The Giants practiced against the Detroit Lions on Tuesday for the second straight day at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center. It was steamy with temperatures in the mid-80s under sunny skies.
Here's what I saw from the sideline:
The New York Giants hosted the Detroit Lions for joint practices ahead of Thursday's preseason opener.
* The Giants and Lions practiced with physicality and purpose, getting a lot of productive work in. The intensity of practice increased as the morning wore on before practice was called a bit early.
* The Giants offensive and defensive lines once again held their own in 1-on-1 drills. Left tackle Andrew Thomas was tough to beat and had success against Marcus Davenport. Newcomer Greg Van Roten looked good in 1-on-1 drills at center, despite the fact he has only played 194 center snaps since 2018 (all of which came in 2022). Right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor continued to have a good competition with Aidan Hutchinson with both players winning their share of reps.
* Brian Burns, Dexter Lawrence and Kayvon Thibodeau all continued to give the Lions offensive line fits in both the 1-on-1 and team portions of practice. Burns used his full array of pass rush moves to get into the backfield consistently, while Thibodeau did a good job of flashing his strength throughout the week. Lawrence continued to use his unmatched combination of quickness and size to work through the interior offensive linemen and get after the quarterback. The Giants pass rush looked particularly effective during team drills as it pressured the Lions quarterbacks throughout the day. We saw clear sacks from Burns, Thibodeau and Isaiah Simmons.
* The Giants defensive backs got their hands on the ball a few times throughout practice. Deonte Banks knocked a pass away as he carried a tight end down the field during team drills. Dane Belton knocked a pass away during 7-on-7's. Cor'Dale Flott and Nick McCloud also forced incompletions during team drills.
* The offense once again featured a big day from Malik Nabers. He made a tough catch near the sideline and seemed to get his feet down on the right side of the field for a touchdown. After catching several short passes, he got behind the defense on the left sideline and made a jumping catch as the safety was slow coming over from the middle of the field.
* Daniel Jones had two of his better days of practice against the Lions. His passes were accurate and on time with good velocity throughout both days of practice. He seems to be finding his rhythm and timing with a young and talented wide receiver corps.
* Drew Lock made some nice throws throughout practice. One went to Allen Robinson on a perfect pass as Lock rolled to his right. Robinson had a couple other catches down the field, including a touchdown from Tommy DeVito during red zone team drills towards the end of practice. Lock also found Gunner Olszewski on a perfectly thrown slant route out of the slot on an RPO that he turned up the field and might have taken the distance for the touchdown. Olszewski would later have what could have been a big kick return for a touchdown towards the end of practice.
* The Giants run game produced a big play when undrafted rookie running back Dante Miller turned an outside run up the left sideline, outrunning defensive backs down the field.
* Tuesday was the final practice open to the public. The team will run a mock game tomorrow to get some of the mechanics straight before playing their first preseason game of the year against the Lions at Metlife Stadium on Thursday night.
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