INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Andrew Luck has a one-track

mind.With two regular-season games left Christopher Slayton Jersey Draft , the Indianapolis Colts quarterback insists he’s paying no attention to playoff possibilities, scoreboards or other teams’ schedules. Instead, he’s focused on the only thing he considers important this weekend — beating the New York Giants on Sunday.“I’ve been a part of teams where you sit and say, ‘We need this to happen with this.’ It doesn’t work like that,” Luck said. “You’ve got to handle your own business.”Article continues below ...Few teams can match what the Colts (8-6) have done lately. They’ve rebounded from a 1-5 start to win seven of eight and put themselves back in the postseason hunt. After losing their first two home games, they’ve won five straight at Lucas Oil Stadium, and if they can beat the Giants (5-9), they could control their own playoff path.Coach Frank Reich doesn’t do business that way, though.The former NFL quarterback simply asks his players to do their jobs: keep two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning and Offensive Rookie of the Year contender Saquon Barkley in check; prepare for the possible return of Pro Bowl receiver Odell Beckham Jr.; and expose the holes in New York’s defense.New York, meanwhile, hopes it can continue a strong second half after starting 1-7. While winning two of three and four six, the Giants already have knocked off NFC North champion Chicago and playoff hopeful Washington. They will be playing spoiler at Indianapolis.“You’re chasing wins,” Manning said. “We’re football players and this is what we do. We play football, that’s our passion, that’s our job, and we’re going to go out there and do it well and be able to celebrate some wins.”It won’t be easy.Indy pitched its first shutout in four years while rushing for 178 yards against Dallas’ No. 3-ranked run defense last week. Luck is playing the best football of his career and the defense looks as stout as it has in almost a decade.The combination has made Indy a trendy pick as the team nobody wants to play, and if the Colts can win their last two, they could end a three-year playoff absence. But the Colts know they must stick to the plan.“I am just very convinced there is no other way to approach it,” Reich said. “I have been around a lot of good coaches, a lot of good players (and) that is just what I have come to believe, experience and learn. There can’t be any wavering from that (focal point).”SACK HAPPYIt’s been feast or famine when it comes to sacks for the Giants. They had 14 in the first 11 games, and then picked up five each in the next two weeks against Chicago and Washington.The added pressure resulted in four interceptions, including touchdown returns by linebacker Alec Ogletree against the Bears and Curtis Riley against the Redskins. Things got back to the norm in last week’s shutout loss to Tennessee when New York had one sack and no interceptions.Facing the Colts might not help. Indy has allowed just 16 sacks this season, tied for fewest in the league.TACKLE WATCHRookie linebacker Darius Leonard acknowledged he was “heartbroken” not to make the AFC’s Pro Bowl team this week despite leading the league with 146 tackles.And he hopes to take out his frustration on the Giants this weekend. Leonard says his weekly goal is to get 25 tackles, though he’s upped the ante this week by saying he’s hoping to finish with 40. If he hits either mark, Leonard will break Jeff Herrod’s 27-year-old franchise record for tackles in one season.Leonard needs 15 tackles to move past Herrod (160).BARKLEY REBOUNDSPro Bowl running back Barkley was held to 31 yards on 14 carries in the loss to the Titans Christopher Slayton NFL Jersey , his second-lowest total this season. The rookie ran for just 28 yards against Dallas in Week 2.The second pick overall in the draft also had 56 yards from scrimmage last week, marking the second time in 14 games he’s been held below 100.Despite the bad game, Barkley is third in the league in rushing with 1,155 yards and he is not looking for a break even though the Giants have been eliminated from playoff contention.“I would love my workload to be whatever it can be to help the team win,” Barkley said. “I’ve said multiple times, if that’s 10 carries or if that’s 40 touches. I bumped it up to 40 this time.”THE COMEBACK KIDLuck’s comeback season has been better than expected.His completion percentage (67.3) is at a career high and he’s six completions away from a career best in that category, too.What else? Luck heads into the final two games needing 810 yards and seven TD passes to break his previous career highs. The Giants almost hired Louis Riddick to be their general manager. How would things be different?" NFL What IfsWhat if the Giants had hired Louis Riddick? New,150commentsThe Giants almost hired Louis Riddick to be their general manager. How would things be different?EDTThis week SB Nation has asked us to pose “What If?” scenarios as a part of their theme week.