August 2, 2021 New York Giants Training Camp Report

Sterling Shepard – © USA TODAY Sports

AUGUST 2, 2021 NEW YORK GIANTS TRAINING CAMP REPORT…
The New York Giants held their fifth full-team summer training camp practice on Monday at Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Practices are not open to the public this year.

“Players are a little bit refreshed and getting back to work (after a day off on Sunday),” said Head Coach Joe Judge. “The progress this week will be shells today as we get back into the acclimation period. We’ll be in pads for tomorrow and Wednesday. We’ll ramp up the team a little bit more. The emphasis still remains on getting our football conditioning right away, improving on fundamentals and then we’re going to keep advancing with the install and the situations that come up. Today will be more focused on early downs, just a little bit of goal line walkthrough and then get a review on the red area almost on a daily basis, so we’ll have that today.”

GIANTS RE-SIGN RB ALFRED MORRIS…
The Giants have signed unrestricted free agent running back Alfred Morris. The Giants signed Morris to the Practice Squad in late September 2020 and the 53-man roster in November 2020. Morris ended up playing in nine games for the Giants with no starts, carrying the ball 55 times for 238 yards (4.3 yards per rush).

The 5’10”, 222-pound Morris was originally drafted in the 6th round of the 2012 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins. He has spent time with the Redskins (2012-2015), Dallas Cowboys (2016-2017, 2019), San Francisco 49ers (2018), and Arizona Cardinals (2019). Morris has played in 114 regular-season games with 70 starts. Morris was second-team All-Pro in 2012 and was voted to the Pro Bowl in 2013 and 2014.

“This is just overall an opportunity to, number one, have depth to go ahead and practice the way we want to practice and also have the opportunity to bring a quality player back in,” said Head Coach Joe Judge. “Alfred, last year – look, I can’t tell you how much I feel on a personal level about Alfred and what he did for our team last year, about how he carries himself, about how he is as a teammate, how he is in the team meeting. Look, I walked by him when I was coming in the building and he was waiting outside for his clearance from his test, and we got to have a conversation sitting outside and it’s just refreshing seeing his face. He’s always smiling and good, great energy out there. Again, like anyone else, he has an opportunity to come in here and compete for a spot on this team. We had an opportunity to bring him back and he helps our competition within that spot.”

INJURY REPORT…
LG Shane Lemieux (knee), LB Blake Martinez (COVID), LB Lorenzo Carter (unknown), LB Elerson Smith (unknown), WR Kadarius Toney (COVID), WR Austin Mack (hamstring), WR Derrick Dillon (unknown), and RB Mike Weber (unknown) did not practice on Monday.

Regarding Toney, Head Coach Joe Judge said, “He’s still building up, but we will start seeing a little bit more of him day by day as the trainers keep allowing us to have him more. Look, these guys do a really good job as far as knowing our players and looking out for their health. We trust what they say, we trust our medical team, but the focus is to get this guy involved as much as we can with football and keep building him up through training camp. It’ll be limited for the time being., We’ll get him day by day a little more.”

On Smith, Judge said, “He’s day by day right now. He’s made a lot of progress the last few days. He had a small setback early in training camp. We don’t think it’s something that’s going to long-term limit him, but I don’t want to put a timetable on him in terms of when he’ll be back absolutely. We feel confident in the direction he’s moving, the trainers feel good about where he’s at right now and he’s working hard with the strength staff. So very similar to the other players. As soon as we can kind of get him back with the team, we will and it’ll be more of a ramp-up, gradual process when he gets back to practice.”

On Lemieux, Judge said, “Shane’s still day by day. I think if you asked Shane, like I said the other day, he’s going to always tells us what we want to hear. He’s with the medical team now and they’re continuing to do more and more with him each day. We’ll see where he is. Hopefully, we’ll get him as soon as possible, but I would say it’s more day by day than week by week.”

On Martinez, Judge said, “I would say, the good thing with Blake is he’s been engaged through all the meetings, so he’s heard the practice corrections and the install. So mentally, he’s gotten all of that. Now, there’s always an adjustment from hearing it in a meeting to actually doing it on the field. Physically, he hasn’t been with our team yet, so he’s got to ramp up and physically catch up to where the team is right now and that’s just how all these guys come off this COVID list.”

OC Jonotthan Harrison (hamstring) passed his physical and was activated off of the Active/Physically-Unable-to-Perform (PUP) List. He practiced on a limited basis, as did TE Levine Toilolo (unknown).

The following players remain on various PUP and reserve lists:

• Reserve/COVID-19 List: S Joshua Kalu and TE Rysen John
• Active/Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) List: RB Saquon Barkley (knee), TE Kyle Rudolph (foot), LB Oshane Ximines (hamstring), and CB Aaron Robinson (core muscle)
• Reserve/Non-Football Injury (NFI) List: LB Reggie Ragland (hamstring) and LB Ryan Anderson (back)

ESPN is reporting that Robinson had core muscle surgery “late in the spring.”

On Barkley, Judge said, “You know what, he’s making a lot of strides for us and I don’t want to go ahead and make any predictions or anything on Saquon, but I will say that this guy’s showing progress, tangible progress every day with our medical staff, with our strength staff. He comes out here and works. Right now, we’ve really mirrored his rehab to what our players are doing on the field practice-wise to make sure that he’s building up that same volume, that same intensity. We can kind of go apples to apples with what he’s done on a daily basis compared to the players that are in practice to give us a better picture in terms of where he is physically.

“I couldn’t give you an answer on (when he will return). That’s not being coy right there. Look, with this injury right here, we’re going to make sure we do the right thing by Saquon and what’s better for the team and we’ve got to take a long-term vision of this right here. The doctors know a lot more about the knee, about where he is medically. I know where his spirit is. I know where his work ethic is. I know he wants to be out there with the team. As I’ve said to him time and time again, when you’re ready, we’ll let you go. I know he wants to be out there, but we’ve got to make sure we help our players make the right decision. The goal is to get him out there and keep him out there. We know he can make a great impact for this team. We know what kind of player he can be, so we want to make sure we put him in the opportunity to go ahead and play full-speed, aggressive and confident when he gets out there.”

PRACTICE NOTES…
Some snippets from various media sources:

• Zach Fulton received reps with the starting unit at left guard.
• QB Daniel Jones had an inconsistent practice, overthrowing WR Kenny Golladay and WR Darius Slayton on a couple of deep passes.
• QB Daniel Jones connected on deep slant pass to WR Kenny Golladay for good yardage against CB Sam Beal.
• WR David Sills caught two touchdown passes from QB Mike Glennon, the second of which came on the final play of practice.
• Head Coach Joe Judge had the entire defense and some of the defensive coaches running a punishment lap due to a substitution error.
• TE Evan Engram made a nice catch in traffic and spun around into the end zone on a pass thrown from QB Daniel Jones.
• Pass defenses by CB Adoree’ Jackson (in the end zone), LB Tae Crowder, and LB Cale Garrett.
• Former Giants’ defensive linemen Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, and Mathias Kiwanuka attended practice.

HEAD COACH JOE JUDGE…
The transcript of Joe Judge’s press conference on Monday is available in The Corner Forum while the video is available at Giants.com.

THE PLAYERS SPEAK…
Transcripts and video clips of the media sessions with the following players are available in The Corner Forum and at Giants.com:

• WR Darius Slayton (Video)
• OL Joe Looney (Video)
• LB Azeez Ojulari (Video)
• LB Tae Crowder (Video)

WHAT’S UP NEXT…
The New York Giants practice Tuesday morning (9:30-11:30AM). Head Coach Joe Judge and select players will also address the media.