Giants Practice Report 8/16
Eli Manning lead the offense in screen pass drills.
Yesterday, I was finally able to take a trip to Giants training camp, at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center, to view a practice in person. Tomorrow, I’ll write a blog about the overall experience, but I wanted to run down some of the developments from the actual practice as soon as possible.
Mishaps & Miscues
- Tight end, Larry Donnell, went down and immediately grabbed his leg after making a catch in offense vs defense team drills. It looked like a non-contact injury, which is never a good sign. The second year man out of Grambling was having a very strong camp and had a good shot at making the 53-man roster. In an earlier part of practice, the Giants offense was running drills in front of us and Donnell’s size impressed me so much that I tweeted, “Larry Donnell is gigantic, by the way”. There is some positive news this morning about Donnell’s injury as Conor Orr of The Star-Ledger tweeted, “From last night, sounds like there’s no tear for Donnell, per @WesBridgesEsq, so good news for the #Giants and for Larry.”
- The Giants offense was practicing mostly screen passes when they were working on their own right in front of where I was standing. The only drop I saw came from Ryan Torain, who is on the roster bubble.
Thought & Observations
My favorite drill to watch up close was the quarterbacks practicing fade routes near the goal line.
Victor Cruz
and
Hakeem Nicks
took turns as receiver and defender during the drill. Nicks’s hands are incredible, and
Eli Manning
threw some perfect fade passes.
Hakeem Nicks fronting Victor Cruz during fade pass drills by the quarterbacks.
Near the end of practice there was a pretty large scrum at the end of a play. The players were far away, so I couldn’t tell who started it, but Ralph Vacchianno of the New York Daily News tweeted “Heck of a little scrum at the end of practice. DE Adewale Ojomo vs. …. An OL, I think. Couldn’t see from my angle.”
Victor “Cruzzzzzzz” hauling in a fade pass at the corner of the endzone.
After listening to just how much Giants fans love Victor Cruz, I don’t know how anyone ever really thought the Giants weren’t going to give him a contract extension. Cruz was easily the fan favorite with multiple “Cruuzzzzzzz” chants starting, even when he was just standing around.
Overall, for the most part, the team seemed to look sharp. They weren’t practicing particularly hard, probably because it was the last practice before a game, and it was pretty hot out with the sun. The big news is that it seems Donnell’s injury wasn’t an ACL tear, which is always a big worry with non contact knee injuries.
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