Pat’s Perspectives: In Jamon Brown and Corey Coleman, Giants find diamonds in the rough

A few years ago, the New York Giants lucked out when they picked up offensive lineman Sean Locklear off the scrap heap.

Locklear, before a knee injury derailed his career, proved to be a solid find at offensive tackle.

But more than just that, he also proved to be a rarity — a guy who other teams might not have wanted but, when he found a new home and was placed into an environment that not only wanted and appreciated what he brought to the table, he flourished.

Those instances are rare, but this year, the Giants, at least so far, have been able to catch lighting in a bottle not once but twice.

The first is with offensive lineman Jamon Brown, whom the Los Angeles Rams cut loose. The offensive-line starved Giants wasted time in swooping in with a waiver claim and were no doubt cheers when the league made the awarding of Brown official over the Giants bye week.

How bad did the Giants want Brown? They expedited his learning curve with an eye toward getting him into the starting lineup in their first game after the bye week, and Brown did not disappoint.

“I thought he did a good job,” head coach Pat Shurmur said earlier this week. “I thought he did some of the things that we thought he could do. He’s very firm, he gets his hands on you. I thought he played well.”

He certainly did and whether it was a happy coincidence or what, the offensive line just so happened to have had its best game with Brown int he lineup.

“I’m going to bring energy,” Brown said in his first meeting with Giants reporters last week. “I think I’m a high-energy guy. I think I will be reliable, just because I’ve been doing it for a while. I’ve experienced my times of success.”

The same could be said of Coleman, the former No. 1 draft pick by Cleveland who has bounced around the league in search of a new home.

Coleman, signed to the Giants practice squad on Oct. 18 and then promoted to the active roster seven days later, has also been working ‘round the clock to get up to speed on the team’s playbook.

Coleman, who made his team debut Monday night against the 49ers, caught his lone pass target for 11 yards.

His biggest contribution, though, was on special teams, where as a kickoff returner, he racked up 92 yards on the returns, including a big 51-yarder. Coleman actually would have had more yardage were it not for a penalty earlier in the game.

It’s only one game for Brown and Coleman, but the arrow is certainly pointing in the right direction.

And how great would it be for this Giants team, which has so many holes on it, actually can say by the end of this season that it addressed two big ones — starting right guard and its third receiver — thanks to these two somewhat underrated, yet key transactions?

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Pierre-Paul’s bruised feelings

I listened with interest as former Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul spoke about his disappointment with the Giants owners for not having picked up the phone to call him after he was traded to the Bucs.

It’s funny how the circle of life spins around. When Pierre-Paul had his fireworks accident, no one from his camp thought to extend the Giants owners the courtesy of a phone call to let them know what was going on.

I get it that he was dealing with an emergency and that picking up the phone himself might not have been possible. What I don’t get, though, is why his camp would have thought to keep such a significant matter from the Giants.

Regardless if it was due to not having answers, there should have been a call made by someone in Pierre-Paul’s camp.

Just as there should have been a call made by ownership to a guy whose name will forever remain on their most recent Super Bowl trophy.

Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Stewart’s return

In a move that has some Giants fans (okay, a lot of Giants fans) shocked and confused, the team announced Thursday that running back Jonathan Stewart has been designated as one of two annual players who can return from injured reserve.

What that means is that Stewart, who practiced with the team Thursday after sitting out the last several weeks with a foot ailment, now has a 21-day window to get himself back into game shape, with the team then needing to decide after that period regarding whether to add Stewart to the 53-man roster or leave him on injured reserve.

So what does this mean? And why Stewart and not cornerback Sam Beal?

Let’s answer the second question first. Players who this year were placed on injured reserve after 4 p.m. ET on Sept. 2 are eligible to have their designation changed to “Designated for Return” (each team gets two such designations per season).

Because Beal was placed on IR before Sept. 2, before initial 53-man rosters were set for the regular season, he is not eligible to return.

So why Stewart, who has done next to nothing in terms of production as a member of the Giants? And what effect will this have on the Giants salary cap?

The first question about “why Stewart?” is, admittedly, a mystery. If anything, it would have been less of a surprise for the Giants to bring up Robert Martin from the practice squad to see what he has to offer at this point.

That the Giants aren’t planning to do so would suggest that maybe Martin isn’t ready for a promotion just yet.

So what about the cap? Stewart’s base salary was guaranteed, regardless of his roster status, but because he had a $25,000 per game roster bonus in his deal, that’s where the ramifications come into effect.

Thus far, Stewart has collected $75,000 of that $400,000 roster bonus total for meeting the criteria of being on the roster.

For every weekly installment that he doesn't collect of that per-game roster bonus — he’s at six weeks and counting, and it’s probably safe to assume he won’t be ready for this weekend which would make it seven weeks — that’s a cap credit back on the Giants’ 2019 cap of $25,000 per week.

If the Giants wait the full three weeks before activating Stewart, their credit will jump to $225,000.

Meanwhile, Stewart received a $500,000 bonus that is prorated over the life of the contract.

With a potential cap credit of $225,000 for each per-game roster bonus appearance he doesn’t collect ($225,000 estimated) combined with the decreasing chance of him qualifying for up to $250,000 of performance incentives written into the first year of his deal (based on rushing yards and touchdowns), the Giants could end up with at least a $500,000 credit next year on Stewart if they decide to move on from him.