NY Times: A Giants Project Is Paying Off (JPP)

[USFishin]

December 11, 2010

A Giants Project Is Paying Off

By JUDY BATTISTA

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — His coach took notice when Jason Pierre-Paul, in his first practice a week before the first game of his only season of major college football, sent a 315-pound offensive lineman tumbling sideways onto his ear during a pass rush drill.

“It was, ‘Oh, my God, did you just see him?’ †said Kevin Patrick, Pierre-Paul’s defensive line coach last year at the University of South Florida. “If you watch closely, you’ll see him do things and you’ll stand back and go, ‘Oh, my lord.’ â€

Such powerful moves, requiring little skill beyond stunning speed, enormous hands and long arms, propelled Pierre-Paul to the N.F.L. as the Giants’ first-round draft pick in April. They might have been his greatest obstacle, too, until a few weeks ago.

Pierre-Paul had two sacks in each of the Giants’ previous two games, both victories. To put that in perspective, consider that the Jets’ Vernon Gholston has no sacks since being drafted in the first round in 2008, and he did not have to fight his way through Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, Barry Cofield and Chris Canty in the defensive line rotation.

The prospect of Sunday’s game at the Minnesota Vikings in what could be Brett Favre’s final season has meaning to some of the Giants. But Pierre-Paul’s reaction underscores that he is a 21-year-old with an unlined face and limited football touchstones.

“I never grew up watching Brett Favre,†Pierre-Paul said. “I know he’s one of the greatest quarterbacks in the game.â€

“An old man,†he added, with a smile.

If he is able to play with his injuries, Favre will probably be an easy mark for the Giants’ pass rush, which could enhance Pierre-Paul’s numbers.

Pierre-Paul’s development was slowed, in part, by what he was able to do with little training under a searing summer sun on the west coast of Florida. It allowed him to become a top prospect with scant football knowledge.

It was understood that Pierre-Paul was a project when he was drafted by the Giants, who may place more value on a stable of pass rushers than any other N.F.L. team. Although Pierre-Paul played just one year of high school football — he had been a basketball devotee — and two junior-college seasons before transferring to South Florida, some scouts considered him the best pass rusher in the draft — an extraordinary but spectacularly raw prospect.

When asked what Pierre-Paul did not know when he got to the Giants that those who have played organized football for years take for granted, the defensive coordinator Perry Fewell chuckled and said, “We don’t have that long.â€

The Giants’ expectations, and perhaps their concerns, too, are evident in Pierre-Paul’s placement in the locker room: next to Tuck, a team captain and leader of the defense.

At 6 feet 5 inches and 270 pounds, Pierre-Paul can run the 40-yard dash in 4.7 seconds, and his arms each stretch to nearly 35 inches. South Florida’s opponents were overmatched, and Pierre-Paul had 6 ½ sacks, 6 quarterback hurries and 16 ½ tackles for a loss while still so new to the game that rudimentary aspects of defense like gaps and containment were foreign to him.

At this time last year, Pierre-Paul was in Tampa, Fla., preparing to play in the International Bowl in Toronto, where he earned his claim to fame. He was captured on video doing 13 consecutive back flips and became a YouTube sensation. He had no real ambition to be a first-round draft pick.

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t know I could go that far playing football,†Pierre-Paul said. “I never grew up thinking I could be a football player.â€

Fewell said that learning the Giants’ terminology had been Pierre-Paul’s biggest struggle because he had nothing to relate it to. He did not have the years of practice and film study that form the backbone of a football education, that allow the best players to react without thinking. The Giants, Fewell said, began by “spoon-feeding†Pierre-Paul a few situations to study at a time. Pierre-Paul called his ability to play a gift from God but said that his lack of knowledge “was holding me back.â€

Pierre-Paul is soft-spoken, almost shy, and he acknowledged that his head was swimming when he joined the Giants. Linval Joseph, a fellow rookie defensive lineman, said Pierre-Paul was frustrated, but Joseph advised him to wait his turn behind what has been a healthy defensive line.

“People expect rookies to make mistakes,†Pierre-Paul said. “But they expect first-round draft picks to contribute to the team real quick.â€

His teammates were among the impatient ones. At training camp, Pierre-Paul was subjected to the usual rookie hazing. Teammates parked his car in the middle of a dusty field. They made him sing. But once the season started, the expectations soared and the cutting remarks grew sharper. What stuck with him was that the other defensive linemen, including Tuck, asked when they could expect to see a return on the first-round investment.

“I got tired of the D-line saying I didn’t have any sacks yet,†Pierre-Paul said, “so I made a commitment to myself that I’ve got to go out and play even harder and faster and that’s what I’ve been doing. I was sitting at home, thinking, and talking to my girlfriend, and she was telling me, ‘There’s no pressure, you’re a rookie; rookies are expected to not have a breakout season.’ I told her, ‘I know that I want to be competitive.’ â€

Tuck said: “In the beginning, he was kind of a goofball. He didn’t take things as seriously as we would have liked him to. Now, he’s come around to understanding what we expect from him. I give him a lot of credit. Our room can be tough at times. We’re not shy about giving rookies, or giving anybody, a hard time. He’s had a tough skin. It’s paying benefits for him now.â€

About four weeks ago, Pierre-Paul said, everything snapped into place, as if he walked into a math class he had been slogging through and suddenly grasped calculus. He paid more attention in meetings, asked more incisive questions and the plays made more sense. That allowed Fewell to add more roles for Pierre-Paul. On the versatile Giants line, he has sometimes played defensive tackle, other times as an end. Against Washington last week, Pierre-Paul got one sack by using his speed to go inside to pull down Donovan McNabb. On the other sack, he went outside.

Now that the Giants have Pierre-Paul up and running, the benefit of taking a risk on a project is upon them: he still should improve over the next few years.

The ribbing has stopped for now. One day last week in the Giants’ locker room, Pierre-Paul dressed quietly at his neat locker — his mother supported the family as a hotel housekeeper — buckling his gray shoes, then picking up his notebook. Instead of the barbed words Pierre-Paul used to hear from teammates, Tuck relayed information about the next defensive line meeting.

“If they say I have raw talent, then I have raw talent,†Pierre-Paul said, betraying a hint of irritation with a description that may no longer apply. “But when I get on that field, I’m going to try to do things the best I can do.â€

Link

[SRQ]

nice find, JPP will go as far as his mind and heart will take him.

[bulls96go]

good luck hope he plays at a top level for a log time

[dudesweat]

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-playbook/09000d5d81cbf9ea/Playbook-Top-rookies-of-Week-13

[beastiebull]

"An Old Man".

Seems he has about as much respect for Favre as I do. 

Dude just keeps it real.  Like when they interviewed him on the sidelines that time. 

[USFishin]

"An Old Man".

Seems he has about as much respect for Favre as I do. 

Dude just keeps it real.  Like when they interviewed him on the sidelines that time. 

I thought that was a pretty funny quote from JPP.