“What Ifs” can be tricky and dangerous to explore. After all, there’s a butterfly effect to every decision and you have to be careful that you don’t confuse what you think would have happened with what you want to have happened.But there was one decision the New York Giants made where we have gotten at least some insight into how things would have turned out had we gone down the other leg of the trousers of time.That very nearly happened after the 2017 season when the Giants nearly hired Louis Riddick. At the time, many Giants fans were very excited at the prospect of hiring Riddick — myself included. It even formed the basis Ed’s yearly adaptation of The Night Before Christmas.Ultimately, the Giants hired Dave Gettleman to be their new general manager. But the whispers at the time suggested that the decision was a close one. But because Riddick has remained a public personality — as opposed to a VP for another franchise — he has shared his thoughts on a number of players and decisions over the last year and a half. So not only do we get to play “What If?” but we can do so while making some educated guesses as to what might have happened. Note: I’m not going to game out every single decision that has been made over the last year and a half. I’ll just be touching on the big ones with the understanding that different choices will cause a domino effect and more recent choices probably wouldn’t have existed to be made.<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="ujPBmC">More from ‘What If?’ weekWhat if the Giants drafted Sam Darnold instead of Saquon Barkley?What if the Giants hadn’t won the 2011 Super Bowl?Could Ben Roethlisberger have succeeded in New York?<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="0MZJ9I">Coaching staffHead coach - Josh McDanielsThis one isn’t actually a slam dunk. McDaniels and Riddick are (reportedly) tight and are frequently linked and discussed as a GM/HC duo. However, Riddick DOES have a good relationship with Pat Shurmur going back to when the two were both with the Philadelphia Eagles. In his appearance on the Adam Schefter Podcast, Riddick stated that “Everyone knows” the coaches he would want to work with, and that is taken to mean Josh McDaniels.The decision between the two could be a close one, but for the purposes of this scenario, McDaniels has more to offer. For one, McDaniels has as much experience as anyone (and more than most) with working with an aging cerebral quarterback. Secondly, while McDaniels is known for his adaptability as a scheme designer and game-planner, the Giants’ personnel last year were an excellent fit in what McDaniels had already been calling. Bill O’Brien reorganized the Patriots’ offense around a 12 personnel package as the core of the spread offense run by McDaniels in his original run as offensive coordinator aged out of the league. Rather than insist on reinstalling the spread offense, McDaniels adapted his schemes to the Patriots’ existing roster upon his return to New England. Odell Beckham Jr., Sterling Shepard, Evan Engram, and Rhett Ellison would have fit well into roles occupied by Brandin Cooks, Danny Amendola, Dwayne Allen, and Rob Gronkowski.Taking a step back from the X’s and O’s side of things Christopher Slayton NFL Draft , McDaniels also has head coaching experience and, like Shurmur, it ended badly the first time. No doubt last year’s debacle with the Indianapolis Colts was, as Riddick put it, “a mess”. However, the Giants are not the Colts and not only are they not conference rivals, but Bill Belichick still bears fondness for his old team. If McDaniels was going to get his second chance in a locker room that Belichick gets teary-eyed to enter, and be hired by one of Belichick’s former players in Riddick, I would be surprised if he didn’t encourage the signing (rather than make a last-minute push to keep him in-house).Defensive coordinator - James BettcherI don’t think this would have changed. Perhaps Riddick and McDaniels would have brought in someone with whom they were more familiar — either from the Patriots side of things or with the Eagles. However, Bettcher’s availability was a late surprise as he was considered one of the favorites to be the head coach of the Cardinals. Bettcher is well-respected around the league and hiring him was seen as a coup for the Giants (and it still should be).PersonnelThis is where things start to get a bit interesting. Riddick appeared on Adam Schefter’s podcast back in May and was asked about some of the Giants’ moves and what he would have done differently had he been hired. But first, let’s go back to 2017 and look at some of the moves made. We don’t actually know how Riddick would function as a GM, but given that he grew up as an executive in the Philadelphia Eagle’s front office, we can make some inferences. TradesAlec Ogletree - I do not think the Alec Ogletree trade gets made under Louis Riddick. While it’s been argued that the Giants couldn’t afford not to make the trade, Ogletree was a (very) flawed linebacker on a (very) bad contract