Could Hakeem Nicks Save the Giants From Brandon Marshall?

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- They may not yet have looked it this preseason, but the Giants are good. As currently constructed, they must be counted among the favorites in the NFC when the season begins in two weeks. Their biggest problem, however, is the same one they had last December -- their downfield deep threat is headed to prison and they don't seem to have anybody on the roster with whom to replace him.

So soon after the Plaxico Burress fiasco, the Giants don't necessarily want to pursue disgruntled Denver receiver Brandon Marshall. But they haven't ruled it out either, and how could they? You watch the Giants play, and the deficiency is obvious. They may well be one star receiver away from being a Super Bowl team. Which is why Saturday's game -- a game in which Steve Smith and Mario Manningham were dropping passes left and right -- would have gone down as another lost night if not for the spectacular fourth-quarter performance of first-round draft pick Hakeem Nicks.

"Hakeem Nicks played well," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "He made some plays, and he created some opportunities for us to see him and his contribution and how he might be utilized."

Coughlin and the Giants coaching staff were hoping that might happen. Coughlin said the night's game plan was designed to give a longer-than-usual look to rookie receivers Nicks and Ramses Barden as well as Manningham. So Nicks got to run with the first team a little bit, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

"I'm comfortable out there now," said Nicks, who was slowed by some injuries in training camp and admits to having been slow to catch up in his early preseason game action. "I feel like I know what I'm doing out there."

Of course, Nicks was a non-factor in the passing game when he was running against the Jets' first-team defense. It wasn't until the fourth quarter, against the backups and with backup QB David Carr throwing to him, that he really got it going. He caught two touchdowns -- a 22-yarder in the back corner of the end zone and a 71-yarder down the sideline on his fingertips.

"Hakeem stepped up for us today," Steve Smith said. "We're proud of him."

This is what it's come to. Smith, who's supposed to be the most reliable of the group, is looking to the rookie to save the night. Smith said he was "sick" about his drop of a long Eli Manning pass in the first quarter -- a ball that, if caught, would have changed the Giants' entire outlook on the game.

"Perfect pass, right in the bread basket," Smith said. "I'm just glad it was a preseason game."

The problem, of course, is that everyone knows this is the Giants' big weakness, so everyone's paying attention to it. Ever since Burress shot himself in the leg late last season, they have lacked the deep, difference-making threat in their passing game. They are strong in the running game, strong on defense and in Eli Manning they have a quarterback who can manage the game effectively. But they don't have a receiver who can keep scare defenses enough to keep them honest. And unless one is going to emerge from the group they have now...well, they might have to go back to Denver and see what it's going to take to get Marshall.

Which is why Nicks, the rookie out of North Carolina, knows he's got a big opportunity here.

"A wide-open opportunity," Nicks said. "But I can't control the depth chart. I can only control how hard I go."

One preseason game left to go. If he goes hard enough, Nicks might find he has more to say about that depth chart than he thinks.