Up until Wednesday, the rookies had just been lifting and meeting on their own. Now, because of the OTA’s, they have started to lift, practice, and are in the meeting rooms with the vets. It’s and exciting time for them. I remember what it was like to be a rookie just stepping in. Every NFL player had that experience and has been through that situation, as rookies or free agents. 

It’s nice to have guys coming in hungry. As a Giants player, we have a lot of faith in Jerry Reese and what he’s doing upstairs to help us win games and go back to the Super Bowl.

The fans and media worry a lot about our wide receivers, and it is tough to lose a player like Plaxico Burress, of course. But we’ve got guys who are hungry and are excited about getting the opportunity to play.

Bringing in Hakeem Nicks as a first-round pick is exciting, he’s a tremendous guy and tremendous athlete. We have the same agent so I know that he’s already found a place to live so he can stay here all summer and catch passes and run routes with Eli. It’s awesome to see a guy with the intensity and dedication. He can make a splash right away.

Steve Smith is a player who has made big plays for us and we just got a glimpse of what Dominic Hixon can do last year, he’s just coming into his own and should get a lot more playing time. Sinorice Moss and Mario Manningham are also players look to get into the mix. And even though he is a tight end, I see Kevin Boss playing a big role in our offense this year. Best thing about all of these guys is that they are still young and have tons of potential. 

I have a lot of confidence in the wide receivers we have, it is definitely not a problem spot for us. I know we’ve got the pieces in place to have a successful offense.

Off the field this year I’ve gotten very involved with Project Sunshine. Project Sunshine is a nonprofit organization that provides free educational, recreational, and social programs to children facing medical challenges and their families. Project Sunshine serves 60,000 children each year in 150 medical facilities. It’s an unbelievable organization. To learn more about this terrific organization visit www.projectsunshine.org. Comix, the comedy club in New York, got in touch with me with the 12 Angry Mascots through my management firm, PR PR, and said if I did some comedy with them, they would donate profits from the night to Project Sunshine. 

So I did it. Every once in a while I think you have to try something new, challenge yourself by going outside the box. But more importantly, I was doing it to raise money for charity. Here is a link to it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPArB3Aaf0.

I was more nervous than I have been with most things in my life, because there’s nothing worse than watching a comedian bomb. A lot of the sketch was improv, and I had a great time doing it. I’m not looking to become a standup comedian or an actor, I’m a professional football player. But it was fun, people laughed and thought it was funny, and it was for charity.

So all in all it was a win-win. What I couldn’t believe was how fast the buzz spread on the web. I did it last Wednesday, and by Thursday night and Friday morning people were calling me, it was on NFL Live, it was just crazy.

Sure, I poked a little fun at Brett Favre, but let me get it straight that I love Brett. I doubt there will ever be another quarterback like Brett Favre, a guy who sold out each and every game for his love of the sport. I mean, who didn’t love watching Brett Favre play football?

I hope everyone knows that the joking about him was done in the spirit of an NFL locker room, where we joke about everybody and play pranks on everybody.

Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter as davediehl66.

I just want to say I know I haven’t been on the site in a while but I’m back now and I’ll be updating a lot, so I hope Giants fans will keep checking in on the website.

We officially start OTAs tomorrow and it’s always exciting when you have new teammates, preferably guys who can come in and help us win football games.

It was real tough losing to Philadelphia. We play the game for one reason, to go to the Super Bowl and be champions. When you don’t make it there, all the hard work and dedication from the season feels like it didn’t count for anything and then it’s all over.

It’s very sudden, one minute you’re playing the Eagles and the next day you have an exit meeting, exit physical and then that’s it. Everyone goes their separate ways until off-season training starts on March 16.

In the off-season you have a lot of time to think about things. I went to the Bahamas with my family and friends. It was great to spend vacation time with them. You are so busy during the season its nice to be able to give them the attention they deserve. I went swimming with my daughter in the pool, walked the sand and went in the ocean. You play, you relax but the loss was always in the back of my mind and left a bad taste in my mouth. Same when I went back to Chicago to spend time with my family.

As a Christmas gift, Eli Manning flew me out to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. I’m not going to lie, I always said that the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl were two games I would never go to unless I was playing in them. Being a Pro Bowl alternate last year was a great accomplishment but it’s not the same thing.

But Eli really wanted me to be there, he said he wouldn’t be going if the offensive line didn’t do their job. 

