Collins ready to leave Giants!!!

[wdwain]

http://www.nfl.com/teams/story/NYG/7285670


NEW YORK (April 26, 2004) -- With Eli Manning in town, Kerry Collins is ready to leave.

Collins, who took the New York Giants to the 2001 Super Bowl, said his goodbyes Monday after five years with the team. While the quarterback wasn't officially released, Collins and the Giants said that would happen in the next few days.

On April 24, the Giants traded North Carolina State quarterback Philip Rivers and three draft choices to the San Diego Chargers for Manning, the No. 1 overall pick.

Manning's salary makes it almost impossible for the team to have cap room for two highly paid QBs. Collins will earn about $7 million next season but will cost approximately $9 million of the $80.6 million salary cap.

"I figured there was no reason to hang around," Collins said after turning down a request by Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi to restructure his salary or take a significant salary cut.

Another factor: Collins' impression that new coach Tom Coughlin seemed ready to make Manning the starter almost immediately.

"Ernie told me that he felt Eli was one of the three or four best college quarterbacks he's seen in the last 20 years," Collins said. "Someone like Elway or Marino. Someone like that."

Collins was the first draft pick ever of the Carolina Panthers in 1995 and quarterbacked them to the NFC Championship Game in their second season in the league.

But two years later, plagued by personal problems, he walked into the office of coach Dom Capers and said he had to quit. The Panthers released him and he was picked up for the rest of the season by New Orleans.

The Giants signed him in 1999, and they helped rehabilitate his life and career. He started seven games that season. The next, Collins led them to the NFC Championship Game, throwing for 381 yards and five touchdowns in a 41-0 win over Minnesota in the conference title game.

In the Super Bowl two weeks later, he was 15-of-39 for 112 yards with four interceptions in a 34-7 loss to Baltimore. That contrast typifies Collins -- he is among the best in the game when protected, but limited by a lack of mobility and vulnerable to pressure.

Still, he started 67 straight games before spraining his ankle last season, when the Giants' horrible offensive line was the main factor in their 4-12 finish.

That finish put them in position to have a shot at Manning because it gave them the fourth overall pick in the draft. That position allowed them to put together a package to get the latest member of football's first family of quarterbacks. Manning had been taken first by San Diego, a team for which he had said he would not play.

Collins said he realized being released this late would make it difficult for him to land a starting job elsewhere.

"Most teams have their quarterbacks in place by this spot," he said.

One possibility could be Baltimore where Jim Fassel, the Giants coach during Collins' tenure in New York, is a consultant working with quarterbacks. Second-year man Kyle Boller has been designated as the Ravens' starter, but there is no one on the roster with anything close to Collins' starting experience.

[WantALLraiders]

Yea i seen that D.. Stupid they should have sat Manning behind him for at least 1 year like palmer and kitna a young QB can learn ALOT by sitting back and watching a QB who has been through the ropes

[minew_m]

Dang, he was released. I wonder where he's going to end up next?

[Warrior]

Dallas- Henson needs a year on the bench before he can even be considered to start. Parcells isn't thrilled with Quincy Carter as the starter.

San Francisco- Tim Rattay or Ken Dorsey? That's all the Niners have right now. If I were San Francisco I'd sign him to a 3-year deal and draft a QB to develop in the 2005 Draft.

Pittsburgh- Could provide Pittsburgh with a nice 1 or 2 year option while Roethlisberger develops. Not to mention he'd become a fan favorite among the Steelers fans that are Penn State fans (Collins played his college ball at PSU).