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Yes, the start of training camps is two months away, but it’s never too early to consider the coming season. A look at the best-case and worst-case scenarios for the Giants in 2012.

Dream scenario (12-4): The last time the the Giants won the Super Bowl, they followed it up with a 12-4 season and claimed the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. It seems a fair bet that, this time, their top wide receiver won't shoot himself in the leg with an unlicensed firearm in a nightclub and severely damage their playoff chances. The Giants remain extremely strong at quarterback, wide receiver and pass-rusher in a pass-heavy NFL era, and for that reason they have reason to believe they can be a much better regular-season team than the one that went 9-7 and made the playoffs on the final day last season. In the Giants' dream scenario, Hakeem Nicks recovers from his broken foot in time to start the season, second-round pick Rueben Randle wins the No. 3 wide receiver spot and someone -- perhaps first-rounder David Wilson -- steps forward to be the running back who can spell Ahmad Bradshaw when he needs a rest. Terrell Thomas comes back healthy and continues along the career path that, this time last year, had him on track to become one of the best cornerbacks in the league. Keith Rivers solidifies the linebacker corps and Jason Pierre-Paul and Victor Cruz build on their breakout seasons as the Giants get back into the playoffs and make a real run at defending their title.

Nightmare scenario (6-10): The Nicks injury is a reminder that the Giants did lose some depth this offseason. And although they are (a) very strong if their front-line starters are healthy, (b) very good at filling needs internally and (c) always at least in contention even when they miss the playoffs, the likelihood of the nightmare scenario is unimportant to this exercise. This is about imagining, and in the Giants' nightmare scenario their key starters -- such as Nicks, Cruz, Pierre-Paul, Justin Tuck and Bradshaw -- struggle either with injury or ineffectiveness. Eli Manning reverts to his interception-happy ways of 2011. Thomas struggles to get back to where he was, Prince Amukamara fails to take the next step forward and they still can't find a reliable middle linebacker from among the crew they bring to camp. The nightmare scenario also sees the offensive line struggle, especially at the left tackle spot, where Will Beatty was a work in progress in 2011 before eye problems ended his season. Should these troubles come to pass, they would have to lean heavily on their rookies, and it's unlikely that Wilson, Randle and Jayron Hosley could all emerge as successful starters in their first year in the NFL. Again, the Giants' nightmare scenario seems unlikely, but if it happens it will have to do with depth issues behind the starters.

The 2011 season was not the most, well, beastly season in NFC East history. It was the first time in a full, 16-game season that no team in the division won at least 10 games, and for much of the year the talk around the division was that it wasn't what it used to be.

Buncha baloney if you ask me. Even forgetting for a second that an NFC East team won the Super Bowl, this division still does one very important thing better than any other: rush the passer. The NFC East's 181 sacks led all NFL divisions in 2011, and by quite a bit. (The AFC North, which had three playoff teams, was second with 160). The Eagles tied for the league lead with 50. The Giants tied for third with 48. The Cowboys tied for seventh with 42, and the Redskins tied for 10th with 41.

Look deeper, into the film-based, number-crunching stats from Pro Football Focus -- stats that take into account more than just sacks when evaluating the extent to which teams rushed, hassled and affected opposing quarterbacks, and the division still rules. The Eagles rank No. 1 in PFF's 2011 team rankings, the Cowboys No. 3, the Giants No. 6 and the Redskins No. 9. No division prizes this critical aspect of the game more than the NFC East does, and it shows up in the numbers.

So, as we slug our way through a slow news month in the NFC East, I thought it'd be a good idea to check in on the pass rushes of our four teams and see how they're doing -- what they've done to get better or worse, what their 2012 prospects look like from this far out and yes, how they rank against each other. You guys asked for more polls, and I promised I'd listen, so there's one right here for you to vote on. After you finish reading, of course. I'm addressing them in order of how many sacks they got in 2011, in case you're wondering how I decided. Seemed fair.

Philadelphia Eagles

Key contributors: DE Trent Cole, DE Jason Babin, DT Cullen Jenkins. PFF ranked Cole the No. 1 overall 4-3 defensive end in the league last year. Babin ranked 10th overall and third in pass rush, finishing third in the league with 18 sacks. Jenkins ranked as the No. 4 pass-rushing defensive tackle, and Derek Landri was No. 10. Defensive line coach Jim Washburn and defensive coordinator Juan Castillo, each of whom is entering his second season in his current position with the Eagles, believe the front four is responsible for the pass rush. And while they got a lot of publicity for how wide they like to line up their defensive ends, they like to get pressure from the defensive tackles as well.

Newcomer: DT Fletcher Cox. The Eagles traded up in the first round to pick Cox because they believed he could be an impact pass-rusher from one of those interior spots right away. They need to toughen up against the run, and that will have to be part of Cox's game. But what appealed to them was his ability to get to the passer. Rookie linebacker Mychal Kendricks could conceivably factor in here too, but the Eagles don't ask their linebackers to rush very much in the new scheme.

