Admittedly after watching Niko Koutouvides last season, I may be a bit biased.  However, after watching Mike Rivera during the preseason being out of position on numerous plays and standing four or five yards away from the pile after a running play had been whistled dead, I am finding it difficult to figure out why he is in and Koutouvides is out.

They do have some similarities. Although I wouldn’t characterize them as ‘journey-men’, they have both played for other teams. They’re both 6’2" with NK at 245 lbs. and MR at 252 lbs.

Maybe it’s the age factor, NK 31 year-old (2004 draft), MR 26 year-old (2009 draft). Or perhaps salaries play into it. NK $825K, MR $390K.

Surely BB sees something in Rivera, and I’ll defer to him, but from what I observed in preseason (and I wouldn’t want to say this to his face) but #47 on the field looks like a stiff to me.

He’s probably a very nice young man and I wish him well, and if he plays his position and contributes, I’ll be delighted and I’ll happily ‘eat crow’.

Good luck Mike.

I have no idea how Rivera made the team.  On more then one preseason game thread I pointed out how much he sucked.  I believe it was game 2 that he and Moore were directly responsible for a scoring drive.  

Both would be bottom-of-the-roster guys who rarely if ever make the field, so upside potential (and practice squad eligibility if Rivera has it and Kout doesn't) would come into play on whether or not to keep them.  I think there's a big possibility Rivera may be gone too if the right players become available on waivers over the next few days.  BB is heavy on defense and light on offense, so look for him to try to pick up an OL (maybe Waters), a FB, and a WR.  (With Demps out, KR is also a need, but I doubt a decent one will be available.) 

Niko also looked pretty bad in I think game 3 - riding along on the back of receivers instead of getting them to the ground.
I agree - not sure Rivera sticks through this week.

There are five guys that "made the team" that will be introduced to the BB bottom of the roster way of life, he is one of them and there probably is more than five. Welcome to the world of you're on the roster...now you're off...on...off...on..off..off..see you next training camp where you'll do it all over again. It kind of reminds me of a vampire movie where the vampire keeps some guy/girl alive just to daily slowly suck the life out of them for fun!  

I would have preferred Tarpanian over either of these two

^ me too, Rivera looked slow and out of position from what I saw.

Yeah, the only strong game I saw from Rivera was #4.   Maybe BB saw him finally "getting it". 

In response to dustcover's comment:



....because Kouts is a terrible tackler. Flows to the ball well, is athletic, and because of that gets his fare share of tackles as far as the boxscore is concerned but I would easily argue he should have double whatever his boxscore says at the end of each game because he misses so many tackles.

Also the role of the specific LB spot they were generally playing most often played a part.

The LB core is ridiculously thin in general. WHen Fletcher went down it hurt a lot. After injury prone Spikes you automatically drop to what would have been your 5th LB as next in line(Carpenter).

I believe it's why they kept a few more DL's because they know it. (specifically Francis and Forston)

The Giants preseason game was the only preseason game I watched but I thought  Rivera impressed.  He was all over the field making plays.  I think he even led the team in tackles.

Looks like they both made it as Carpenter was just cut. 

Patriots released LB Bobby Carpenter.

In response to Low-FB-IQ's comment:


Nink can maybe move back to LB, though, with one of the many DEs on the roster taking Nink's DE/OLB spot.