, among other things. The Giants appear willing to upgrade the $4 million salary Strahan is scheduled to make in 2008 to keep him around for another year, although Agnone said there have been no money talks as yet. And the problem of training camp, specifically Strahan's dislike for it and the beds at the University at Albany which always seem to trigger his back spasms, remains to be settled.

WR Plaxico Burress and TE Jeremy Shockey were once again absent from the voluntary program (remember, off-season program attendance is not mandatory). And as we reported last week Eli Manning also was not there, although he is expected to show up later this week.

It's official

The NFL officially announced Monday the Giants and Redskins will open the regular season on Thursday night, Sept. 4, at Giants Stadium with a 7 o'clock starting time. That early start is to allow NBC to televise John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican Convention later that night.

As it turns out the Giants-Redskins matchup might be the best of the opening-weekend games. The league also announced a replay of Super Bowl XLI, Chicago at Indianapolis, will be the first Sunday night game. Now that would not be a  bad idea had the Bears not lost all resemblence of a Super Bowl squad last season.

The first of half of the Monday night doubleheader will have Minnesota visiting Green Bay. Perhaps Brett Favre's retirement isn't so solid after all, or why would a matchup of future Arena League QBs (Aaron Rodgers vs. Tarvaris Jackson) dot the opening-weekend schedule?

And the league is ging retro for the second half of the Monday night doubleheader with Denver playing at Oakland, a game which would have been a blockbuster 20 years ago.  Well at least Giants fans can watch Gibril Wilson debut with his new squad.

No Eli on Monday

Giants QB Eli Manning will not be participating in the first day of the team's off-season program on Monday, according to a source.

Manning has a commitment elsewhere and is scheduled to join the workouts later in the week.

DE Michael Strahan is on vacation in Africa and won't be among the participants. The jury is out on TE Jeremy Shockey and WR Plaxico Burress.

Redskins the first foe

The Washington Post is reporting the Redskins will be the visitors when the Giants open the 2008 NFL schedule with the Thursday night, Sept. 4 game.

Looking at the Giants home opponents for this season it appeared the Redskins, Cowboys, Eagles and Seahawks were the only viable foes for that first game. The kickoff probably will be moved up to 7 p.m. to lessen the conflict with the Republican Convention's closing night.

The NFL officially will announce the key opening weekend games next week during the league meetings in Florida.

Changes coming?

Among the rules changes the NFL Competition Committee will offer at next week's owner's meeting in  Florida is eliminating the force-out on pass receptions at the sideline. Either you get two feet inbounds or the pass is incomplete. That judgment on whether a receiver would have come down inbounds if he was not hit by a defender is one of the toughest for the officials and the play is not subject to instant replay review. According to Rich McKay, cochair of the committee, there were 15 instances of passes completed via the force-out rule in 2007.

Also the committee will reintroduce the coach-to-player helmet communication for the defense which will eliminate the need for hand signals and therefore the need for filming hand signals. This time, however, a provision will be made for two defensive players to be designated before game time to have the receivers in their helmets. Only one will be allowed to wear that helmet at any time. however. Only if the No. 1 designated player leaves the game can the No. 2 designee put on his "hot" helmet. If both players are injured then the team must go back to the hand signals.

Also the committee would like to see a 5-to-7-day period prior to the start of free agency where teams can talk to the agents of prospective free agents (but not the players themselves) and actually work out a contract that cannot be signed until the free agency period begins. Since a lot of this goes on under the table already the committee thinks this will even out the playing field for teams that have adhered to the official starting time before contacting free agents.

A proposal also will be made to allow the team winning the coin toss to defer until the second half, as is the case in college football.

These are proposals which must be approved by at least 24 of the 32 teams to actually become implemented. The coach-to-helmet system received 22 yes votes last year without any stipulation for a second player to be included in the formula.

Time change for opener?

Apparently the NFL is thinking about starting the regular-season opener some 90 minutes early so it will not conflict with the Republican National Convention.

The Associated Press is reporting the game the Giants, as defending Super Bowl champions, will host on Thursday, Sept. 4, may start at 7 p.m. instead of the usual 8:30 p.m. The league is talking about the switch with NBC so to lessen the conflict with the final night of the Republican convention.

The question of the off-site parking for the game is something the Giants have been investigating since the businesses they use for the satellite lots on Sundays all will be open for business on Thursday.

The opponent for the game will be announced next week during the league meetings in Palm Beach, Fla. The rest of the schedule is supposed to be released later in April.

Seubert extended

The Giants announced Tuesday they have extended guard Rich Seubert's contract throughthe 2012 season.

“It’s awesome,” Seubert said. “The Giants have been really good to me over the years and it is just good to know where I am going to be. I am going into my eighth season, so this is five more years. It is a dream come true to play out your career with one team and for it to be the New York Giants.”

Seubert came back from a horrific broken leg in 2003 to become a starter on a Super Bowl winning offensive line.

Price of glory

The honor of watching the defending Super Bowl champions in 2008 will cost the average Giants ticketholder $7.01 more than he/she paid to watch the team go 3-5 at Giants Stadium last season.

That's the net result of this year's price increase which season ticket holders discovered in their mail this week. The gross average price per ticket last year was $83.29, 12th in the NFL.

The individual ticket prices by sections:

Sections 301-308, 314-328 and 334-340: $80 per seat.

Sections 309-313 and 329-333, as well as 101-107, 115-127 and 135-140: $85 a seat.

Sections 108, 114, 128 and 134: $90 per seat.

Sections 109, 113, 129 and 133: $95 apiece.

Sections 110, 111, 112, 130, 131 and 132 :$100 per seat.

Mezzanine: $105 per seat.