Giants - Dolphins Joint Practice: Live Updates

The New York Giants hit the field for their first and only joint practice of the summer, a meet-up with the Miami Dolphins amid the summer heat of South Florida.

“I'm looking to get a good practice against a different team,” said Giants head coach John Harbaugh of his goals.

“You get an opportunity to go against different players, different schemes, and evaluate your guys along those lines. It's good. It's just nice to see a different format, different plays, different players. And it's fun. It's more interesting. It's not another practice day for the guys. They're going against a new team.”

Although Harbaugh hasn’t said otherwise, it's believed that if the Giants get some good snaps against the Dolphins in the controlled environment, that could eliminate the need for most of the starters and key backups to play in Sunday’s preseason matchup.

The other goal, obviously, is to avoid any injuries or on-field skirmishes, both of which have dotted training camps around the league this summer.

“We'll have rules of engagement, we'll call it,” Harbaugh said when asked how both teams would approach getting in quality work while also being smart about things.

Such as?

“It'll probably be more to the quarterback,” Harbaugh said. “We'll emphasize protecting each other's quarterbacks even more, because as soon as somebody gets close, and the other team's going to talk about getting close, and we can't have that, nobody can get close to the quarterback. That's going to be a major point of emphasis.

“And we're going to stay off the ground, and we're going to be looking for no blindside shots of any kind. We're not looking for that. It's a front-up tackle. That's kind of a front-up type of thud, wrap you can do, but it won't be side shots and things like that. That's the goal.”

For Hafley, it’s going to be all about the fundamentals within the matchups.

Miami Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

“What's important is building the foundation the right way,” he said. “I want to see who can go up against their really good edge rushers and block them one on one, right? Are there times in a game when we're going to go on a joint practice, if there's an elite pass rusher, are we going to chip that guy and double that guy and slide to that guy? Absolutely. But can we block him one on one? Can we cover an elite wide receiver one on one and use good fundamentals and technique?”

For the Giants, don’t expect to see much, if any of receiver Malik Nabers other than maybe for individual drills. Nabers has been working his way back in team drills and 7-on-7s, but has done so wearing the red jersey in practice. He’ll likely continue his ramp-up on the side.

As for the rest of what to watch, be sure to follow along with our live blog, below, which gets underway at 9 a.m. Then be sure to check back for follow up coverage after the practice.

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