Andre to the Giants

[31southst]

Keep the pipeline going

[Logitano]

This is from ESPN's Giants draft page last night in the Q&A:

tre
would the giants draft andre williams i like him as a rb for the giants what do you think?


Did one of our colored names have an inside scoop?

[DomingoOrtiz]

KPL to the Seahawks. Perfect fit for them.

[eagle9903]

Freese to lions

[joesim]

Ramsey to the 49ners .... wow

[Logitano]

Ramsey to the 49ners .... wow

Jiggsie and Spaz had a nice day. Dazz not so much.

[commavegarage]

i think we all owe spaz a thank you

[DuchesneEast]

Can we call him Andre the Giant. (TM that)

[rktbrkr]

Patchan not drafted, I'm surprised. Maybe not considered a natural pass blocker, I thought he stood out on the OL this year, helped lift the whole unit and helped Andre achieve his deserved success.

[ATLeagle]

Patchan not drafted, I'm surprised. Maybe not considered a natural pass blocker, I thought he stood out on the OL this year, helped lift the whole unit and helped Andre achieve his deserved success.

Because Patchan has yet to sign as an Undrafted FA, I am guessing he failed some physicals.

[NJM89]

Wow all graduating seniors have signed with an NFL team 10 players all together. Can anyone find the video clip of Daz on college football live from earlier breaking down the signings?

[rktbrkr]

Has Amidon signed with Navy?

"In The Navy"

Where can you find pleasure
Search the world for treasure
Learn science technology
Where can you begin to make your dreams all come true
On the land or on the sea
Where can you learn to fly
Play in sports and skin dive
Study oceanography
Sign up for the big band
Or sit in the grandstand
When your team and others meet

[angrychicken]

rocket breaker

[TobaccoRoadEagle]

This is from ESPN's Giants draft page last night in the Q&A:

tre
would the giants draft andre williams i like him as a rb for the giants what do you think?


Did one of our colored names have an inside scoop?

i'm going to let my history of not even liking sports stand on this one, steve

[MilitantEagle]

Andre was the 10th running back taken overall, but was picked four spots ahead of Ka'Deem Carey.

[NJM89]

Al Louis-Jean got picked up by the Bears

[DavidGordonsFoot]

Al Louis-Jean got picked up by the Bears

nfw

edit - where are you seeing this? google and twitter search yielded nothing for me.

[NJM89]

Al Louis-Jean got picked up by the Bears

nfw

edit - where are you seeing this? google and twitter search yielded nothing for me.

His twitter

[Bunratty]

Confirmed by his Dad on TOS. Invited to Bears rookie mini-camp.

[DavidGordonsFoot]

Confirmed by his Dad on TOS. Invited to Bears rookie mini-camp.

I thought there was no rookie mini-camp this year because the draft was so late.

[TobaccoRoadEagle]

Confirmed by his Dad on TOS. Invited to Bears rookie mini-camp.

I thought there was no rookie mini-camp this year because the draft was so late.

you thought wrong

[claver2010]

article on andre in the nyt:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/sport ... .html?_r=1

Budding Author and Inventor Emerges Quickly in Giants’ Backfield

By BILL PENNINGTONJULY 26, 2014
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The rookie running back Andre Williams arrived at the Giants’ training camp with a reputation for a bruising rushing style and a workhorse mentality.

He has since revealed other talents.

Williams is writing a memoir, is trying to patent an invention and recently worked out with a sports psychologist to improve his pass-catching skills.

Nearly as remarkable, during the first week of training camp, Williams has assumed a prominent, versatile role in the Giants’ backfield, working regularly with the first-string offense. He is not the featured back — that distinction belongs to the former Oakland Raider Rashad Jennings — but Williams has been a steady presence in the goal-line offense and has been a target for short passes.

Discreet and thoughtful, Williams, a fourth-round draft selection, has emerged as a sleeper pick with an active mind and far-reaching goals.

“You take it baby step by baby step,” said Williams, who at 5 feet 11 inches and 230 pounds actually takes very few baby steps. “But I am learning and getting the opportunity. That’s what matters.”

If there has been an undercurrent to Williams’s life, it has been his personal journey in search of knowledge and opportunity. Born to Jamaican immigrants in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Williams spent most of the first year of his life in Jamaica after his father, Ervin, was deported.

His family eventually relocated to central New Jersey, where Williams grew up with two brothers and a sister as his father built a heating and air-conditioning business. His mother, Lancelene, became a nurse’s assistant.

Football was never on the family television growing up, but when his older brother played the sport in high school, Williams decided it would be his window to a college education.

“In the eighth grade, I decided I was going to play Division I football,” Williams said before the Giants practiced Friday, “and I told myself that I was going to eat a certain way and exercise a certain way and lift weights a certain way. I set parameters: I was going to weigh this much on this day and this much on a day six months later.”

He met each goal.

The family moved to the Atlanta area and then to a town outside Allentown, Pa.

“Moving so often made me grow up faster,” Williams said. “I spent a lot of time by myself, and when you do that, you get to know yourself pretty well. You’re on your own two feet, so you know what direction you want to move in.”

