Aug. 29, 2008

Updated Sunday, Aug. 31, 7:15 p.m. ET

Coaches say they never like to change two positions to fix one, but that’s exactly the approach the Giants are forced to take following season-ending surgery on DE Osi Umenyiora. Regardless of whether Michael Strahan was going to accept the Giants’ invitation to return (he didn’t), the coaches thought it best to move Mathias Kiwanuka — a college defensive end but the starting strong-side linebacker up until the preseason game against the Jets — back to a three-point stance. So Kiwanuka will go back to right end, where he played as a rookie, and Justin Tuck will be the primary left end. Dave Tollefson, who has had a nice summer, and Renaldo Wynn are the top backups. Also factoring into the equation is ex-Eagles DE Jerome McDougle, whom the team signed Aug. 31 after he was cut by Philadelphia the day before. The interesting side effect will be to see what happens at linebacker, where Danny Clark and Gerris Wilkinson — who were locked in a battle for the WLB job before — now are the starting strong- and weak-side linebackers, respectively, although rookie Bryan Kehl has come on strong.