July 31, 2006 New York Giants Training Camp Report (Evening Practice)

July 31, 2006 New York Giants Training Camp Report (Evening Practice)

by BigBlueInteractive.com Contributor daveab424

The practice was on the lower field today, so it was hard to see everything, but ill try my best.

WR Sinorice Moss and LB Brandon Short did not practice.

I know TE Visanthe Visanthe has been grabbing a lot of attention (he did drop a few balls on Saturday), but TE Boo Williams looked pretty good tonight. They ran a drill where they placed a linebacker/strong safety on a running back/tight end, and Boo pulled off a nice fake, and then sprinted deep and absolutely burned LB Gerris Wilkinson. HB Tiki Barber also made a nice move up the sideline and caught a pass about 20 yards downfield.

None of the quarterbacks looked great tonight. In the beginning of practice, QB Eli Manning overthrew WR Willie Ponder and then underthrew WR Tim Carter in a simple route drill, but he rebounded towards the end of practice during scrimmages. QB Tim Hasselbeck looked good today, but he seemed to play it safe the whole practice and just go with simple dumpoffs or 5-10 yard patterns. J-Load (QB Jared Lorenzen) did not look bad, but he had one nearly picked off by DE Osi Umenyiora (who looked great tonight) that just went just off his fingertips. Osi doesnt look bad in coverage at all. QB Rob Johnson’s struggles continued tonight, as he had one picked off by CB/S Brandon Williams. Right now, Lorenzen looks like he’s the #3 quarterback, but its still really early.

CB Corey Webster looked really good tonight. He was on WR Plaxico Burress, and he made a great read on an 8-step drop and nearly picked off a pass from Manning. He was noticeable on a few plays tonight. It looks like CB Sam Madison has really developed a leadership role in the secondary too, after that play and a few others, he ran over to Webster or whoever and started congratulating him so really everyone would notice.

It is hard to see a Pro Bowler getting cut from a team, but Tyree has not looked that good so far. He probably has the biggest stone hands of all the wide receivers, but he’s a beast on special teams so its hard to see that happening. And with Moss out, Carter really has a chance to shine. However, it seemed like the coaches kind of shied away from him during the trip WR-formation. On one play, he dropped one where he had to jump up over the middle. It would have been a sick grab, but he bobbled it on the way down.

There was one skirmish among the second team offensive and defensive line but it seemed to break up quickly. The true controversy came towards the end of practice when Shockey went over the middle and got absolutely laid out by FS Will Demps (he did not catch it). While Shockey was on the ground, Demps, SS Gibril Wilson, and Madison started screaming and jumping around, but when they saw he was down, they started to settle down. Shock got up after a few seconds and he started pointing at Demps, but things cooled down. I think players on the defense started to get pissed at Shock even before that because he was stiff-arming players in the face during 2-hand touch drills.

The last drill was the 2-minute drill with both of the first teams. On the first play, Osi split a double team and got right to Eli (obviously did not touch him), and then on the next play, LT Luke Petitgout performed an obvious hold on him. It looked like Osi was laughing after that. Next, the coaches put the second-team defense line in. Interestingly, Mathias Kiwanuka has now replaced Eric Moore as the right defensive end on the second team.

One more quick note – HB Brandon Jacobs seems to have gained a lot of speed over the offseason, and, in my opinion, I think he could take a lot of the stress off Tiki on a regular basis this year. AND it does look he gets lower when he goes through the line now.