New York Giants Return to Practice in Preparation for the 2008 NFL Season

New York Giants Return to Practice in Preparation for the 2008 NFL Season:  A day after receiving their Super Bowl Championship rings, the New York Giants returned to practice fields on Friday for the first of six Organized Team Activity (OTA) practices in advance of the June 11-13 full-squad mini-camp.

The players worked primarily on individual and unit drills, not a full-squad practice.  The emphasis was on fundamentals.  On Saturday the players will be back on the fields again with the offense and defense facing off in no-pads, no-contact workouts.

“That, for me, is what it is all about,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin after Friday’s OTA practice, “having the players on the field with the coaches, working on the game that everybody loves and again keeping your eye on the prize.”

“We had our rings (Thursday) night and we are on the field (Friday),” Coughlin said.  “It is flipping the page and it is moving forward and I thought that was the significance of today.  After spending the offseason basically trying to get back to catching up I feel like our staff is all back to where we normally are.  It was a really good connection, I think, for everybody.”

“The timing is great, because this is the first time we’re back on the field,” said DE/DT Justin Tuck said.  “With the ring we can pretty much put ’07 to rest and start a new chapter in ’08.”

“I think all of us look at it that way,” LT David Diehl said.  “We enjoyed the moment of getting the ring.  But now it’s over.  It’s back to business and working hard and getting back on the right track and focusing on the next season, like we have this entire offseason.  It’s time to go back to work, because we understand that it was the things we did in the offseason to get us ready for training camp that separated us.”

“It is definitely fun to be out there with the guys running around,” said HB Brandon Jacobs.  “You love going out and opening up the runs and actually playing around with the football.  I think the OTAs, fresh off a season like we just had, are better.  They’re better this year than it was in any other year.”

“It was definitely fun, I can’t even deny that,” said DE Osi Umenyiora.  “We’re a little rusty, but it was still fun.  I enjoyed myself…I was out here and I was like ‘Man, I am still trying to get my technique back down.’  So I feel like we need to start focusing on one thing at a time and basically work on our preseason schedule, work on training camp, work on mini camps, and then we will start worrying about what is going to happen after that.”

After the June 11-13 mini-camp, the veterans will be off until training camp starts on July 24.  The rookies will work for an additional 10 days.