Stock watch: UP. The addition of Cox, as well as the possible return to full health of Mike Patterson and 2010 first-round pick Brandon Graham, give the Eagles incredible depth at a position at which they were already very strong in 2011. It's possible they'll rush the passer even better in 2012.

New York Giants

Key contributors: DE Jason Pierre-Paul, DE Justin Tuck, DE Osi Umenyiora, DE/LB Mathias Kiwanuka. No one's roster goes as deep as the Giants' does in terms of star-caliber defensive ends. Pierre-Paul was fourth in the league with 16.5 sacks in just his second NFL season. Umenyiora had nine in just nine games. Tuck turned it on at the end and in the playoffs, and Kiwanuka is a defensive end playing linebacker. The Giants believe a strong pass rush is their heritage and their key to being an annual contender.

Newcomer: DT Marvin Austin. The Giants didn't really bring in anyone this offseason who looks like a 2012 pass-rush contributor, but their 2011 second-round pick missed all of last season due to injury, so we'll call him a newcomer. The Giants would like to get more help from inside. Linval Joseph was their best pass-rushing defensive tackle in 2011, according to PFF's rankings. A healthy Austin could be a difference-maker.

Stock watch: DOWN. Not by much, but a little, because of the loss of reliable, underrated reserve DE Dave Tollefson. If Tuck and Umenyiora have injury problems again, or if Umenyiora holds out, they could get kind of thin at defensive end pretty quickly without Tollefson there to fill in this time. Now, this is the Giants, and they'll probably figure it out. The addition of linebacker Keith Rivers could allow them to move Kiwanuka back to end in case of injury. But it's worth pointing out that they did lose a somewhat important piece of the pass rush and didn't replace him.

Dallas Cowboys

Key contributors: LB DeMarcus Ware, LB Anthony Spencer, DE Jason Hatcher, NT Jay Ratliff. There's no one like Ware, who rang up another 19.5 sacks in 2011. That's nearly half the team total, and the conventional wisdom says he needs more help. But PFF ranked Spencer its 11th-best 3-4 outside linebacker in the pass rush and Hatcher as its eighth-best 3-4 pass-rushing defensive end. Add in Ratliff, who can generate pressure up the middle, and the Cowboys look better in this area than we tend to think.

Newcomer: DE Tyrone Crawford. Dallas' third-round pick is looked at by many as a project, but as one that can eventually help with the pass rush whether he ends up as a 3-4 end or standing up as an outside linebacker. Whether he can help in 2012 remains a question, but the Cowboys didn't see a first-round or second-round pass-rusher they liked better than Spencer, so they focused on the secondary instead and picked up some down-the-road guys for the pass rush.

Stock watch: EVEN. They're bringing back basically the same group, and while there's a theory that the improvements at defensive back will help the pass rush by giving it extra time to get sacks, we have yet to see that in action. Spencer must play with more aggressiveness if this unit is to take a step forward into the upper tier with the Eagles and Giants.

Washington Redskins

Key contributors: LB Brian Orakpo, LB Ryan Kerrigan, DE Stephen Bowen. The Redskins' pass rush is all about those young outside linebackers, and they are fearsome. But with only 16.5 sacks between them in 2011, their numbers have a ways to go to get into the big-time stratosphere we're talking about in the NFC East. PFF did rank Orakpo fifth and Kerrigan ninth among pass-rushing 3-4 OLBs in 2011, so they do a lot of things well in that area. Bowen had six sacks and DE Adam Carriker came up with 5.5.

Newcomer: DE Jarvis Jenkins. Just as we did with the Giants, we'll go with a 2011 second-round pick who missed his rookie season due to injury. Jenkins may not be a pass-rusher, but adding him to the defensive line rotation could help free up more room for the linebackers and maybe help the other linemen get to the passer more often as well.

Stock watch: EVEN. This is really all about how much and how quickly Orakpo and especially Kerrigan continue to develop as elite pass-rushers. They've both shown flashes of incredible raw ability, and they have to continue to hone their craft so they can play at the level of the other pass-rushers in their division. Ware, Cole, Pierre-Paul and the rest of these guys are setting a high bar, and the Redskins know they have to have their own pass-rush monsters if they want to hang with them year in and year out.

The defending Super Bowl champions get back to work this weekend, as the New York Giants hold their rookie minicamp in East Rutherford, N.J. Repeating is hard work, though, and there are good reasons why only one team this century has been able to do it.

You lose players. You lose coaches. You become the No. 1 target for teams that have identified you as the biggest obstacle standing in their way of getting what they want. The people who run the Giants, and many of the people who play for the Giants, were in this position four years ago, and they know all about the challenges that face the defending Super Bowl champs.