Honestly, I left Hawaii angry with an even bigger hunger in my stomach to be a better football player. I saw how much the guys there were enjoying themselves and what it meant to them to be there.

It was probably one of the best things I could have done to give myself extra motivation to push myself even harder this season. I left Hawaii at 5:30 p.m., was in Chicago at 5:30 a.m., and by 7:30 a.m. I was in the gym working out.

I’m excited about the direction this team is headed and where I am. I feel like I came into the off season program in the best shape I’ve ever been in to start the program on the 16th. This whole game is about accountability, each guy on the field selling out for one another. You always know that all the guys in the huddle are depending on you. I know that I’m doing everything I can to make this a better football team.

I’m doing everything in my power right now to be in the best shape possible and to become the best left tackle in the NFC. That’s my goal.

It also helps to have someone call you out. The Redskins said they drafted defensive end Brian Orakpo from Texas because the tackles in the NFC can’t handle speed rushers.

That will stay with me during the season. There’s nothing better than being personally challenged.

Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter as davediehl66.

This is why we work out so hard in the off-season. This is why we run, lift weights, have training camp, go through everything we go through. Everything we do as an NFL player is to get to this point, to get the opportunity to get back to the Super Bowl.

To hold that Super Bowl trophy was a feeling like no other, and the only way to get to hold it again is to take care of business and that starts Sunday against the Eagles.

The Eagles are a good team, they know us, we know them. The team that goes out there  and plays more physical for 60-plus minutes, and lays everything they have got on the line is the team that’s going to come away with a win and continue their season. I don’t want the season to be over. We want to keep playing.

It’s win or go home at this point, and I have a lot of confidence in what we’re doing right now.

The Eagles beat us last game but that doesn’t matter now. It’s all about the now. The present. It’s all about this game, and the postseason is completely different than the regular season because everyone has to play up to the best of their ability on every play. 

You leave it all on the field because that’s what it takes to win these games, and if you don’t you won’t be on the field again until next season.

Playing at home is a huge factor for us, we’ve been good at home. We want to get off to a fast start, get a big play to get the crowd into it and use that as an advantage. 

I know I said the last game against the Eagles doesn’t matter, but losing that game still left a bad taste in our mouths. When that happens you just hope to have a chance to redeem yourselves, and we’ve got that opportunity this weekend. Never let history repeat itself. 

We’re expecting a slugfest, a real heavyweight bout. That’s what playing in the NFL is all about. You have to go in with everything you’ve got. There’s nothing better than challenging yourself against good players who bring it every week, and I’ll be facing one of those guys in Trent Cole. He’s been to the Pro Bowl, he’s one of the leaders of that defense and plays hard to the whistle. I am going to sell out each and every play because my teammates are depending on me and I know they are going to do the same for me. 

In the playoffs the key is to sell out and hold all your blocks just a little longer, and finish every play because everything you do counts. You have to go as hard as you can every play, whether it’s holding a block, getting to the next level and making a block, whatever. If you don’t and something bad happens, you don’t want to look back with your season over and have any regrets. 

I know our guys are going to lay it on the line. We want to get back to the Super Bowl. This team still feels like it has something to prove.

Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.davediehl66.com.

Everyone has high expectations at the start of the season, and starting out 0-2 makes you hungry to get the season going in the right direction.

We started 0-2 last year and look where we ended up.

The Bengals are 0-2, and like us last year they’ve got a lot of good players, guys who are very talented. Their backs are against the wall and they’re getting a lot of heat from the media, and they’re going to come in against us and try to do whatever they can to come away with a win and get their season back on track. We know what that’s like. Every team in the league knows that the NFL season is a marathon, not a sprint, and it’s how you finish, not how you start, that matters. Anything can turn your season around and the Bengals will be looking to do that against us on Sunday.

So it’s just another one of those weeks where we have to continue to focus. Each week is a new challenge, and we’re not going to take any opponent for granted. Sunday, the Bengals are going to come out fighting, but we’ve been working extremely hard to make corrections after beating St. Louis last week.

There’s one thing that we’ve really focused on this season. Last year our home record was not that good. Playing at home should be an advantage, and we really need to get the fans into the game.