Williams also developed into a top high school prospect. He attended Boston College, where he did not fully blossom until his final year, when he led major college football in rushing with 2,177 yards and finished fourth in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy.

By then, the 21-year-old Williams had graduated early with a degree in applied psychology and human development, had begun working as a teacher’s assistant for a seminar called “The Courage to Know” and had started his book, which is titled “A King, a Queen and a Conscience.” He hopes to complete the manuscript, which is framed in 10 sections (seven are written), within a year.

“I would describe it as a philosophical memoir,” he said. “I’m pointing out the significant moments in my life that shaped the way I think about the world, because the way you think about the world really shapes the way it plays out for you.”

Williams’s production at Boston College and his introspective manner garnered him much attention heading into this spring’s N.F.L. draft. He was featured in several chapters of a predraft series in Sports Illustrated and was widely projected as a second- or third-round pick. But Williams said he was not surprised when he fell to the Giants in the fourth round.

“I had a good feeling about my interview with the Giants,” he said. “I think they understood me.”

The Giants agree and are happy Williams is in the fold.

“He’s a highly conditioned, awesome athlete picking up things as he goes, and he’s done a nice job,” said Giants Coach Tom Coughlin, who does not usually praise rookies unduly.

The knock on Williams was that he could not catch passes. He did not have a reception in his final college season.

“They handed him the football, and let’s face it, it worked, since he led the country in rushing,” said Craig Johnson, the Giants’ running backs coach. “He did not get the opportunities to catch passes. But he knew it was something he had to improve. And he has.”

Williams spent part of the spring being schooled by Bill Thierfelder, a North Carolina sports psychologist who had done specialist training with other professional athletes. Among other exercises, Thierfelder had Williams catch racquetballs and table tennis balls using two fingers, and juggle. The focus on small, finite movements made catching a football seem easier.

“I could catch 9 out of 10 passes; he taught me what it took to catch the 10th pass,” Williams said.

In addition to his book, Williams has spent time off the field pursuing a patent for a piece of athletic apparel he invented.

“It’s something that will facilitate my running style,” Williams said of his invention. “It’s a type of compression shirt that has a shoulder-stabilizing apparatus built into it.”

Philosophical and pensive, Williams said he was untroubled by the risk of his chosen profession. Running backs in the N.F.L. traditionally have some of the shortest careers.

“The regular person who thinks about a career thinks in terms of 30 or 40 years,” Williams said. “But there’s nobody playing football 30 or 40 years. This is a unique opportunity, and God has blessed me with this ability to play. So with this small window of time, I want to maximize and make something out of it. There’s risk in everything.”

And Williams has designs on his post-football career.

“I want to start a couple of nonprofit organizations for children,” he said. “There are so many ways to mentor kids.”

The Giants’ youngest, and latest, backfield addition is not waiting for his N.F.L. career to run its course to prepare for the next step.

“I’ve already written the mission statements for those organizations,” he said.

[gallopingghost]

Rookie Andre Williams scored on a 3-yard run in the New York Giants’ 17-13 victory over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night in the preseason-opening Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.

Williams, from Boston College, finished with seven carries for 48 yards, filling the No. 2 spot behind Rashad Jennings. There is an opportunity for Williams with running back David Wilson (neck) out indefinitely

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/ ... story.html

[DavidGordonsFoot]

Rookie Andre Williams scored on a 3-yard run in the New York Giants’ 17-13 victory over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night in the preseason-opening Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.

Williams, from Boston College, finished with seven carries for 48 yards, filling the No. 2 spot behind Rashad Jennings. There is an opportunity for Williams with running back David Wilson (neck) out indefinitely

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/ ... story.html

The announcers were already asking why AW didn't get drafted earlier.

[b0mberMan]

Williams looked good out there, just like college. Granted, I think he got his reps when Buffalo's 1st string D was on the bench, but still looked good enough to probably merit some more 1st string playing time.

On one of his big cuts and runs, he got into the secondary and lowered his shoulder to make contact with one of Buffalo's CBs. The CB stoned him and knocked him flat on his ass. That was the one difference between his college and the pro game I saw. Last year, he steamrolls over the guy for another 3-4 yards. Probably can't do that at this level.

[BCMurt09]

Williams looked good out there, just like college. Granted, I think he got his reps when Buffalo's 1st string D was on the bench, but still looked good enough to probably merit some more 1st string playing time.

On one of his big cuts and runs, he got into the secondary and lowered his shoulder to make contact with one of Buffalo's CBs. The CB stoned him and knocked him flat on his ass. That was the one difference between his college and the pro game I saw. Last year, he steamrolls over the guy for another 3-4 yards. Probably can't do that at this level.

I have to imagine the Giants staff will wean him away from that as well.

[Logitano]

First regular season TD!

[twballgame9]

should play more, the starter is awful

[Reverend Mike]

should play more, the starter is awful

jennings ran for 175 yards last week.

I think Dre was a steal in the 4th round, but he needs some time with the jugs machine. I saw them attempt one swing pass to him last night and it clanged off his hands like a golf ball being thrown at an anvil.

[twballgame9]

should play more, the starter is awful

jennings ran for 175 yards last week.

He should play last week every week then.