August 14, 2007 New York Giants Training Camp Report (Morning Practice)

August 14, 2007 New York Giants Training Camp Report (Morning Practice)

by BigBlueInteractive.com Contributor TrueBlueMike

I don’t believe TE Kevin Boss practiced at all although I did see him actually on the field. WR Plaxico Burress didn’t practice either and the first time I saw him was when he was taking a bandage off his ankle.

I saw a few good plays by safety Michael Johnson. He was covering the tight ends most of the time but he broke up a nice pass to TE Jeremy Shockey, which might have been a bit late, and on another play he broke in front of the tight end before he actually made his cut. The two of them tripped each other up and the tight end got injured on the play. I believe it was Darcy Johnson. He was helped off the field and the injury appears to be with his knee. I did not seem him after that play. Anyway my point of saying this is that it appears Johnson has great anticipation as to the direction the receiver is going to run and he always appeared to be right with them no matter what. I haven’t really seen anything from CB Aaron Ross yet.

Thankfully QB Jared Lorenzen actually looked better today, or I should say more accurate. He takes way too long to decide where to throw the ball and then he pump fakes way too much. Several plays were stopped because he was taking to long to make a decision. I can’t believe I am going to say this but Anthony Wright seems like the backup right now with the little I have seen from him. QB T Hasselbeck shouldn’t even make the team and from the amount of snaps he sees during practice it seems that the Giants’ coaching staff agrees.

Manning was throwing deep a lot more today than yesterday. He missed on the majority of them, all too long so I guess that is better then being short and intercepted. I think he is still working on his timing with the receivers on the deep ball…or I would hope anyway. Everything else from Eli was on target, I believe, and the few deep passes he completed were nice catches by the receivers. One of them was a nice jump ball catch by Shockey with the defender right on him.

I was happier with what I saw from the receivers I was down on yesterday as well. WR Michael Jennings looked better although he dropped a few and WR Brandon London made a few nice catches as well. One of them he bobbled and almost ran into the cranes where they video tape each session. I saw a little bit more of WR Steve Smith today as well. I love how he catches the ball and cuts. He dropped a few though. He and Shockey appear to be the only receivers to actually get upset when they drop a ball. If Burress wasn’t such a great athlete and physical specimen, I wouldn’t be at all upset if we traded him. We could use Toomer, Smith and Moss as our three main receivers and let one of the other young receivers get a shot. WR David Tyree isn’t going anywhere, he is our best special teams player and is actually quite serviceable as a backup up receiver if need be. While he doesn’t have all the talent in the world, he is very consistent.

The backup punter, Cory Ohnesorge, actually looked good. He hit a few of them about 60 yards driving the punt returner back on several occasions. I didn’t see Jeff Feagles punting at all. I didn’t see any field goals or kick returns either. Ross was back there returning punts with the rest of them and I don’t think I saw Toomer back there. I think he is just back there to return punts when Ross doesn’t practice.

The session ended with a nice pass by Manning I believe to Jennings where Jennings ran past everyone for the touchdown. I am not sure if these were the players or not because at that point I was on top of the hill because I was pretty much driven from where I was standing near the action.

Finally I wanted to add that both Shaun O’Hara and Manning sign more autographs than anyone else on the team from what I saw. Manning pretty much went down the entire left side signing autographs the entire way till the entrance to the building. O’Hara stayed down at the bottom of the hill for about five minutes signing autographs slowly making his way to the top of the hill to the building. Shockey signed one autograph at the bottom of the hill that I saw and that is only because the kid fell through the fence. HB Brandon Jacobs signed a few at the end of the walkway before he went into the building.