Sorry I’m a bit late with this report –I decided to go home to finish my writing since I have a bit of an annoying cough resulting from a minor head cold. The move was a big mistake on my part as I kept getting interrupted with by the phone. Better late than never, right?
First a recap the attendance. DE Justin Tuck and LB Danny Clarkwere not present today. Tuck apparently had some personal business to tend to while Clark spoke at the memorial service for the late Frank Gansz, who had been on Tom Coughlin’s staff at Jacksonville.
In terms of the injuries, defensive tackles Barry Cofield and Fred Robbins were sidelined, as they will continue to be for at least the rest of the spring.
Speaking of Robbins, Coughlin wouldn’t confirm or deny reports originating from the defensive tackle’s official web site that he had undergone micro-fracture surgery instead of a simple scope as was originally reported. “That is not going to come from me,” Coughlin said.
The coach did say that Robbins is ahead of schedule in his rehab. “It was non-weight bearing for a while but that was a minimal amount of time for someone with a ‘micro-fracture.’ We are just going to have to see how it goes for the next ---once we break here in another week or two, how it is going to be over the next six weeks.”
The blog entry, by the way, has since been modified to where the word “micro-fracture” was removed.
As for Cofield, Coughlin said that he did not have the same procedure as Robbins. So draw your own conclusions as you will.
Also not working in the team part of drills were LB Michael Boley (hip flexor), WR David Tyree (groin), and DT Rocky Bernard (shoulder). Tyree’s issue is minor, from what I understand, and he should be back at work on Monday when the team resumes their OTAs. No word though on how serious Boley and Bernard’s ailments are, though I can't imagine they're serious at all since both guys did some individual work.
As for the practice itself, we had a bit of a challenge today with the vantage point inside the field house. At first it was very hard to see much of anything as we were in one corner on the field and the team was working on the opposite end of the field. However, the PR staff let us move up a bit to get a better look at what was going on down at the other end of the field. So with that said, let’s get right to it.
* I thought Ahmad Bradshaw ran particularly well in this practice. One thing that stood out is how he’s more consistent in carrying the ball “high and tight” which should fix the ball security problems he used to have in the past.
* Sinorice Moss, who had a strong showing today, didn’t look too good on a pass from Eli Manning in which Moss didn’t get enough separate from Terrell Thomas.
* Kenny Phillips, one of the defensive stars of the practice in my opinion, did a nice job in breaking up a pass intended for Kevin Boss.
* Darcy Johnsontook a few snaps out of the slot. I have to say this new direction that the Giants seem to be headed in as far as their slot receiver is very intriguing from a matchup perspective. I’m curious to see how it translates during games.
* Kenny Phillipscame up with another nice play, breaking up an under-thrown pass intended for Sinorice Moss, who tried to adjust his route to make the play. Phillip, however, was having none of it.
* Hakeem Nicks continues to impress. He runs his routes well and has soft hands. He did a very nice job coming across the middle of the field and gaining separation against a defender to make the catch. Nicks also made a gorgeous fingertip catch on a high ball thrown by David Carr.
* Good job by receiver Derek Hagan to catch a ball against CB Bruce Johnson. However, bad job by Hagan to make sure he stayed in bounds.
* Andre Woodson, who had a much better showing today than the last time we saw him on Monday, connected with Ramses Barden, who left CB Bruce Johnson in a cloud of dust as he dashed toward daylight.
* Michael Johnson didn’t look the least bit intimidated as he covered Darcy Johnson on a pass over the middle. Johnson seems to be taking well to his new position at strong safety.
* Oops! Ramses Barden dropped a pass as he was covered by CB Vince Anderson, who took that particular snap at safety.
* Rhett Bomar still has that side-armed sling shot type of throwing motion and on a few occasions, it looked like he caught guys off guard with the velocity of his passes.
* Ahmad Bradshaw had a huge, and I mean huge hole to exploit courtesy of Chris Snee and Kareem McKenzie. Coughlin complimented Bradshaw after practice. “I think he is doing well. He is excited. He has a smile on his face. He is a worker. He is having a good time at what he is doing.”
* Nice job by Chase Blackburn in breaking up a pass intended for André Brownthat was thrown by Bomar. Blackburn very nearly came up with the interception, but couldn’t quite find the handle.
* Adam Koets, who had a botched snap in Monday’s workout, had a couple more today.
* Moss came up with another pretty catch on a pass by André Woodson, who did a good job of threading the needle between the corner and the safety to find Moss.
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One of the burning questions I regularly see fans ask is about MLB and Twitter fan Antonio Pierce. Clearly Pierce, who today spoke to the media for the first time this off-season, wasn’t happy with how things unfolded last season, both from a personal standpoint and from a team standpoint.
However, Pierce likes to point out that it’s a brand new year, and he promises that fans can expect to see a brand new Pierce – who resembles the “old” Pierce.
Confused? Don’t be. What the linebacker, who by the way looks a lot trimmer and quicker out there running around, was trying to say is that he’s working toward regaining his form that he had when he first joined the Giants.
“Just getting better,” he said in Twitter-style talk when asked what he’s doing to regain his old form. “Just excited about being out there. It’s a new year, new experience, different guy.”
One thing that hasn’t changed about Pierce is his passion for the game, as he remains as committed as ever to not only performing at a high level personally, but ensuring that his defense is ranked in the top five in every major category league wide.
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I’m going to go edit and post the longer reports of our subscribers – it’s about four times the length of this blog entry, if you’re curious. I’m also going to work toward getting my one-on-one interview with Sinorice Moss here in the blog this evening, so stay tuned for that.
Lastly, for those wondering, the next (and final) media access day for the OTAs is next Thursday.