But this year's Giants are not your ordinary defending champ. They were, speaking strictly in terms of winning percentage, the weakest Super Bowl champion in history. They didn't even secure their playoff spot until the final game of the regular season. With two weeks to go, they were 7-7 and in real danger of finishing under .500.

All of these things are facts, just as much as the title they won. So as they get back to work this spring and summer, the Giants face the seemingly incongruous dual task of maintaining the magic that brought them their title while also improving a 9-7 team.

They have some things going for them, and I'm not just talking about Eli Manning, Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz, Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul. The Giants run their franchise as one that's perpetually in transition.

Rather than wait for problems to present themselves, or roster holes to open, the Giants constantly churn the middle and the back end of their roster, developing players in their system so they're ready to step in when need arises. There are running backs and wide receivers on the roster who have been waiting for the opportunity created by the free-agent defections of Brandon Jacobs and Mario Manningham, and those players will get the chance to do what Cruz and Pierre-Paul did last year when presented with similar chances. The Giants never allow themselves to get so thin at any one position that they don't at least have options for replacing those who leave or get hurt or decide to sit out training camp.

That said, this Giants team does have holes to fill and problems to solve. They finished 32nd in the league in rushing offense -- a fact that, while mitigated by the improvements the run game showed in December and January -- didn't sit well with their running backs and their offensive linemen. They will need to get better there, and to do so they'll need Ahmad Bradshaw's feet to stay healthy for the first time in years. Plus, they must find someone to replace the 167 touches and eight touchdowns Jacobs contributed to last season's cause.

They'll need to shuffle the offensive line again. While Kareem McKenzie was not what he used to be, he was the starting right tackle on a team that won the Super Bowl, and they did not replace him. They hope that Will Beatty (a) comes back healthy from his eye injury and (b) plays better than he did at left tackle in the first 10 games of last season.

David Diehl isn't around to slide over and bail him out this time. Diehl's got to play right tackle in place of McKenzie. The Giants have some offensive linemen they like for the long-term, but this looks like another transition year on the line. While they have enough good veterans in place to pull it off, that's a tough tightrope act to try too many years in a row.

They have bodies at linebacker, with Keith Rivers brought in as a good veteran reinforcement and some of last year's promising rookies hopefully ready to take a next step, but they have no clear man for the middle. They have bodies at cornerback, but they have question marks there, too.

Corey Webster was awesome in 2011. Can he repeat that performance? Is Terrell Thomas fully recovered from the preseason knee injury that cost him the whole season? Will Prince Amukamara make more of a contribution?

Don't think for a second that GM Jerry Reese isn't concerned. He used each of his first three draft picks on positions at which he lost a player in free agency -- running back (David Wilson for Jacobs), wide receiver (Rueben Randle for Mario Manningham) and cornerback (Jayron Hosley for Aaron Ross). And he's smart to be concerned, because while these Giants rightfully consider themselves a championship team, they're also a team that won one less regular-season game in 2011 than it won in 2010. Had someone in the NFC East won 10 and the Giants missed the playoffs, their offseason narrative would have been that of a team moving in the wrong direction.

Instead, the Giants have a two-front problem to solve. They have a division and a conference and a league full of teams that saw what they did and now consider Super Bowl glory more attainable than ever. And they have an internal mandate to be better this year than 9-7, because they know first-hand that it's not usually good enough to get you the chance to make a Super Bowl run.

They're capable of doing it, and they'll deservedly enter the season among the favorites to win it all again. They have superstars at quarterback, wide receiver and defensive end, and in this day and age that can carry you a long way. But as far as defending Super Bowl champions go, these Giants have more issues than most -- and more work to do.

New York Giants GM Jerry Reese said on ESPN radio in New York that the contract dispute between the team and defensive end Osi Umenyiora is not personal -- at least from his end -- and reiterated that he'd like Umenyiora to "retire as a Giant." Ohm was listening to the interview on ESPN radio's new spot at 98.7 on the FM dial:

"I don't carry grudges," Reese said in an interview with Stephen A. Smith and Ryan Ruocco on ESPN New York 98.7. "In the offseason, there is always some controversy about contracts. It is not just one person, it can be several different people with contract situations. That is part of my job, it is never personal, I don't think it is personal with respect to players and it definitely is not personal with respect to me."

"I call it offseason chatter," he continued. "There is always some chatter about different situations about contracts during the offseason. That is what happened. It is never personal with me."

Which is really nice, especially since Reese was the one being called a liar by Umenyiora this time last year in a sworn affidavit as part of the Brady vs. NFL lockout suit. But whether it's personal from Reese's standpoint really isn't the issue at this point. Because other than that affidavit, there have been very few (if any) points during this three-year drama at which Reese felt he had cause to feel like the wronged party. Umenyiora's discontent over his contract has had no discernible impact on the Giants whatsoever. He's played, and played well. The times he's sat out practice in protest have had no effect on his teammates. The games he's missed due to injury have been ably handled by people such as Mathias Kiwanuka, Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul. Pierre-Paul, in fact, surpassed Umenyiora as a starter last year, which is part of the basis for the current disagreement between Umenyiora and the Giants about what he should be getting paid.

