Giants Training Camp: Day 1 Punt Returners

Jul 22, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. misses the ball during training camp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

Punt Returners

For the sports world, Twitter is both great and awful. On days like today — the start of the New York Football Giants training camp — Twitter is awesome. There’s no other way to put it. Say what you will about social media and its effects, negative and positive, on the human population; however, when it comes to up to the minute sports news, twitter is on it.

Want to find out who the Giants Day 1 punt returners are?  Just type into the Twitter search engine and out will magically pop guys like Art Stapleton, who proudly tweet:

That’s the thing about this information driven life we live and thrive in, we know with little effort that the Giants’ PR  participants today were:

1. Rueben Randle
2. Trindon Holliday
3. Odell Beckham Jr.

Sure you may have to take some more effort to find out if Art Stapleton is a person or a robot, but after some brief checking he appears to be a: NY Giants beat writer & NFL columnist for The Record. You have to appreciate Twitter profiles defining people so well. This information from Art tells us a few things:

1.  It tells us Rueben Randle is still in the running for making a special teams impact, a possibility rarely discussed throughout the offseason process. He was an effective return man in space in 2013, but now it’s on Randle to prove he can be counted on to make shrewd decisions.  It’s nice to see the Giants former second round selection is still in the mix and that the organization hasn’t went in a new direction just yet.
2. We knew going in to training camp that Trindon Holliday was going to be special teams dynamo or bust. Now we need to see if the Giants coaching staff can help curb a serious fumbling habit that has caused the speedster to cough it up 11 times in three seasons. However, with the ball in his hands securely, Holliday is one of the most dangerous weapons on any gridiron. Hold on to the rock Trindon Holliday.
3. Odell Beckham Jr… the Giants prized first round pick is versatile, he’s fast, he’s explosive and apparently the Giants want to see his special teams skills first hand. This is a good idea. Some would suggest and debate that only using OBJ on offense is wise as a ST’s reps could cause an injury. But really, injuries as we saw today can happy to any player, at any time, doing about anything. With Odell Beckham Jr, the Giants have a world-class football weapon. A Swiss Army knife in Ben McAdoo’s WCO tool box. For GMEN HQ, we consider it wise to use training camp to figure out exactly what the weapon can do, to have it perfectly sharp and adept in its features when called upon to work in live action.

The Giants have five preseason games to figure out their main returner. One thing is for certain: there is no shortage of names on the list… heck, even Victor Cruz dropped back to field a few punts today. Don’t expect to see that from Victor in September.