This was not the Giants’ cleanest practice of the summer
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Giants held their second fully-padded practice of training camp on Friday. Here are some of the takeaways.
Evan Neal has concussion
Evan Neal left practice early, and the Giants announced after practice that the second-year right tackle has a concussion and is in the protocol.
Matt Peart took Neal’s spot at right tackle with the first team.
Tight end Darren Waller also apparently left practice early.
Who’s in, who’s out?
Defensive tackle Ryder Anderson, who suffered a triceps injury on Thursday, did not practice. Head coach Brian Daboll said that Anderson will “work through” the injury and did not seem concerned about a long-term absence for the second-year player. Offensive lineman Jack Anderson also sat out practice with an undisclosed injury.
Defensive lineman Leonard Williams received a second consecutive veteran rest day. Edge defender Azeez Ojulari also had a rest day. Rookie wide receiver Jalin Hyatt did not do any team drills after starring in Thursday’s practice.
Wide receiver Parris Campbell returned to practice Friday after a rest day. Edge defender Jihad Ward did individual drills, the most he has done in recent days.
Quote of the day
“Could be both.”
— Rookie center John Michael Schmitz when asked after practice if it was his blood or someone else’s on his uniform.
Offensive line shuffling continues
Friday’s first-team offensive line featured Schmitz at center with Ben Bredeson at left guard and Mark Glowinski at right guard. Shane Lemieux worked as the second-team center. Lemieux and Bredeson split third-team center reps.
“We’re trying to make it – that’s what’s training camp is for – as competitive as we can,” Daboll said. “Some of that is just ‘let’s see this player against this player.’ So, you can’t move everybody around so maybe you move one person one day and you don’t want to see him all the time against one particular player, so you either move a guy on defense or you move a guy on offense and then you put another guy in there to see how he matches up against a guy.
“Some of that’s one-on-ones but a lot of times we try to do it in team, too, so we can get a good evaluation, not just against one player. So, when we’re out there in one-on-one’s I ask the coaches to make sure they are trying to mix and match guys so we can see how they perform against each other.”
Defensive backfield rotation also continues
As we have several times recently, we saw rookie cornerback Tre Hawkins III take some first-team reps with Adoree’ Jackson in the slot. Darnay Holmes also took some first-team slot reps.
Jason Pinnock continued to work at safety opposite Xavier McKinney with the first team.
Sloppy stuff
This was not exactly a clean practice. At one point, when a timeout had to be taken because a defensive substitution didn’t get made properly, Daboll was screaming at the defensive staff.
There were a high volume of penalties called by the official on hand, including a highly questionable taunting flag on Pinnock after Isaiah Hodgins could not haul in a pass thrown slightly behind him by Daniel Jones.
There was also at least one botched snap.
Poor Darrian Beavers
Perhaps the most notable play of practice came when the Giants split Saquon Barkley wide right, the single receiver side of the formation. Linebacker Darrian Beavers trotted out to guard him, and Emory Hunt of Football Gameplan and I turned to each because we knew what had to be coming — a deep shot to Barkley.
Sure enough, Barkley released vertically and Jones never hesitated — lofting a deep ball toward Barkley. A helpless Beavers did the only thing he could do — commit an obvious holding penalty to prevent a touchdown.
A few highlight plays
- Carter Coughlin intercepted a Tyrod Taylor pass that was tipped by Cam Brown.
- Kalil Pimpleton caught a fade for a touchdown over undrafted cornerback Gemon Green.
- On a run-heavy day for the Giants, they ran one ‘Wildcat’ play with Barkley taking the direct snap.
- Oshane Ximines, subbing for Ojulari, had a tackle for loss and helped flush Jones out of the pocket on another play.
Congratulations!
Quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney and his wife, Emily, celebrated the birth of their first child, a girl, on Thursday night. Tierney was at practice on Friday.