It is clearly personal from Umenyiora's end, and has been for some time now. He feels disrespected by what he considers insufficient compensation. He has said he doesn't like being a backup. And it is clear that he intends to continue making an issue of his contract in this, its final season. I can't imagine a circumstance, barring some shocking new development that results in a new deal, under which Umenyiora attends all of the Giants' offseason or training camp practices. This isn't going away anytime soon, because whether it's personal from Reese's end or not, it clearly is from Umenyiora's.

In the end, what I believe will happen is Umenyiora will play out the final year of his contract on the Giants' terms. He has no leverage, and if he wants to sit out, the Giants believe they have coverage with their other excellent pass rushers. But that doesn't mean he's going to stop kicking about it anytime soon. At this point, it wouldn't be a Giants offseason if Umenyiora weren't upset.

Todd McShay has some last-minute changes in the top 10 of his mock draft, Jason Pierre-Paul looks forward to facing RG3, and some final words of advice for the NFL draftees from Bill Polian and Cris Carter.

So Philadelphia Eagles GM Howie Roseman held a pre-draft talk with reporters on Thursday, and the takeaway seems to have been that the Eagles are going to try and draft good players this year instead of reaching to plug roster holes. From Geoff Mosher:

"I think when we go back in our draft, sometimes we have probably drafted based on need, based on some circumstances," Roseman said. "And we're trying to make sure we’re taking the best player available now going forward."

And also...

"If we just stick to our board and take the best player, we'll have good drafts," he said.

The sense here is that Roseman and his staff have spent countless hours this season sizing up past misfires, especially on defense, and examining strategies used by other teams that have historically drafted well.

I think, in general, drafting good players is the way to go. The teams that have the best players are very often the teams that perform the best during actual games. So, if the Eagles have had some sort of epiphany that will lead them to select the best possible player when their pick comes around, well, good for them. This approach works for the Giants, who use the draft not as a means of repairing immediate roster holes, but of building a deep roster that can regenerate itself over time.

Thing is, I think this is all a bunch of noise. I'm sure the Eagles, like pretty much every team, have sometimes drafted for need, and have sometimes drafted for value, taking the best player available. Geoff thinks today's comments indicate that some soul-searching has gone on this offseason in the Eagles' front office, and it's entirely possible. Watching Jason Pierre-Paul eat the league alive while Brandon Graham struggles to get on the field, that's the kind of thing that makes you re-assess.

But I think this is just Roseman saying something that sounds good. The Eagles don't know exactly what they're going to do next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, because almost no team does. They're picking 15th. If there's a guy available at 13 that they had ranked fifth, and they're worried the Cowboys are going to take him at 14, they'll probably try and trade up to get him. The draft is impossible to predict, and the best thing you can do is prepare your board and stay as alert as possible to make sure you maximize the value of your picks. If I had to guess, that's what the Eagles plan to do in this year's draft, and the rest is pretty much just chatter for chatter's sake.

Osi Umenyiora put aside his issues with his contract during the New York Giants' Super Bowl run, which was no surprise. He was having a wonderful time with his teammates, reaping the rare joy that comes when your once-in-a-lifetime experience repeats itself within the space of a half-decade. That wasn't the time to talk contract, and to his credit Umenyiora did not.

But the time to talk contract is once again nearly afoot. And with free agency, the draft, offseason minicamps and OTAs and eventually training camp looming, Umenyiora's contract will once again become an issue for the Giants. This time, he's heading into the final year of his deal, scheduled to make a little less than $4 million in salary in 2012. A year ago, with two seasons left on the deal, Umenyiora made it clear that he was unhappy and wanted either a new deal or a trade to a team that might give him one.

What are we to believe has changed in Umenyiora's mind since then? If anything, he could be more resolute about his demands and a possible holdout this summer. Holding out with two years left on your deal is crazy. Holding out with one year left is a far more accepted practice, less likely to be looked upon by potential future employers as turnoff-caliber selfishness. And if he gets permission to seek a trade this year, as he did last year, he may be more likely to find teams willing to acquire him. Or he might find that the Giants have lowered their asking price, making a trade more feasible.

Regardless, Umenyiora has many more reasons for making an offseason stink this year than he did last year, and he wasn't shy about making one last year. I believe the Giants should trade him before said stink gets out of hand.

For the record, I do not think Umenyiora is overrated, and I do think he's underpaid. If the Giants do decide to trade him, they will not replace him with anyone who's as good as he is, and he's very likely to play star-quality defensive end for whichever team acquires him. This would not be a Donovan McNabb deal, where the current team has decided it's already seen the best of the player and doesn't mind giving him up for fear that he'll play well and haunt them. Umenyiora is 30 years old and still playing at a very high level.

