The New York Giants wrapped up their first week of training camp on Sunday at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center. After practicing for four straight days, players will have a mandated day off tomorrow and pick back up on Tuesday.
Here are the standouts from today's practice:
WR Bennie Fowler: With his players in full pads again, Pat Shurmur opened team drills in close quarters near the goal line. The offense dominated the first portion, which included two touchdown catches by Fowler off the arm of rookie Daniel Jones. On the first, the sixth overall draft pick rolled to his right and threw the ball over the defense to the outstretched arms of Fowler in the back corner of the end zone. It worked so well that Shurmur called it again and the pair hooked up a little bit later for another score on a similar play. Fowler is one of the receivers looking to seize an opportunity left in the wake of injuries at the position.
"There's no deflation at all," wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert said. "Actually, the guys have more excitement in the room because those guys who normally hadn't had the opportunity to have a lot of reps get a lot of reps now. They can showcase their ability. Actually, there's a little bit more excitement in the room than I would expect there to be because the guys are more excited about the extra reps they'll be getting. I'm excited equally about coaching those guys. We'll give some other guys some other reps, who don't normally get as many reps. Now you get to coach them more, give them more reps, and it makes it exciting."
RB Saquon Barkley: You could pencil Barkley, the league's yards from scrimmage leader last season, into this standouts article virtually every practice, but he wowed the crowd today. He opened the goal-line period by taking a handoff to the right side, cutting back to the left and beating the defense to the edge for a touchdown. In other words, he did Saquon things.
OLB Oshane Ximines: The third-round draft pick from Old Dominion is part of the reason why Shurmur said earlier in the day that he sees the potential for more pressures and sacks from his defense. Ximines showed his quickness in one-on-one drills against the offensive line, even getting past left tackle Nate Solder. During team drills, Ximines also broke up a pass.
"It starts with pressure," Shurmur said. "There are a lot of times when you can get pressure on a quarterback, disrupt him enough where it affects the throw, without sacking him. You need both. Then obviously winning the one-on-one battles, or whether we pressure to scheme it, we just need to do better in all areas."
Other noteworthy plays: QB Eli Manning hit TE Rhett Ellison for a touchdown in the first portion of goal-line drills. Manning also connected twice with WR Cody Latimer, who is taking up the mantle in the receiver room…Undrafted rookie TE C.J. Conrad caught a short touchdown from QB Kyle Lauletta and later made a tough over-the-shoulder grab from Alex Tanney for a big gain…CB Antonio Hamilton broke up a pass and nearly finished had the interception on the bang-bang play…WR Reggie White ended the day on a high note for the offense, catching a long pass from Tanney.