What We Learned After New York Giants Camp Practice No. 5

The New York Giants were in pads for the first time this summer. Here's a look at some observations and what we learned from Day 5.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Aug 1, 2022 7:04 PM EDT

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New York Giants

It’s beginning to look like NFL football now that the New York Giants have brought out the pads for the first time in the Brian Daboll era.

But even though the pads came out, Daboll is still having the players operate wisely when it comes to putting each other on the ground, noting that the continued emphasis remains on fundamentals such as leverage, hand placement, and separation, to name a few.

Okay, so what’s different then?

“We’re allowing more things at practice: picks and twists up front, power rushes, attacking the defensive linemen when they jump up in the… Different things we’re allowing,” Daboll said before practice.

“We’re looking for good energy. We place, I’d say, rules on practice. We’re not bringing them down to the ground. We got to take care of our guys. But want to be physical. Want to be in good position. Play with good leverage. Play aggressively. Move the line of scrimmage. Stop the line of scrimmage.”

Yes, but a big part of football is proper tackling technique, so it would only stand to reason that at some point, the Giants will engage in tackling, right?

“We may,” Daboll said. “We may with our twos and threes at one point here," Daboll said. "Probably maybe in a week. We have it scheduled out for that. But we’ll see as we go if we need it.”

Taking It on the Run

With the return of the pads, the giants spent a good chunk of practice working on the running game. Matt Breida and Gary Brightwell had some nice runs to the outside. Breida has quietly had himself a nice camp dating back to the spring. He looks quick and decisive with the ball in his hands.

The Giants ran a good number of running plays to the left side in this practice. Last year, the Giants ran more to the right side, so I found it interesting that they decided to run more to the left in this practice. They also didn’t send as many runs up the middle, which I think will work to their advantage. That's because in sending the runs between the guard and tackle or outside of the tackle, they will force the defensive linemen to run after the running backs, hence tiring the defenders out.

The Giants run game arsenal consisted of a few designed quarterback runs, outside runs, and runs inside the box. Considering this was the running game’s first extensive action, it looked fairly sharp.

More Giants Training Camp Coverage

Injury Report

Center Jon Feliciano remains sidelined and has now missed three days of practice with what is believed to have been heat/dehydration issues suffered last Thursday. Daboll said that Feliciano is still a day or two away from returning but was fairly confident the center would be back at some point this week. Shane Lemieux, who took reps at center Saturday and delivered a clean performance, did so again on Monday.

“We want to try to create position flexibility for our front guys,” Daboll said of the move. “Obviously, with Jon out, you know with (Guard) Ben (Bredeson) and (Guard) Jamil (Douglas), we wanted to add Lemieux inside and get (Guard Joshua) Ezeudu some work inside there with the ones against (defensive end) Leo (Williams) and (defensive tackle) Dexter (Lawrence). He did a good job.”

Rookie safety Dane Belton (broken collarbone) will miss the rest of the summer and will likely start the season on injured reserve while he recovers. Belton last practiced Saturday and had been starting to look at home in the Giants defense before his summer came crashing to a halt.

Tight end Ricky Seals-Jones (undisclosed) and defensive back Jarren Williams (hamstring) did not practice. Williams was waived/injured; if he clears waivers, he’ll revert to the team’s injured reserve list.

Practice Observations/Takeaways

The passing offense continues to be a work in progress—and that might be putting things kindly. Quarterback Daniel Jones, who in the first set of team/situational drills unofficially went five-of-five, finished (again unofficially) one-of-nine in the second set, including eight straight incompletions.

It was difficult to determine who was at fault for all the incompletions (though two were a result of a good play by the defense and two to receiver Kenny Golladay looked to be misfires thrown by Jones). Still, thus far, the Giants passing offense has not looked sharp after five practices in.

We saw Kayvon Thibodeaux and Evan Neal working against each other in pads during one-on-one drills between the offensive line and edge rushers. Thibodeaux got the better of the matchup, though, to be fair, the grass was slick after being doused by rain the night prior and earlier in practice, thanks to a light mist.

In reps against Andrew Thomas, call it a draw. Either way, Thibodeaux looks like he will be a pest to deal with for opposing offensive linemen.

Oshane Ximines won his reps against Evan Neal, beating him with that lightning-quick first step of his. Ximines is fighting for a roster spot. He needs to find a way to stay on the field and keep the mental mistakes out of his game.

There wasn’t a lot of pre-snap motion in the running game, and for most of the plays, the quarterbacks were under center. And speaking of the quarterbacks, Daniel Jones again got to call a series of plays on his own, without input from offensive coordinator Mike Kafka or Daboll.

C.J. Board made the catch of the day against Michael Jacquet on a pass thrown by Tyrod Taylor. Jacquet had good coverage on Board, but the receiver used his body to box out the defender to make the catch.

Kicker Graham Gano hit seven of eight field goal attempts, his lone miss coming from 43 yards. He had missed a par of 43-yarders in Friday’s practice as well.