But that's why the Giants should trade him this offseason -- because his value is high. Sure, he missed seven games due to injury this season, and that hurts the value. But two sacks in the division-clinching regular-season finale and 3.5 more in the postseason reminded everyone who was watching that Umenyiora is a unique talent -- a pass-rusher who can do things others cannot. Edge rushers have huge value right now, and there's no shortage of teams that could benefit from adding Umenyiora. Trading him now, off of his huge postseason performance, would be the definition of selling high.

And the Giants should do it. They have salary cap issues for the second year in a row. They have a surplus of pass-rushers, with Justin Tuck, Jason Pierre-Paul and Mathias Kiwanuka, who could move back to defensive end full-time if Umenyiora were to leave and they found a linebacker or two. Heck, they could draft another undervalued pass-rusher and develop him, since they seem to be so good at that. The Giants would feel the loss of Umenyiora, but they could absorb it and still bring back the core of the defensive front that just won them the Super Bowl.

The Giants likely don't want to give Umenyiora the contract he wants -- one that would rank him among the highest-paid pass-rushers in the game. He does come with the injury risk, and he'd be 31 in the first year of that new contract. They'd prefer that be some other team's problem, and they'd be wise to make it so now, when they can still get a nice draft pick or two for him.

Finally, this isn't about eliminating potential distractions. The Giants' internal locker-room leadership structure is strong enough that a cranky Umenyiora wouldn't affect the performance of any other player or the team as a whole. They proved that last season. The reasons to trade Umenyiora this offseason are simple: He's at peak value and they can afford to lose him. That's a confluence of circumstances that doesn't come around too often. As a pure business decision, trading Umenyiora this summer is the right thing for the Giants to do.

With the offseason in full swing, let’s take a look at one major question facing each NFC East team as they begin preparations for the 2012 season:

DALLAS COWBOYS

Do they have too much work to do?

It's possible that we expect too much from the Cowboys. Their skill-position talent on offense makes them an easy team to like going into the season. Few teams are as good as they are at quarterback and wide receiver, and if DeMarco Murray comes back healthy, they look pretty good at running back, too.

But the offseason needs for the Cowboys are myriad. They need guards and a center. They need cornerbacks and safeties. They need a pass-rushing outside linebacker to complement DeMarcus Ware. They could stand to beef up on the defensive line.

That's a lot of needs, and it's fair to wonder whether they'll be able to fill them all adequately and construct a 2012 contender. That they were a contender (heck, a leader) in the NFC East right up until the end of the 2011 season leads one to believe they necessarily should be thought of as one again for 2012. But the division was, for the first time ever, won with only nine wins. And the way the Cowboys played defense and protected Tony Romo during their 1-4 finish was more alarming than the 7-4 record was encouraging.

NEW YORK GIANTS

What to do with Osi Umenyiora?

The Giants have other issues, sure. They need to work on the offensive line. They need to find a tight end. They need to make individual decisions on players like Brandon Jacobs and Mario Manningham. But for a team that believes the pass rush is the cornerstone of good defense, the Osi question is a fair one on which to focus right now.

Last summer, when he had two years left on his contract, Umenyiora was obviously unhappy. He sat out training camp practices. He sought (and received) permission to find a team willing to trade for him. He called GM Jerry Reese a liar in a sworn affidavit as part of one of the lockout lawsuits. The Giants never blinked, and in the end Umenyiora returned and became a major contributor to their Super Bowl run.

Now, he has one year left on the contract he hates, and the Giants must decide what to do. Sign him long term, as he wants? Trade him now, while his value is high coming off the Super Bowl and his postseason performance? Or stand pat again and force him to play out his contract, running the risk that he'll be more resolute in his protests and holdouts this time around?

The emergence of Jason Pierre-Paul at defensive end opposite Justin Tuck gives the Giants leverage, but at the same time, they were much better when all three of those guys were healthy and in the lineup together.

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES

Is a full offseason really what they need?

Last August, after the lockout ended, the Eagles signed a bunch of free agents to play for a revamped coaching staff with a lot of new ideas about how to play defense and offensive line. The party line in Philadelphia now is that this was all too much too soon, and that the Eagles' 3-6 start was due in large part to the inability of all of these new pieces to get on the same page in the absence of an offseason program.

They played well at the end of the season, they point out. Heck, they played well at the beginning of the season, too -- they just couldn't hold a lead. So we'll see whether a real offseason of OTAs and minicamps all spring and summer helps everyone relax and get the most out of a talented roster.

We'll see whether it helps quarterback Michael Vick better handle the new responsibilities he took on in 2011, such as changing the protection at the line of scrimmage. We'll see whether the sting of 2011's disappointment can propel the Eagles to great things in 2012, or if it's all a bunch of hooey and they were never that good in the first place.

