Today was the Giants last normal training camp practice before they start doing specific preparation on Tuesday for Thursday's Jets game. The offense wore blue for the first time in camp because that's what the team will be wearing on Thursday night.
Here's what happened today:
*The Giants changed from an afternoon to a morning practice schedule this week for a couple of different reasons, according to head coach Pat Shurmur. The first was simple: the team needs to be ready to play games at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. over the course of the season. The second reason was more interesting and had everything to do with where the team is in terms of their installations. Through the first two weeks, when the team was doing most of its installation, the preference was to walk through those plays in the morning before running them full speed in the afternoon.
According to Shurmur, most of the install is done, which makes it easier to practice in the morning and then use the afternoon to review the morning and look ahead to the next practice. The morning schedule is much closer to what the team will do in the regular season when they practice in the late morning.
*Saquon Barkley's attention to detail was on full display. Between team periods, he was chatting with running backs coach Craig Johnson, going over some detail of pass protection. It was right after the blitz period, and the two were discussing something that had happened in protection. Barkley is all about football and is always working to get better.
*The offense started fast in practice. The quarterbacks completed 14 of their first 16 passes, with one of the incompletions coming on a drop and the other on a DeAndre Baker pass break-up. Most were shorter passes, but the timing between the receivers and quarterbacks was on point.
*The play of the day for the offense came on a deep throw from Eli Manning to Cody Latimer down the right sideline. Latimer ran a go-route on Janoris Jenkins and got a step before Manning placed the ball perfectly over his outside shoulder for a big gain. As good as the throw was, Latimer deserves credit for a well-run route, which created the necessary space between him and the sideline to give Manning the room he needed to complete the pass.
* The defense turned it on during the second half of practice. In red zone 7-on-7 drills, the defense was constantly forcing the quarterbacks to go to their second, third or more reads before unloading the football. Janoris Jenkins deflected a couple of passes and Grant Haley (despite wearing a yellow no-contact jersey due to his bad shoulder) knocked one away, too.
*Alex Wesley, recently removed from the PUP list, made his first two catches of the summer, including a ball from Alex Tanney on a well-run route. Wesley made Grant Haley think he was heading inside before flipping his hips towards the sideline.
*Alec Ogletree had the pass rush of the day, a wicked spin move on an interior blitz that would have turned into a sack. Ryan Connelly got some snaps at inside linebacker with the first team offense today.
*The offensive and defensive lines worked on pass rush games again on Monday, with both units looking like they are getting a feel for how to play with their teammates. At the end of practice, the two groups did some one-on-ones. Guards Will Hernandez and Kevin Zeitler had good reps, including Zeitler stoning Dexter Lawrence. Lorenzo Carter had a nice rip move to beat Nate Solder around the edge, and Oshane Ximines won inside on one of his reps.
* The Giants welcomed back some players, including Haley and Markus Golden, who had missed time with injury. Tackle Brian Mihalik suffered a stinger. With Mihalik potentially out, along with the injuries to Chad Wheeler and George Asafo-Adjei, the offensive tackle position could be light on Thursday night.
