Tweaking

General manager Jerry Reese's assessment of the happenings of 2009 did not include a demolition plan for the offseason. Instead, he said a lot of tweaking would do the trick.

"Well, there is work to do," Reese said. "But I don’t think you need to blow the whole thing up. I still think we have a good nucleus of players here. There are some things that we have to address. The evaluation process is starting. We will do that.

"We look forward, like I said, to taking all the positive things that we can. The negative things, we will try to correct those things. But I don’t think we need to blow this team up."

Whatever changes happen on the free agent front, Reese said they would not be affected by an uncapped season. In other words, they'll work under a strict, self-imposed budget in lieu of a cap. So don't expect a wild spending spree.

"I don’t think that is going to affect us," Reese said. "If there is no salary cap, we have a fiscal responsibility. We will do what we can do to make the team better, but we’ll have some parameters.

"I think we can do whatever we need to do in the offseason. Again, our owners are great. They give us all the resources we need to go out and try to make this team better. I don’t expect things to be any different this time."

Of course, an uncapped year will bring a rise in the minimum experience needed to qualify for free agency, from four to six years. That could dilute the talent pool by as many as 200 players.

But Reese said he'll navigate through that with due diligence.

"A lot of things can happen," he said. "Some of these guys will get what we call non-qualifying offers. Those guys will come into play. Probably more trades this offseason than you have seen in the past. That kind of stuff will probably come into play. But the market itself will be thin. It will be thin with older guys."

One thing Reese said will remain constant is the place of Osi Umenyiora on the team. The defensive end was none too happy about losing his starting job to become a situational pass rusher. But Reese, echoing Tom Coughlin's sentiments of last week, said he has no plans on sending the former Pro Bowler anywhere.

"He is still a big part of what we are trying to do here," Reese said. "When you are in the middle of the season and things are not going well, you have to do whatever you have to do. The coach tried to do some things to shake up the defense and shake up the team. Osi was a pro and went right in there and played his role. But Osi is a major part of what we are trying to do moving forward. We expect him to be a strong contributor as the years come."

EP