How do you do that? You have to show the crowd you’re into the game early on, with a big hit, or Eli throwing a long ball to Plax or one of our other receivers, or a big play from Brandon Jacobs running over somebody like he did in the Redskins game. This year, we’re really focusing on getting the crowd into the game early. We want to start fast and hear it from the crowd, it raises your intensity level and distracts the opposing team.

If the crowd is loud and crazy, it’s an extreme advantage for our defense, especially. We want to make sure that our home is our home, a place where the fans really get into it.

Sunday, I’ll be going up against defensive ends Frostee Rucker and Antwan Odom most of the time. They’re two high-energy guys with long arms, they play hard and are tough against the run and the pass.

The Bengals blitz a lot, bring different schemes and the defensive line does a good job of tying up offensive linemen so the linebackers can get going downhill and make plays. They create angles for themselves to get penetration. One guy we’ll keep an eye on is linebacker Dhani Jones, the former Giant. He lines his guys up and creates mismatches.

You beat a team like that by continuing to pound the football and knock them off-balance. Every week is a new challenge, but if you prepare you know what to be ready for.

Because every defense shows you something different, different twists, it’s extremely important to be prepared. Every week you have to scout film, watch for a defense’s strengths and weaknesses. Then out on the practice field you have to do the work you need to do on technique.

If you’re a student of the game you see things on film that, when you get into the game, really help out a lot. You pick up a few things here and there. As a player, it’s your responsibility to do whatever it takes to get yourself prepared. Watch the guy you’ll be going against on film, study his moves. That’s part of being a professional. Then when you go into a game, you’re not worried about anything because you’re prepared, you can play free, go out there and relax. Preparation allows you to do that.

If we could start 3-0, that’s exactly how you want to start the season, playing the way you are capable of playing. But even if we beat the Bengals and are 3-0 going into the bye week, the best thing about this team is that it won’t be satisfied. It’s not where you’re at, it’s where you want to go that matters and we’re going to keep working to become a better team.

Everyone on the Giants really rallies around each other and you can see that in the tempo of practice and the mentality of our guys.

And the coaches do a great job of keeping us motivated and going in the right direction. During practice and meeting time, everyone really focuses on what we need to do.

When I go up against Mathias Kiwanuka in practice, we go against each other as hard as we can, then we watch film of practice and help each other out, give each other advice. We’re always talking with each other to help the other guy be as prepared as he can for the next game.

This team really communicates with each other and that’s the sign of a great team. This group of guys has been together about five years now, and it takes about that long to build a great team. No one here points fingers at each other and when a unit needs to step up, it steps up.

We know to take each week one game at a time. Every win counts, every win matters. We never look ahead, because in the NFL, you can’t look past anybody. You’ve got to focus on one game at a time and take care of business.

Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.davediehl66.com.

The game against the Rams was close until late, and watching film afterwards I think we could have made some more plays and kept things going, but when momentum started to swing, when the Rams got that big touchdown pass, we made sure we responded and did whatever we could to get the game moving back in our direction.

It’s a 60-minute game and you have to learn from your mistakes of the first half, make sure you’re moving forward.

Two things, in particular, were very encouraging against the Rams. One, we did a great job of converting on third downs, keeping time of possession and momentum in our control. And second, when things didn’t go our way, when momentum shifted, we didn’t let it bother us, we went out there and executed. The Rams scored on a big play and kicked us down to the 3-yard line. We were backed up, but responded by taking the ball 97 yards and scoring a touchdown.

That’s a sign of a mentally tough offense and a mentally tough team. When things bounce in the other direction, you don’t sulk on the sidelines, you go out there on the field and turn it around. Last week was a prime example.

As an offensive lineman, you do whatever you can to keep your quarterback clean and standing upright. I thought we made Eli feel comfortable back there, we have a lot of confidence in Eli, a lot of confidence in our receivers and running backs. We know that if we do our job and give Eli time, he’s going to do a lot of great things for our offense, hit our big targets and keep the ball and the chains moving.

When you have that much confidence in someone, you’re going to do whatever you can to make him feel comfortable. And if he is comfortable, that allows him to expand the offense, change schemes and make us a more dangerous team.

The adjustments we made at halftime against the Rams were important, as they are each and every week. Everything we do in the first half is not going to be perfect, so you have to make changes. At halftime we go into the locker room, the offense meets on one side, the defense on the other, and we discuss what we’re going to do different in the second half.

The coaches have done a great job of putting us in the right offensive schemes to have a lot of success.

Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.davediehl66.com.