Here is your morning practice report – the workout was held indoors since the grass field was still too wet to work on.
* For starters, the team had perfect attendance – a sharp contrast to years past when guys held out for one reason or another. Really the only guys not working were those advised by the medical staff to sit by and watch. They included DTs Fred Robbins (knee), Barry Cofield (knee), and Rocky Bernard (shoulder); CB Corey Webster (shoulder); TE Lee Vickers (unknown); and WR Taye Biddle (unknown).
* David Tyree (groin) started out doing the individual drills, but then his troublesome groin, which apparently flared up, forced him to the sideline again where he was a spectator during the offense-defense drills. Also, DE Osi Umenyiora (knee) didn’t participate in the morning workout, while rookies TE Travis Beckum (unknown) and OT Will Beatty (leg) were limited.
* Eli Manning connected with Michael Matthews, who lined up at H-back, on a short pass over the middle.
* Good job by Kevin Dockery on a pass from manning to Steve Smith pass. Dockery, who will slug it out with Terrell Tomas for the nickel back role this summer, continues to show aggressiveness out there.
* Ahmad Bradshaw ran a quick slant and burst through the hole before the defense had a chance to react.
* David Carr, who looked especially sharp in the morning drills, connected wit Sinorice Moss on a deep fly. Moss easily beat Terrell Thomas and did a nice job of adjusting his route to make the over-the-shoulder catch.
* There were no botched snap this morning from any of the centers. Looks like all the extra work Adam Koets put in during the OTAs is starting to pay dividends.
* Carr threw a deep ball to Mario Manningham, who made like Amani Toomer in walking the tightrope and staying in bounds along the sidelines.
* Derek Hagan took the on an end-around, benefiting from a great “block” thrown by Carr, who sealed off the edge and sprung Hagan to daylight.
* OL Cliff Louis, lining up at right tackle, jumped early on a play in which the offensive lien slanted to their left. Louis took such a bad angle as far as his pad level went that when he went to “block” his man, he ended up falling flat on his face.
* In seven-on-seven drills, Kevin Dockery batted away a Manning pass intended for Domenik Hixon.
* Kevin Boss caught a pass despite having Antonio Pierce in pursuit.
* Sinorice Moss continued to shine, beating Rashad Barksdale by a good three steps on a post pattern.
* Barksdale tried to make up for the previous play by trying to break up a pass from Carr to Hakeem Nicks. No dice though.
* Carr then connected with Ramses Barden, who beat Bryan Kehl in coverage.
* Oops! Micah Rucker didn’t do a good job of securing the ball and had it stripped by Michael Johnson, with the defense – we couldn’t see who -- recovering it.
* Terrell Thomas nearly picked off a pass intended for Domenik Hixon. The ball, which was thrown high, just skimmed Hixon’s fingertips.
* TE Darcy Johnson ended up dropping a pass that was in his hands. Not a good way to impress the coaches when you’re fighting for a roster spot.
* Derek Hagan dashed past DeAndre Wright, who got turned around every which way and looked totally confused in coverage.
The Giants ran some punt return drills. Their four returners were Hixon, Manningham, Moss, and Bradshaw.
* Back to 11-on-11s: Sinorice Moss did a masterful job selling an end-around, faking out the majority of the defense.
* CC Brown looked to be a step too late in covering Kevin Boss on a play action pass over the middle from Manning.
* Manning was lucky that he wasn’t picked off as on a pass attempt to Hixon, who as double covered by Jonathan Goff and Terrell Thomas, the ball was simply batted away.
* Guy Whimper seemed to take most of his snaps at right tackle with the two’s with Kevin Boothe lining up at left tackle.
* Andre Woodson overshot Manningham by a mile. He followed that up with another bad pass, this one to Hakeem Nicks, who made a fingertip catch of the off-target pass.
The Giants closed practice with red zone/goal line work. It was initially hard to see all the plays since there was along line of bodies blocking the view, but here’s what I did catch….
* Manning rolled out and hit Kevin Boss in the corner of the end zone, a play they ran a lot last year. Dockery was the defender and just missed getting a hand on it.
* Boss also had another nice play in the red zone in which he took a pass from Manning over the middle and somehow came up with the reception despite having Gerris Wilkinson diving across in an attempt to swat the ball away.
* DE Robert Henderson showed good quickness off the snap in getting to David Carr for the “sack.”
The team concluded practice by playing “catch the chicken” – where a return man must elude two charging defenders to get to a specified yard line. Practice then wrapped up about 30 minutes early.
Some quick housekeeping notes. I’ll have the afternoon practice report for you early this evening. Also, our subscribers should look for a longer, more detailed report (with some analysis) this evening.
Tonight I’m also going to have an in-depth feature article on Giants DE Mathias Kiwanuka. It’s actually an interview I did earlier in the year hat I never wrote up until now, but I will say that Kiwi was very forthcoming with sharing his thoughts and to hear about how this master of adversity overcame so much early in his career is truly inspiring.
One other quick note. The Giants will be making a major partnership announcement on Wednesday. It’s believed that the announcement is to reveal the name of the company that secured the naming rights to the team’s practice facility.
