Boley Bullish on System
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- June
- 12
Free agent linebacker Michael Boley, back from a hip injury that plagued him most of the spring, put his pass coverage skills on display during yesterday’s OTA. He looked impressive, which was nice and all that. But Tom Coughlin said, “That’s not the only reason he’s here.”
No. He’s here to be physical and rush the passer, too, something Boley said he’ll welcome after spending four often-traumatic seasons with the Falcons. He did, after all, go through the Bobby Petrino era, a 13-game march to hell in 2007. And he started just 12 games last year, never making more than eight tackles in any game but the regular-season finale against St. Louis, where he had a hand in 12.
This year should be different, though. The Giants plan to start him at the weakside, next to Danny Clark and Antonio Pierce. And they plan to let him get into the quarterback, too.
If all goes well, he could end up being a three-down linebacker.
“My mindset is being aggressive,” Boley said. “I can benefit well being here.
“This is a very new start for me. I went through a lot of ups and downs in Atlanta, but now I have a good opportunity to take my game to a next level.”
Boley wasn’t even sure the Giants had him on their list of targets before free agency started. But once he found out, and knowing that Bill Sheridan was planning to rely even more heavily on the blitz than his predecessor Steve Spagnuolo, that got his attention.
“I’m already excited, and we don’t even have the whole defense put in yet,” he said at this early juncture, with just four days remaining until the mandatory, three-day minicamp, traditionally the end of the offseason conditioning program. “Playing this scheme with this group of guys—Danny Clark and AP—and this D-line is amazing, I’ve never had a chance to play behind a good group of guys like that. And the way the scheme fits, how it’s not just based around one person, I like that. A lot of different guys are put in position to make plays.”
As for dropping into pass coverage, Boley said he’d be more than happy to do that, too.
“It’s good to be versatile and not just limit your game to one thing,” Boley said. “It’s like telling a receiver to go out and catch balls and not block. You like guys who are rushing the passer, stopping the run, covering the tight ends and running backs.”
This entry was posted
on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 10:02 am by Ernie Palladino. 
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Ernie Palladino
