ESPN NFC East Blog

	Rich Kane/US PRESSWIRE
	With Osi Umenyiora out for the season, the Giants may ask Michael Strahan to come out of retirement.

Posted by ESPN.com's Matt Mosley

According to my international sources, former New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan was spotted on a beach in Greece over the weekend. It's not the usual destination for retired players thinking about staging a comeback, and before Saturday night, that seemed like the farthest thing from Strahan's mind.

While Brett Favre's summer of angst heated up in July, Strahan seemed to embrace his decision to walk away. And it didn't hurt that his golden parachute included a lucrative deal with Fox.

Earlier this month, he made the short drive from Malibu to Oxnard to visit Cowboys training camp. Strahan didn't sound like a man who was having second thoughts.

"I enjoy waking up when I want to," he told reporters in Oxnard. "I enjoy saying, 'Do I feel like working out? Nah.' This is going a lot better or just as well as I expected. You can't beat winning the Super Bowl and playing the way that we played. There is just value in the way that we ended. I won the ring, that's good enough. I'm not going to push my luck."

Obviously,those words were spoken before Strahan's former teammate Osi Umenyiora suffered a season-ending knee injury in a meaningless exhibition game. By the next afternoon, Giants head coach Tom Coughlin was admitting that Strahan's name had been mentioned in the aftermath of Umenyiora's injury.

Since then, Strahan's cell phone has been blowing up with text messages. Unlike Packers GM Ted Thompson, Strahan apparently responds to messages during vacation.

He told Newsday columnist Bob Glauber "no comment" via text, which is a lot different than "Hell no, I'm not coming back."

Coughlin was pressed on the issue during his Monday news conference to the point where he morphed into Angry Tom for a few classic moments. When Coughlin tried to dance around the Strahan questions by saying he hadn't been involved in any of "those discussions," a reporter wanted to know if it was normal protocol for him to leave those decisions to other folks.

"Don't be a smart-aleck. Don't be a smart-aleck. I will be a part of every discussion that is ongoing in terms of helping our team, yes."

It's best to read this quote while imagining a red-faced Coughlin (redundant) hopping up and down. It was reminiscent of his mentor Bill Parcells' "Don't be a jerk" rant when he was with the Jets.

But back to the task at hand. I don't think the Giants want to put Strahan in an uncomfortable spot. By placing the call (and it may have already been made), the Giants are not only asking Strahan to bail them out, but change his entire legacy.

If he says no to the offer ($8 million sound about right?), at least some Giants fans might think he's being disloyal to the franchise. I think that's ridiculous, but it could certainly happen.

On Monday, the Giants announced plans to move linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka back to defensive end. It was an obvious and logical move by Coughlin. But the rotation of Justin Tuck, Kiwanuka and Dave Tollefson doesn't exactly strike fear in the hearts of offensive tackles across the league.

The Giants aren't the type of organization to make a splashy move -- outside of going after Strahan. They could've gotten in the Jason Taylor sweepstakes earlier in the offseason, but that's not the way GM Jerry Reese learned to do things from his mentor Ernie Accorsi.

What made Strahan and Umenyiora so effective was their ability to control offensive tackles and tight ends with their hands and overall technique. Cowboys tight end Jason Witten told me recently that no one's even close to Strahan in terms of technique.

Kiwanuka's a talented player, but he's always been a tweener. He slipped to the No. 32 overall pick in 2006 because teams didn't know what to make of him. Was he a defensive end or a linebacker? It seems the Giants are still trying to figure that out.

"With Kiwanuka, it's always been about his size," said one veteran NFC scout. "He's linear-built and he doesn't play with a whole lot of power. No one has ever known quite where to play him."

With the 36-year-old Strahan in the rotation, you could go a long way in making up for Umenyiora's absence. Tuck has quietly become a pass-rushing force (just ask offensive coordinators) and Kiwanuka would be a nice complementary player.

I've seen where some of my friends in the New York media have suggested that moving Kiwanuka to end lessens the need for Strahan. I couldn't disagree more.

If you're serious about repeating as Super Bowl champions, you owe it to yourselves to make an offer to Strahan. Sure, it puts him in an uncomfortable position.

But it's not any worse than the one the Giants are in now.