Ex-Giants WR Amani Toomer Joins Chiefs

I don’t like the Kansas City Chiefs’ signing of Amani Toomer. I love it.

Let’s flashback to the end of last season when the New York Giants fell to the Philadelphia Eagles in the divisional round of the playoffs. I walked into the locker room immediately following the game and spotted Toomer, who already had his bags packed and was making his way out the door. He didn’t stick around to talk to the media, and with that I knew his time as a Giant was coming to an end.

Toomer, who spent 13 years in New York, was always a great guy to talk with. He was thoughtful, well spoken and courteous. For all of the franchise receiving records Toomer holds, including yards (9,497) and touchdowns (54), he never acted like a big-timer.

It’s understandable that the Giants wanted to get younger at the wide receiver slot. They rebuilt most positions on the roster through the draft, so why not this one? But the hard thing to understand is, couldn’t Toomer have helped? That is, if he wanted to.

Toomer will be 35 years old when the season opens in a few weeks. David Tyree is the oldest current receiver on the Giants roster at 29. That type of veteran presence could have proved valuable in New York, where the position has an average age of 24.6.

Some say his numbers weren’t the same, but he caught 11 fewer balls last year than during the Super Bowl season and still had one more touchdown (4). Some believe his six drops (T-8th worst in the league) hurt, but look at who was number one (Braylon Edwards, 16 off 71 pass attempts). Toomer was only throw to 54 times. Others believe Toomer was growing frustrated with his role on the team. I began to feel this was the case as the season’s end was nearing.

I strongly believe Toomer being on the Giants’ roster would have taken pressure off of the other receivers. With Plaxico Burress no longer on the team, this position is going to be under the spotlight all season long — deservedly so too as it’s the most uncertain. Outside of Domenik Hixon, who I believe is more valuable on special teams, the Giants really don’t know what type of performance they’ll get out of Steve Smith, Mario Manningham, Hakeem Nicks, Ramses Barden and Tyree.

But that’s in the past now and Toomer has a brand new uniform to suit up into on Sunday afternoons. The Chiefs are young are could be considered to be in a rebuilding mode. The Giants, however, are not rebuilding. Instead, they’re expected to be in the Super Bowl year after year.

Kansas City has a star receiver in Dwayne Bowe, but after that, there are only question marks – sound similar to the Giants? Mark Bradley has potential, Terrance Cooper has been plagued by injuries and Bobby Engram, 36, was once a star — he’s in a similar boat as Toomer.

I believe Toomer will be a favorite target of Cassel this season. It’s now a wait-and-see game to learn whether letting Toomer leave was a good move. For now, though, I say good signing, K.C.

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