WASHINGTON REDSKINS

Who's the quarterback?

Rex Grossman can't come back as anything other than the backup, and John Beck ... well, just ... no.

The Redskins have many needs, but none as big as this one. Picking sixth in the draft, they'll need to trade up (and outbid other teams to do so) if they want Robert Griffin III, who's the best all-around option and a potential franchise quarterback.

But if trading up means dealing away multiple first-round picks and making it difficult for them to address areas such as wide receiver, offensive line and the secondary, it might not be the wisest course of action. That would necessitate a free-agent pursuit of someone like Kyle Orton, Matt Flynn or -- if they can be convinced he's fully healthy -- Peyton Manning.

Redskins fans aren't likely to be happy with an imperfect, short-term solution. But only one team is going to get Griffin, and if the Redskins are not that team, they need to spend their resources on a No. 1 receiver and help for the line.

They have about $47 million in cap room and the ability to fill enough holes that plugging in a healthy Manning could make them a 2012 contender. And if that's the way they go, there's always a Matt Barkley or Landry Jones-type option next year.

QUARTERBACK: Eli Manning completed 30 of 40 passes for 296 yards, one touchdown and a 103.8 NFL rating. He did not turn over the ball, which was huge for the Giants during their 21-17 victory. Manning's 38-yard sideline strike to Mario Manningham showed the raw arm talent that made Manning the first player selected in the 2004 NFL draft. Not many quarterbacks can make that throw. Manning made it when the Giants trailed, 17-15, with less than four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Manning completed his first nine attempts for 77 yards and a touchdown, staking the Giants to an early lead as they dominated time of possession to begin the game. Manning made effective use of his running backs and tight ends, executing a mostly conservative game plan. But the Giants settled for field goals too frequently. Both teams had trouble striking on pass plays down the field until Manning found Manningham in the clutch. The two had failed to connect deep down the right sideline earlier in the fourth quarter. Manning's pass was a bit wide. Manningham could have done a better job getting his feet down. Grade: A-minus.

OFFENSE: The Giants came to life in the fourth quarter, a theme for them all season. They also avoided turnovers, a huge key. That excused their earlier offensive struggles, but we'll cover them anyway. New York twice committed drive-dooming penalties after crossing midfield. A first-half holding penalty against guard Kevin Boothe on a third-and-1 play proved pivotal. The infraction wasted Brandon Jacobs' 10-yard run, setting up third-and-1. The Giants went from driving toward likely points and a potential 16-3 lead to watching Tom Brady execute a 96-yard touchdown drive as New England pulled in front, 10-9. Then, with the Giants trailing 17-15 in the fourth quarter, a penalty for illegal procedure left the Giants in another third-and-10 situation, leading to another punt. The Giants did enjoy success early in the game. They were fortunate to recover their own fumbles, especially when Ahmad Bradshaw lost the ball deep in Giants territory. Losing tight ends Travis Beckum and Jake Ballard to injuries left New York with only one available tight end, Bear Pascoe. Grade: B

DEFENSE: Justin Tuck's pressure on Brady forced a safety on the Patriots' first offensive play. That was a sensational start for the Giants. Tuck closed out the game with a third-down sack with 39 seconds remaining. The Giants failed to get enough pressure between those plays, allowing Brady to shred their defense for stretches. But Brady averaged only 6.7 yards per attempt. The Giants held the Patriots to 17 points, about two touchdowns below their regular-season average. Jason Pierre-Paul was effective batting down passes. Chase Blackburn made his presence felt with a de-cleater hit on BenJarvus Green-Ellis. He also picked off a deep pass for Rob Gronkowski. The Patriots' quickness in general and Danny Woodhead's in particular gave the Giants problems, especially with Brady having time to operate. The Giants caught a break when Wes Welker got wide open and dropped a pass that would have moved New England into field-goal range while leading with about four minutes left. Grade: B-plus

COACHING: The Giants left 57 seconds on the clock when Bradshaw scored on a run up the middle to take a 21-17 lead. Bradshaw tried to sit down at the 1-yard line, but his momentum carried him into the end zone. The points were nice, but leaving that much time on the clock for Brady carried risk. The offensive plan seemed conservative and without enough play-action passing early. That was to be expected given Tom Coughlin's philosophy. That showed up when Coughlin handed off instead of taking a shot deep down the field on an early second-and-1. Grade: B

SPECIAL TEAMS: Lawrence Tynes made both field-goal attempts. The Giant did not allow a punt return. They forced New England to begin three drives inside their own 10-yard line. The Patriots never started a drive outside their own 29. No complaints here. Grade: A

INDIANAPOLIS -- The New York Giants' final media session of Super Bowl week wrapped up around 11:30 am ET on Thursday, which means we won't get a chance to talk to the players again until after the game Sunday night. But man, did these uber-confident Giants make the most of their media time.

More than one Giants player has said New York needs to plan for a parade next week. The receivers have been open and honest with their opinions on a New England Patriots secondary that uses converted wide receivers as defensive backs. And on Thursday, defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul said that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was so concerned with the Giants' pass rush in Week 9 that he was dodging phantom pressure:

"Yeah, he was reacting to pressure that didn't exist and he was just throwing the ball places that there wasn't a receiver there," Pierre-Paul said, according to ESPNNewYork.com's Ian O'Connor. "So imagine us just getting there even faster and we're actually doing our jobs and getting there and getting hits on him."

Hey, look. The Giants have been yapping for weeks. There's no denying it. A team that so openly disdains the boastful, chirpy way in which the intrastate rival Jets have carried themselves for the past three years has been acting out of character, openly proclaiming the self-confidence that has fueled its five-game winning streak and carried it into the Super Bowl. And if the Giants lose the game, some will claim that they got too confident, gave the Patriots too much bulletin board material and opened themselves up to a letdown.

I'm not buying that, though. It'd be one thing if this were a team that had never been here before. But there are 15 Giants who were on the Super Bowl XLII team four years ago and a handful of others who've played in Super Bowls as well. They're not unaware of what they're saying or the way it might be perceived. They're not saying it to try to send a message or pump themselves up. They're saying this stuff because they honestly believe it to be true, and the way they've played over the past month and a half has continually proved them right.

It's temping to read the Pierre-Paul comments and say, "Uh-oh... that'll fire up Brady." But this is the Super Bowl. If the Patriots win, I highly doubt you'll hear Brady say after the game that the Giants' trash talk motivated him to play better. "They should be confident," he said of the Giants on Thursday, and he's right. Both of these teams should be. For some reason, the Giants just seem a little less shy about projecting it.

We spent probably too much time over the second half of the season debating the NFL's MVP award, which Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is expected to win during a televised ceremony Saturday night. But what about arguably the NFL's second-most prestigious annual award? Will Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen win NFL Defensive Player of the Year?

We here in the NFC North are no strangers to the DPOY. Packers cornerback Charles Woodson won in 2009, beating down East Coast support for New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis, and Packers linebacker Clay Matthews finished a close second last season to Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu.

Allen led the NFL with 22 sacks this season, one shy of breaking Michael Strahan's single-season record. He said late in the season that the Vikings' poor season would probably eliminate him from DPOY consideration, but I'm not sure if that will be the case.

This season, at least, I wouldn't say there is an obvious or runaway winner for the award. We discussed maybe a half-dozen credible names Wednesday morning over on Twitter. Below are four of them, for which I've identified some pros and cons.

Dallas Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Ware
Pros: Wasn't far behind Allen in the sack department with 19.5, a number that would catch anyone's attention.
Cons: Could be viewed as a one-dimensional pass-rusher. Forced two fumbles and defended two passes as an outside linebacker.

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs
Pros: Career-high 14 sacks and seven forced fumbles. Took over leadership role of a dominant defense when middle linebacker Ray Lewis was injured.
Cons: Perception, fair or otherwise, that Suggs is a secondary player to Lewis and safety Ed Reed on the Ravens' defense.

San Francisco defensive lineman Justin Smith
Pros: Tremendous production for a 3-4 defensive end with 7.5 sacks, and his intensity set a tone for one of the NFL's best defenses.
Cons: Smith might not be the best defensive player on his own team. Linebacker Patrick Willis is one of the NFL's top overall players, but he missed three games and was limited in others by injury

New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul
Pros: Recorded 16.5 sacks, anchoring one of the NFL's most disruptive defensive lines.
Cons: Is only in his second season, and critics could point out the Giants' defensive line is too talented for offensive lines to double-team Pierre-Paul often.

INDIANAPOLIS -- It was too crowded at Super Bowl media day for anyone to be doing backflips on the field. But if he'd had the room and the inclination, New York Giants' defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul could have put on quite a demonstration.

Pierre-Paul's teammates, who have seen the 280-pound pass rusher do standing backflips while still in full pads at the end of practice, marvel at the second-year sensation's athletic ability in today's video report.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Justin Tuck remembers the way the New York Giants felt on the morning of Dec. 11, when they woke up in Dallas and set about the business of stopping a four-game losing streak. The Giants had dropped from 6-2 to 6-6 in an eyeblink and had a game that night against the first-place Cowboys.

"We felt kind of like a cat that had already died eight times," Tuck said Monday.

That Tuck said these words into a microphone at the Giants' first media availability of Super Bowl week says everything about what's happened since that day in Dallas. They would beat the Cowboys that night, winning a defense-free seesaw of a game when Jason Pierre-Paul blocked Dan Bailey's last-second attempt at a tying field goal. And while they would lose to the Redskins at home the following week to fall back to .500, the Giants seem to feel as though the victory in Dallas was their season's turning point.

"I think the way we won was part of it too," Tuck said. "To beat the Cowboys in Dallas is always hard, and that was a game where nobody wanted to give it up. It was a tough game, and we had to be tough to win it."

The Giants are 6-1 since they woke up in Dallas that morning, and are on the verge of their second Super Bowl title in five years. The Cowboys went 1-3 starting with that game, including the Week 17 loss at the Meadowlands that decided the NFC East title. It was a crazy division race that went down to the wire and even mathematically included the Eagles until Week 16. And the Giants are aware of how close they came to not being here.

"To define what took place in the NFC East this year would be very difficult to do," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said.

There is little doubt of that, as any of you who've been following along with us this year can attest. But as they look back on it, the Giants feel like the first victory over the Cowboys may have been the one that turned around their season.

"It was going to be tough to make the playoffs if we didn't win the division at that point," quarterback Eli Manning said. "Going in to play a division team, a team that was in first place at that point, we knew we had to play well."

They did, and more or less haven't stopped since.

The number of things that almost didn't happen for this year's New York Giants is astounding. Osi Umenyiora making big plays in playoff games is among them. Remember back last summer, when Umenyiora was calling Giants GM Jerry Reese a liar in a sworn affidavit and asking (and getting) permission to seek a trade? Once Jason Pierre-Paul hit it big early in the season, how many of us expected Umenyiora to be a factor during another surprise Super Bowl run?

But he is, and as he told Mike Lupica over the weekend, he's glad the Giants didn't get rid of him when he was trying to give them every possible reason to do so:

"But it never reached the point of no return," he was saying on Saturday afternoon. "It was business with me and business with them. But I never felt it was personal and I never felt they did, either. I always felt that the people in charge had genuine affection for me."

He said, "And no matter what was happening, first with the contract and then with the injuries, I never lost confidence in myself. The whole time, I had confidence that once I got healthy I could be the same player I always was."

The last part was never in dispute. When Umenyiora is healthy and on the field, he simply makes plays other people can't and don't make. But it's the first part of the quote that caught my attention, and it says something about the way the Giants operate that they didn't act out of emotion or anger when Umenyiora was making them look bad. They were never going to trade him for less than what they considered fair value for a player of his talents. They believed he would not be a disruptive locker room force because they believed in the emotional strength of their locker room and their coaching staff. Pierre-Paul's emergence obviously helped their position, but they stayed calm and sober and did things their way, and it worked out in the end. It's kind of the story of their season in microcosm.

What will happen this coming offseason with Umenyiora? Hard to say. He's got one year left on his deal and is affordable, but he clearly isn't happy with the contract and he'll surely let everyone know that again. If he has a big game in the Super Bowl and gets through it healthy, it might make sense to trade him while his value is high. But right now, neither Umenyiora nor the Giants care about that. That's a next-week problem. Right now, everyone's just happy things worked out the way they did.

Frank Gore's injury withdrawal from the Pro Bowl clears the way for Marshawn Lynch to participate as an alternate. It also amplifies questions about Gore's health late in the season.

Gore carried the ball 311 times in 18 games this season, counting playoffs. That was within one carry of his career high previously. But his 17 receptions were well less than half his previous single-season low since becoming a full-time starter in 2006.

Gore put together a string of five consecutive 100-yard rushing performances ending in Week 9. He finished with zero yards the next week after a hard tackle from the New York Giants' Jason Pierre-Paul left Gore with an apparent right knee injury. He suffered an ankle injury earlier in the season.

Gore never exceeded 89 yards in a game from that point forward. His yards per attempt exceeded 3.7 just once over the final eight regular-season games after five consecutive games between 4.3 and 9.4.

The chart, from Doug Clawson of ESPN Stats & Information, shows Gore's playing time over the course of the season.

I noticed Gore asking out of games following contact a few times, including early in a game at Arizona. Running backs come out on occasion; I have no way to know whether Gore did this more than usual in 2011. The 49ers like to mix up their personnel groups, anyway. Kendall Hunter is a big part of their ground game.

Someone suggested to me via Twitter -- I couldn't immediately find that tweet, unfortunately -- that Gore did not seem to be carrying the ball on back-to-back plays as frequently. I had the same feeling.

Clawson investigated. The results weren't conclusive. Gore had a season-high 11 back-to-back rushes in Week 8. He had seven in Weeks 1 and 11, six in Week 16, five in Week 5 and four in three games (two of them in Week 13 or later).

Gore still managed to rush for 1,211 yards, his highest regular-season total since 2006. His per-carry average spiked during the playoffs. Lots of players withdraw from the Pro Bowl. There should be no panic. But as Gore approaches his 29th birthday in May, about the age when running backs tend to slow, durability questions aren't likely to go away.