Toomer was a 13 year veteran and the Giants all time leading receiver with 580 receptions. While never really a “#1″ receiver in the true sense, Toomer was the Giants “Go-To” player at the position for many years when the focus was the running game, first with Rodney Hampton and then with Tiki Barber. The Giants also got some help from now New Orleans Saints Tight End Jeremey Shockey while he was here in the pass catching department. The Burress Story has been told countless times already, so i won’t chronicle it here again. It does seem worth mentioning that Plaxico was one of the vocal leaders of the offense, even more so since Tiki Barber’s departure after the 2006 season.

Now the veterans in the receiving corps are David Tyree, going into his 7th season in the NFL, followed by Sinorice Moss and Dominik Hixon, each with 4 seasons in Pro Football. While the offensive game plan may not change too much, which receivers get called for which plays might change somewhat. Surely Tyree makes the team again after his injury absence simply because of his veteran status and what he does on the specials. Then Steve Smith, because of his inside game, and his big play contributions since the second half of the 2007 season. Assuming that both Nicks and Barden have spots on the squad already because of their draft status, that’s already four of the six active roster spots. So you have Moss, Manningham, and Hixon. Three players going for the last two active roster spots. Seemingly Moss seems to be on the bubble here, given his overall lack of production last year. Unless someone gets hurt this summer, it might be a wrap for Santana’s little brother in Giants Blue. You will continue to see the “Bigger Guys” stretch the field with deep routes (Hixon, Barden & and Kevin Boss from the TE spot), while Smith, Nicks, and whomever survives between Moss and Manningham running the underneath routes.

On the Defensive side of the ball, the difference here will be the new defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan. Although he was promoted from within, Coach Sheridan has a long history as a college defensive position coach. This will be his 28th year in the coaching profession, but only his 4th in the NFL, and all 4 with New York. He was also promoted over defensive secondary coach Peter Giunta, who was the defensive coordinator for the Super Bowl XXXIV champion St. Louis Rams.

I was a bit surprised to see Coach Sheridan get the nod as “DC” but if you looked at the sidelines the last three seasons when former “DC”  Steve Spagnoulo ran the show, Sheridan was usually next to him.

Sheridan has said he won’t make too many changes to the defensive game plan, but the Giants have “reloaded” their defensive front 7 with free agent arrivals Rocky Bernard and Chris Canty at the defensive tackle spot and Mike Boley at Linebacker, plus draftee Clint Stintum also at the linebacker spot. This will allow the defense to continue with it’s “whole line rotational concept” weather veteran Fred Robbins remains a Giant or not.

How much of these slight changes will you really see? RB Brandon Jacobs told us at the EA Sports NFL Draft event that the “Giants are a team built to win and ready to win now, not in 2010 or 2011.” It could just be possible that the biggest changes for the Giants could only be in the actual players and coaches, and not the playbook as much.

It looks like Toomer played his last game for Big Blue

Two years ago, Tiki Barber said goodbye. Then last season was Michael Strahan’s swansong. Now it looks like Amani Toomer will bid ado to the New York Giants.

The 34 year-old soon to be free agent was critical of big Blue as he spoke to the media in Tampa. Speaking from the heart, Toomer said he felt the Giants were pushing him out this season.

“I think it was going all right,” Toomer said. “They tried to do it earlier in the season, but I kept playing well and keeping myself in the mix, so to speak, and then all of a sudden they didn’t let me play myself out. They pulled the rug out from under me. I was fighting it for as long as I could. I kept making big plays and I felt like, if they kept throwing to me, I’d keep making big plays.

“So I feel like they made a decision that, ‘We can’t keep him sticking around. We’ve got to turn the page. We can’t just keep letting this go on and on.’”

Toomer is the all-time leading Giants receiver, catching 668 balls for 9,497 years with 54 touchdowns over the past 13 seasons. He moved from being a playmaking receiver earlier in his career to one of the more reliable possession catchers in the game, as Plaxico Burress became the Giants No. 1 option.

But when Burress was injured and then suspended, Toomer saw his time getting cut.

“I just think the last couple of games I wasn’t a big part of the offense and we lost a big percentage of the games [four of the last five],” he said. “I feel like you can’t tell me (that) didn’t play a big role in it. I think it did. The first game [without Burress] I had one of my best games of the year. From that game on, I don’t know what happened.”

Ultimately, Toomer ended up the season with 48 catches for 580 years, but only had 11 for 126 in the last five games of the season, including the playoff loss to the Eagles. Because of what he perceives as writing on the wall, the receiver will test the market.

“I’ve never been a free agent,” Toomer said. “I’m just going around, shopping yourself and basically seeing what the league thinks of you. I’m pretty excited, I got some good responses so far, so I’m pretty excited to see how it’s going to turn out.”

Although he hasn’t ruled out a return to the Giants, Toomer is looking forward. And if he moves on, there will be a bitter taste in his mouth of what he thought was complacency on the Giants in 2008.

“I just think the way in which we approached some of these games, I questioned it going in. I didn’t say anything because I wanted to try to make it work out,” he said. “But in the end, ultimately my suspicions came true. And at the end of the (playoff loss to the Eagles), after the other game (the regular-season loss to Philly), I wasn’t surprised at all. I felt like our approach wasn’t the same as it was last year.”