Author Archives: Patricia Traina

About Patricia Traina

Pat Traina is the editor of Inside Football, an accredited and independent publication (no affiliation with the NFL or its member teams) that has covered the New York Football Giants for more than 30 seasons. She also authors "Train-a Thought," an online blog in which she shares first-hand news, notes, and analysis on the Giants. Follow Pat's updates on Twitter, www.twitter.com/Inside_Football.

It was a short workout today – probably one of the shortest I can recall under head coach Tom Coughlin, as this one ran about 50 minutes. There were no 11-on-11s – instead, they ran mostly 7-on-7s and special teams work .

Everyone was present for this workout, with the usual guys (Fred Robbins and Barry Cofield) being limited. Back at work were LB Michael Boley (hip) and WR David Tyree(groin), both of whom didn’t work last time we had access. Boley told reporters after practice that he was finally able to return to work this week.

Corey Websterwas limited a bit by what Coughlin described as a shoulder ailment, but he said it’s not serious. Also slowed by injury in this workout was CB Aaron Ross, who tweaked his ankle and became a spectator throughout most of the practice. Ross later told me that the injury wasn’t serious.

I thought Eli Manning stood out today – he was tossing a few down field and looked like a natural doing so. He hit TE Kevin Boss in stride on a seven-on-seven drill – Boss, by the way, looked extremely fluid. Then Manning connected with Mario Manningham over the middle. Manningham did a great job of separating from the defender. Manning connected again on another deep ball, this one to Sinorice Moss who separated nicely from Rashad Barksdale. 

I also thought MLB Jonathan Goff  did a nice job of stopping Steve Smith on an outside slant.  Goff quickly diagnosed the play and got himself into a position to make the stop.

The Giants will have their final OTA tomorrow. They’re off on Monday, and then on Tuesday, they begin their three-day mini camp. The camp will have two practices on Tuesday and Wednesday and one on Thursday.

On Thursday, we’ll have another opportunity to speak with the three coordinators – Kevin Gilbride, Bill Sheridan and Tom Quinn – so if there’s anything pressing you’d like to know, post a comment below.

Lastly, you can read more about today’s OTA over at the IF site (including a brief on a special event CB Aaron Ross has coming up later this month) as well as read my story on CB Corey Webster.

Just a quick reminder that there’s open access to tomorrow’s OTAs. This is the last media access day to the OTA program for this year. The players will have one more OTA on Friday, and then will be off next Monday before starting their three-day mini camp on Tuesday (the mini camp is open all three days to the media). 

Once the mini camp is done, the veterans will take their annual summer break while the rookies will stick around to work with the coaches for another week or so. 

By the way, for those wondering, talks have begun with the draft picks, but things wont’ start to heat up on that front until probably later in the month. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the signings but a good indication that a rookie has been sign occurs when a player has been cut. (The Giants need to trim six guys from their roster in order to meet the NFL maximum of 80.)

Anyway, be sure to follow my updates on the OTA workouts via Twitter. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow in East Rutherford, so chances are we’ll be in the field house again. I’ll also have blog entries as well.

I promised you a few tidbits from the OTAs that are open to the media, and far be it from me to not deliver. I hope that you were following me on Twitter where I was “tweeting” updates as they happened from the practice session.

Anyway, to recap a few highlights which I posted over at Inside Football, missing in action was PK Lawrence Tynes, who had been excused by head coach Tom Coughlin to host a charity golf outing that had been planed months in advance.

In terms of injured players, DE Osi Umenyiora and WR David Tyreewere back working and didn’t appear to be limited in any way. Umenyiora, in fact, looked even quicker off the snap than I recall, as he declared himself fit and ready to go.

DTs Barry Cofield and Fred Robbins, both of whom are coming off off-season knee surgery, were limited to individuals and will continue to be that way at least for the rest of the spring. 

LB Michael Boley  missed the workout with a hip flexor. He was later joined by CB Corey Webster, who missed some snaps with the same injury. 

Tough break for rookie LB Clint Sintim, who strained his right hamstring. Judging by Coughlin’s reaction, the injury could be one that lingers a bit. 

The star of today’s workout, in my opinion, was WR Mario Manningham. That kid is fast and had a few nice moves he used to separate from defenders. As I wrote over on Inside Football, the big thing for Manningham is going to be the mental game. If he has that down pat, this kid could be scary.

Receiver Steve Smith, who last year made a living working out of the slot, lined up numerous times on the outside and looked comfortable in that role. 

Danny Ware didn’t really impress during this workout. On two runs in particular, we thought he did a little too much lateral juking as he approached the line of scrimmage, where he as promptly stopped dead in his tracks.

Will Beatty received some work at left tackle during this workout, playing with the two’s, and he was promptly beaten by Dave Tollefson for the “sack.” 

I mentioned injured players earlier but I forgot to mention one other player returning from injury. DE Robert Henderson, who last year missed his entire rookie season with a knee injury, looked quick off the snap, beating tackle Orrin Thompson for the “sack.”

By the way, in case it has slipped past you, today is June 1, which in the past signified the start of the second wave of free agency. However, given the changes in the CBA what with 2010 scheduled to be an uncapped season, it doesn’t matter when a player is cut as this remaining signing bonus hits the 2009 cap.

Next media access day is Friday, so I’ll see you then.

I just finished a blog post over at Inside Football about the upcoming OTAs that are open to the press. This week we get access to two sessions, starting with Monday, June 1. