The Most Underrated Player in Football..........Plaxico Burris.

[Grizz299]

This is a personal opinion and not necessarily meant to persuade anyone else..it’s just the way I see it.  
 
 I’m gong to break  down the components of Plax’s game and comment on each.

Blocking:  Baseball’s changed over the years, defense is ignored.  Designator hitters make more than full time players with almost comparable averages and a great glove.  Offense can be quantified, defense can’t.   Same with football.  You can talk stats in number of catches , yards per catch etc.   You can’t quantify blocking in a WR,  so it’s often ignored.  Plax is the best blocker I’ve ever seen. Period.  I saw him consistently take out two men on Tiki’s end sweeps against KC.  It’s said that  every runner we plug in produces Tiki type numbers.   That’s a consequence of a fine offensive line and also a product of TC’s philosophy and discipline,  but make no mistake about it, our running game is also attributable to the way This maligned player knocks people down or gets in their way - and he does it without the penalties a less skilled player would get while blocking in the open field.

Physical toughness:   They say you can take the finesse players like Randy Moss off their game by banging on them.  Green Bay in the third playoff game and playing at home in about zero degrees recognized that without Shockey and with a diminished running game that the NY offense was about Burris.   They made him the focal point and roughed up the hurting Plaxico on every play.  And AFTER every play.  And ILLEGALLY on every play.  How did he respond.?  He singlehandly tore them a new orifice - if you know what I mean.  The Plaxster took every hit and kept on ticking in the best Timex fashion.  At one point he was ready to take on their whole bench.  This is a man among men and you’re not going to intimidate this SOB in a million years, you’re just going to make him tougher and more resolute.

The Difficult Catch:  They used to disparage Eli,  “he’s so inaccurate that the only thing that saves him is Plax, You just get it near that guy and it’s a completion”.    I suppose Ray Berry made the most difficult catches I’ve ever seen and R.C. Owens (he of the Alley OOp catch ) and Randy Moss the best catches against tight double coverage.   But Plax is very good.  He’s good in the end zone too.

The most Aesthetically Pleasing Catch:   Ok, you can beat me up for this one and I’ll merely hike up my skirt and proceed.   I think it’s against Denver in Eli’s second year and on the TV screen we’re driving to the viewers left.    Eli drops back and he makes an off balanced throw under pressure and baby it ain’t looking good.....   He's thrown a rope, only it’s into empty space and about ten feet high and there’s only bad guys around....And.....at the last moment........Plax has run what we used to call a square in and the empty space is filled at the with an almost ballet move of grace and without breaking stride ,there’s a leap, the balls plucked from it’s zenith, a corner is turned,  a defenderr is juked, and the Plaxster's pulling up in the endzone.    It was gorgeous (sorry I can’t think of any other way to describe it, my skirt notwithstanding).  

   And it stays with me as one of my favorite plays of all time along with the incredible play against Philly our CB made and about four other all time plays I remember.

Running after the Catch:    Plax doesn’t get the separation that Owens gets and I don’t know if that’s because of route running or schemes, but he runs into and through traffic virtually as well as anyone I’ve ever seen.  And while we don’t think of him as a burner I can’t recall him being caught from behind.

Character:   He came to us with a bad rap....underachiever and malcontent... and that hung on for a long time long after his behavior and statements belied it.    There was the int. against Tenn in a heartbreaking and critically important loss and he looked bad.   Fact is he was in open field against PacMan Jones and any 6-6 lanky players going to look bad in those circumstances.

Here’s what I’ve heard and seen regards “character:”

      A.During a hot streak they asked Plax if he was the heart of the Receiving corp.  “oh no”, he said,  “don’t even say that,  Shockey’s the man here , Shockey makes us go.
       B.Report after report out of our training camps have talked about his hard working and the hours on the field after other’s have gone.
          C.   Eli’s talked of Plax and he spending hours in the film room on Friday when everyone else is through.
           D.    The Philly team embarassed us during the season two years ago, it was a savage beating we took in the first half with something like seven sacks (or hits) on a beleagured Eli.  It was a strange game and so one sided and upsetting that I , Unaccountably , started vaccuming the rug during half time.   For the only time in my life I couldn’t bear to watch a Giant game and as we started the turn around I was afraid to turn off the vaccuum cleaner as if I controlled what was happening a thousand miles away.   Reports said that at halftime  Plax took the extraordinary means of actually getting angry with the offensive line and challenged them - got in their 350 lb. faces and all but threatened them.   Appropriately enough Plax caught the winning pass in overtime when all the filmwork paid off and Eli and he recognized the blitz and worked in perfect harmony. In an almost errie presaging of the winning play in the super bowl left one and one Plax completely left his man in the dust and captured the winning toss standing along in the end zone.   The Play made the SB catch forgettable.   Neither one escapes this fan’s  memory.
            E.   Clutch....  I’m going to arbitrarily include “clutch” as a function of character.   In this regard this is one of the finest players I’ve ever seen.  Maybe the best.  Maybe better than Yogi late even.   Anyone remember the playoff game at Philly a year ago?   Undermanned with about eight players out we kept it close.   Drove down the field against them with about three minutes to go.   Looked gloomy though, a crazy call on a play away from the ball on Snee puts us close but something like  2nd and about twenty(?) and a field goal won’t do it.   It is playoff and it is crunch........Burris on a slant and he runs over about four players and around four more in an extraordinary burst of power and agility I’d only subscribe to a premium running back.  He would not be stopped.  He willed himself to the goal line.   Our decimated defense couldn’t hold it and we lose on a field goal on the final play - otherwise this play is immortalized.   Happens all the time, I could give you ten more instances.... the man is Capt. Crunch and extraordinary.  
            F.   Playing hurt.   C’mon I shouldn’t have to say a word.   Again, a once in a lifetime performance that wasn’t about gutting it out for a single game but for a complete year.   This guy played with The Red Sox pitchers bloody sox or equivalent for a whole damn year.  Early on I watched him drop balls in the first half because of the visible pain and I watched him fight it, get used to it and drop nothing through the pain in the second half.   EXTRAORDINARY.  Just extraordinary
            G.   If I haven’t got you unreservedly on board.... try this.   Plax is grossly underpaid.   If Osi’s already murmuring about a new contract on a new contract and Diehl has been rewarding with a new contract on an old contract.........Plax hasn’t said a word and he’s the most deserving and the most underpaid of all.   When the giants signed him,  he – unlike most of these preening egotistical talents – said he was appreciative and would never hold the team up.  This is a man my friends.