that the Los Angeles Rams were only too happy to be rid of. Typically, both the Eagles and Patriots operate on the other side of these trades.Jason Pierre-Paul - This one I go back and forth on. The Eagles highly value defensive linemen and pass rushers in particular, so it makes sense that Riddick would keep JPP. Likewise, I don’t buy the argument that he has no place in James Bettcher’s defense — not when the Cardinals heavily pursued him in 2016 for the role for which they eventually acquired Chandler Jones. While shedding JPP’s salary and getting a third round pick is nice, the Giants needed JPP’s pass rush ability. Dominique Rodgers-Cromarite - Releasing DRC is a move I think Riddick does make in this timeline. The Giants originally planned to move DRC to free safety full time, a move he was willing to make. However, things fell apart when he balked at taking a pay cut in addition to moving. Unfortunately, the Giants do still need to shed some salary, and DRC becomes a cap casualty.Nate Solder, Patrick Omameh, and Jonathan Stewart - As mentioned above, neither team this timeline’s brain trust hails from makes a habit of spending big for average (at best) or aging talent. Does this mean that Ereck Flowers would once again be the Giants’ left tackle in 2018? Maybe, maybe not — that is very “in the weeds” and there are a lot of dominoes that could potentially fall if Solder signed elsewhere. Even if it did work out that way Christopher Slayton Buffalo Bills Jersey , were Flowers’ 6 sacks allowed and 6 penalties in 2017 that much worse than Solder’s 8 sacks and 4 penalties in 2018? Trent Brown - One advantage to having McDaniels in-house, the Giants could have known of the Patriots’ evaluation of, and interest in, Trent Brown. It is entirely likely that the Giants could have been in touch with the San Francisco 49ers and acquired Brown. After all, the Giants’ 3rd round pick that year (66th overall) was MUCH more valuable than the 95th overall pick New England sent for Brown and the 143rd pick. To make the deal work, the Giants could have gotten a pick as high as the 128th pick.Landon Collins - Riddick said on Schefter’s podcast that he “Absolutely” would have tried to keep Landon Collins.“Now, heading into 2019, would I have wanted to keep Landon Collins? Absolutely,” Riddick said on Schefter’s podcast. “Landon Collins would have been a guy I wanted to keep. I wouldn’t have wanted to let him get out of there. So I didn’t necessarily like that.”That doesn’t, however, mean that he would be paying him 14 million a year starting in 2019. Instead, the Giants could have extended Collins after the 2017 season, which is the route I think Riddick would have taken. The Eagles have made an art out of hacking the free agent market by identifying and extending players early. With the safety market so weak in the 2018 free agency class, the Giants could have signed Collins to a contract averaging $10 million — but structured it so the bulk of the money didn’t hit until Eli Manning’s contract expires following this season. to do up there at Ohio State. He was coached by a guy, I think Ryan Day is brilliant. So I would have went that route with it.”We don’t know if a tandem of Riddick and McDaniels (and the personnel changes noted above) would result in a better or worse season 2018 for the Giants. So we don’t know if Riddick would have been in a position to draft Haskins or if they would have been vulnerable to being jumped by another team. But we do know that if Riddick had the chance to draft Haskins, he probably would have. What that would have meant for Eli Manning is anyone’s guess. Riddick did say that he “could have lived with Eli Manning for a year”, which suggests that if he was able to get Haskins in the draft, it would signal the end of Manning’s time in New York. That would be a difficult decision for the Giants’ organization, but it would also save the team $12 million in cap space.Final thoughtsSo where would that leave the Giants? It is entirely possible that Riddick would have come in like a storm, completely cleaning house and bringing in “His Guys.” Gettleman was hired as the experienced hand who could right the ship and immediately make the Giants competitive again in 2018. Riddick would have been a breath of fresh air and a different perspective with a different background from what the Giants have had since 1979. However, Riddick would also have been a novice behind the Big Desk and could have taken his time as he learned the ins and outs of being a GM.Based on his comments over time I think that he has at least some regard for some of the players put in place by Jerry Reese. So I have him keeping the bones of the team that went to the play-offs in 2016 intact while he evaluates the roster with better coaching and from inside the building. Would that have happened? Would 2018 have worked out better or worse for the Giants? At least with Riddick we can make some educated guesses, but we don’t really know. That’s what makes this an interesting “What If?” to ponder.