Before practice today, head coach Pat Shurmur, defensive tackle Damon 'Snacks' Harrison and coaches spoke to the media. This is what you need to know from the pressers:
1. Defensive line is ready to do some damage. One of the main things the Giants have been known for throughout the team's history is their defense, especially their defensive line. The likes of Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck, and Osi Umenyiora are still thought about to this day. Now, defensive line coach Gary Emanuel believes the line is beginning to have a great dynamic.
"We got a great group of guys. Not only those three guys [Damon Harrison, Dalvin Tomlinson, B.J. Hil] you're talking about, but the whole group. They're all working extremely hard," Emanuel said. "They're helping each other get better. They're competing, they're good students of the game. They're great friends on and off the field. We're looking forward to watching them play."
What's also good about this year's defensive line is that they're versatile enough to play any spot in the trenches.
"That's the way our defense is built. Our defense is designed to do that. It's more of a defense that's going to be all over the place as far as where their linemen are."
2. Saquon becoming a young leader for the Giants. Before Saquon Barkley was picked in the draft, he wanted to come in and lead as a rookie for the team he was drafted by. Since getting drafted to New York, head coach Pat Shurmur sees that in his star back.
"Since he has been here he has done the right thing at the right time for the right reasons. Everybody says he's a star but he's been out here working everyday to get better and so to me that shows me that he understands what he was talking about more than, let's have a player's only meeting," Shurmur said.
3. Defense is ready to be aggressive. Having a strong defense has always been a staple of the Giants. With new defensive coordinator James Bettcher in town, Damon Harrison believes this defense is an aggressive style of play.
"Yeah, it just takes me back to my first years in the league. It's kind of like a Rex Ryan type defense," Harrison said. "It's a lot of attacking, it's not sitting around waiting, trying to read and see the other guys on the offense are doing – it's playing defense with an offensive mentality, so for the guys like myself and [Olivier Vernon] and Dalvin [Tomlinson] and Robert [Thomas], these are the types of systems that we love to play in."
4. Versatility of the wide receivers. Throughout camp, its been talked about that the wide receivers won't be playing in just one spot and that they'll be playing everywhere on the field. Wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert lives by that philosophy.
"When we first got here and starting the offense in during the off-season I purposely did not let anyone know what position they would be playing. I wanted to install the offense as a whole and have them concentrate on the concept of the play and not worry about "I'm X, I'm Z, I'm
F," and once they learned the concept, they didn't know what position they were playing until the first day of OTA practice because I was playing them everywhere," Tolbert said.
"Now when we start game planning we can move guys anywhere because they know the concept and we go no huddle they can lineup anywhere, they can go out and play it because they know the concept."
5. Ogletree leading from the jump. One of the few veterans the Giants brought in was Alec Ogletree. Just a couple of months on the team, he has already emerged as one of the leaders on the team. Damon Harrison knows how much Ogletree can bring to the table.
"Well, number one, he came from a successful program so he's seen what it takes to get to a certain level of success and he's able to tell B.J. [Hill] and guys like myself exactly what that takes," Harrison said. "Being a middle linebacker, he's naturally vocal. He has to be, and your personality shows – every middle linebackers' personality shows, and Tree is a good guy on and off the field, and I really think that you guys would be surprised about what he brings to the table on the field as well as off it."
Being a veteran, Ogletree has played under various head coaches and various defensive systems brought in. Coach Shurmur believes his middle linebacker has done a good job of learning the Giants' system.
"I think Alec has done a good job of learning our new system, it is very similar to what he did at the Rams. He just has to be the best Alec he can be everyday and then all those things we just discussed will rise to the top."