CONCLUSION:
 I started this with the self depreciating “this is only one man’s opinion”.   In my stream of consciousness and  hurried writings I’ve moved myself,  and if I haven’t moved you, you’re probably a stone or hungering and blinded by the cleavage on a Cowboy cheerleader.    I know that Owens and Moss are considered the best.   They’re not.   Not when you add in all the components of their games.   Owens plays hurt,  Moss is the best at taking the ball away from double and even triple coverage.   Tell you what gentlemen, they don’t own a ring and they’ve played with some great offenses, some great teams.   Theres’s times in big games they can be shut down, they don’t block as well,  they’re not team players and they can be divisive in the lockerroom and in contrast Plax is a great team man and a great teammate.  

Plaxico Burris is the best wide receiver in the game and if you don’t believe me ask Owens and ask Moss to show you their rings.

[MightyGiants]

Good post Grizz.   Plax cemented his reputation with Giants fans on the frozen tundra of Lambeu field and his legendary battle with Harris.

[beaugestus]

Good post Grizz, as for the catch I remember it very well and is something as Giant fans we rarely see, at least by a BigBlue receiver. I don't think there were many WRs that could have made that play. Being 6'5-6" sure helps.

[PSUBeirut]

Good post, Grizz.  Plax really grew up this year and showed us a lot.  He was a punk, but lots of young kids are punks, probably including some of us right here on the board. 

One issue, though- I could have sworn that just a few days ago you were arguing that the "one-legged" Burress was hardly a weapon at all for Eli?      

[TuckerF]

Last year was a very important year for Plax as he said that becasue of his injury, he was forced to take the time to study the reciever's routes both the paybook and on film and for the first time, he knew exactly where he was supposed to be all the time.  He remarked late in the season that his injury really helped him understand his role in the passing game.   

IF he can stay injury free this year, he and Eli could have a monster year.

[kartanoman]

Grizz - why the hell don't you have your own weekly press edition (ala Giant Insider)? Let me know when you do and I'll be your first subscriber!

Move over Ken Palmer, Paul Schwartz and Steve Serby ... cause the Grizz iz a comin!

Peace!

[Painter]

For many of us, what is unequivocally true about Plaxico Burress is that without his presence and performance, last season, the Giants would not be Super Bowl champions. His 70 catches for 1000+ yards and 12 TD and ability to stretch the field, make big plays and draw double and rolled coverage would have been contribution enough. That he accomplished those things while playing on an injured ankle from Game 2 on, and later also with a sprained knee is what has made him special. It may have surprised a lot of folks, but I don't think it went unrecognized or unappreciated. Grit and determination, and "taking one for the team" always is prized by, and an inspiration to teammates. I don't think that was lost on the staff, the media, or fans.

If Burress was "maligned" in the past, it hardly has been to the extent that Moss and Owens have been.  Indeed, I would suggest that it wasn't the outstanding numbers put up by Moss and Owens, last season which surprised anyone, but rather the absence of their characteristic petulance which did. No doubt there were some who were disappointed by it.

Frankly, I don't see much of value to be gained in comparing Burress to Moss and Owens, or anyone else especially when it begins with an assertion of "most underrated" without defining by whom, and concludes with an assertion of "best" based on a Super Bowl ring which clearly is a team accomplishment. Plax had a commendable season both personally and professionally, and it would have been so whether or not the Giants won the Super Bowl. My own, not at all "self-depreciating", one man's opinion is that when when we gild something, we risk cheapening it.

Cheers!

[Grizz299]

    XX

[vette5573]

Grizz, I don't think that Plax is the most underrated player, but I do think he doesn't get the recognition of one of the elite receivers in the game by most football fans. I believe that if you polled a wide cross section of fans across the country and asked them to pick one receiver out of a group that included Moss, Burress and Owens, that Burress would be last in that list. In New York I believe it would be a close contest, keeping in mind the Jets play here too.

It's similar to the situation Tom Brady was in just a few years ago. I really believed he was the most underrated QB and wasn't given the credit he deserved. That's all changed now. I suspect that our man Plaxico Burress will slowly win them over as the Giants will get a lot of national coverage and Eli appears to have come of age. I believe that Toomer, Shockey and Burress have suffered because they were playing with a QB in the developing stages. It's a bit late for Toomer, unless his body can hold up a couple more years and he doesn't get pushed off the roster. It's not too late for Burress.

[BlueMoshik]

Thanks for the post. I've said it before and I'll say it again: there is a case to be made for Plaxico as the best receiver in the NFL today. All things considered, I just don't see anyone better. I would take him over Moss and TO anytime.