Biggest Takeaways From Day 1 of Giants Minicamp

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh isn’t giddy very often, but on Monday, the start of the team’s mandatory minicamp, he made an exception and with good reason.

You see, it’s not every day that a team hosts not one but two Hall of Fame players and legends, which is what the Giants did in hosting the great Lawrence Taylor and the equally great Harry Carson, two of the famed “Crunch Bunch” linebackers from the 1980s and early 1990s teams, and two of the most visible faces on defense from the Super Bowl XXI team, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary this fall.

“I had never met them before. I was in awe, man. You know you get star-struck. You see a guy, I was kind of star-struck,” Harbaugh said after Carson and Taylor broke down the team’s huddle at the conclusion of Monday’s mandatory minicamp practice .

“I saw them at lunch, and I was like, ‘Should I go up and say hi? Think that would be okay?’ And to see them at practice, hear them talk to the team, just wanted to ask for an autograph, but I thought you guys would make fun of me if I did that or something. Got a picture with them.”

But seriously, Harbaugh is trying to instill the “Giants Way” of winning football, and who better to deliver it than a pair of franchise legends?

“I think the biggest thing is just understanding the culture,” said linebacker Tremaine Edmunds of the message Carson and Taylor delivered.

“Those guys have played football at a high level, Hall of Fame guys and just being able to get the knowledge that they experienced when they were here and just really pretty much telling us what it means to be a Giant, what it means to play for the City of New York, what it means to be in that stadium, getting that energy from the fans and producing at a high level, not really putting expectations on (us), but letting them know, like, yeah, we're watching you all, they're supporting 100 percent.

“It's the world to get those guys here. Anytime we can get knowledge from them, put that in our belt, add it to our arsenal, it's always good, so appreciate those guys for coming for sure.”

It’s probably fair to say that the players on the current roster weren’t even born when Carson, Taylor and that 1986 championship team dominated, but outside linebacker Brian Burns believes that the history and lessons that applied back then can certainly apply today.

“You’ve got to think about it,” he said. “They're far removed from it. But I would just implore them to look at the history, see what those guys were about, and you never know that can help you, give you some gems along the way.”

Here are some other takeaways from Monday’s practice.

Carter’s Injury Not Believed to Be Serious

The team had a bit of a scare when linebacker Abdul Carter came up limp following a play (note: it was unclear what happened on the play). Carter went into the field house with trainers, his left ankle apparently the issue.

Harbaugh said the injury didn’t appear serious, but don’t be surprised if Carter is done for the rest of the spring so he can be ready for the start of training camp in seven weeks.

Dart Struggles with Deep Ball

New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Monday wasn’t the sharpest of days for Jaxson Dart, the team’s starting quarterback, who continued to struggle with the deep ball. From what I could see, there was still a degree of indecisiveness at times as to what he was looking at, and he would throw the ball late, or, had contact been allowed, he would have been sacked.

He heaved an airball intended for Darnell Mooney but which was too easily picked off by (I think) Paulson Adebo. Certainly, it was fair to say that Dart was under pressure a good deal, particularly on the deep balls.

Harbaugh praised Dart for his competitiveness and desire to be perfect on every play, but he also added, “It's a work in progress all the time. It's still fairly early. But the clock is ticking. In the team meeting, we started off with "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire. September is right around the corner. So that's what we're preparing for.”

Receiver Competition Heats Up

It was a relatively quiet day for Odell Beckham Jr., for whom I had two receptions. Beckham is still clearly getting back into the swing of things, but as Harbaugh said about Dart, the clock is ticking.

From a bigger-picture perspective, Harbaugh likes the prospects of the 12-man receiver room the team currently has.

“I'm excited about the group, especially when we're healthy. If you get Malik out there, you got, I would say arguably -- I know his goal is to be the best in the league. That would be his goal. And he's capable of doing it,” he said.

“And after that we got some guys, man. I like the guys we brought in. They're practicing well, as you see. All those guys are practicing well. The guys we brought in in free agency. We drafted a really good player (Malachai Fields). We'll get Darius (Slayton) back, another guy. When you step back and look at it, you've got about five guys you feel really good about.”

Skatt Attack

New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Some eight months removed from surgery to repair a season-ending ankle issue, there was running back Cam Skattebo doing agility drills with the speed and precision of someone who, if you didn’t know any better, was previously uninjured. Skattebo also got in a few team reps, again, looking no worse for wear.

“I was happy,” Harbaugh said of Skattebo’s progress. “He was telling me today, and the trainer told me, too, that he was going to get some plays in group and plays in team, and I was like, that's where you want him to be. He's worked super hard, super hard. I did mention maybe no back flips out here today. We agreed.”

Something Special

Watching the ball come off punter Jordan Stout’s foot takes one back to the days of Jeff Feagles, who was a master at directional kicking.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Stout’s kicking style is that when the ball comes off his foot, you never know what direction it’s going to go in. And that’s a good thing because while the return might be set up to go one way, Stout is able to influence it to go the other, which then gives the punt coverage team the advantage.

Meanwhile, this kicking competition between Dominic Zvada and Ben Sauls is starting to lean heavily toward Zvada’s side.

Zvada was perfect on all his attempted field goals. (Note: it wasn’t possible to tell exactly how long the attempts were since the kicking was done on the opposite end of the field away from where the reporters were permitted to watch). When he kicks, the ball just takes a natural, yet slight curve that brings it right down Broadway.

Sauls, on the other hand, slices his kicks. He went 5-of-8, with his three misses being wide left–and badly at that.

One has to wonder how much longer the Giants will stick with Sauls in this competition. Granted, they still need to see both on kickoffs, which hasn’t really been done much, but based on the scoring, there is no competition right now.

At the returner, the Gints had Xavier Gipson, Calvin Austin, and Braxton Berrios all take turns fielding punts.

Other takeaways

Marcus Mbow and Andrew Thomas continued to share reps at left tackle on the first-team offensive line. Also, Daniel Faalele took a few reps at left guard in place of Jon Runyan on the first-team offensive line.

Defensive lineman Darius Alexander got a fair number of first-team defensive reps alongside DJ Reader, sharing those reps with Shelby Harris.

New York Giants wide receiver Malachi Fields | John Jones-Imagn Images

The play of the day might have been Malachi Fields highpointing a ball over Greg Newsome on a deep pass from Dart. Fields had an impressive day in terms of catching the ball and beating coverage.

Dru Phillips got most of those reps, but Ar’Darius Washington has also been getting some reps at the spot.

And speaking of corners, on the outside, there is definitely a clear battle going on between Greg Newsome II (who has been the first man up at the open cornerback spot opposite Paulson Adebo), Deonte Banks, and Colton Hood.

It was another quiet day for Odell Beckham , Jr. I had him with two receptions on the day. On a third ball thrown by Brandon Allen, Beckham lost the handle, and the defense recovered. Beckham only had one pass thrown his way by Dart, and that went for an incompletion.

John Mara, the team’s co-owner who is battling cancer, came outside to enjoy practice, spending nearly two hours on the sideline and on his feet.

Mara has been moving much better than he did during Harbaugh’s introductory press conference when he needed assistance to walk. Let’s hope this means he’s all that much closer to having kicked cancer to the curb.

Up Next

The Giants are back on the field for Day 2 of the three-day mandatory camp on Tuesday. Same schedule as Monday’s session, and yes, the practice will be open to the media. Be sure to look for our live blog, which will post on Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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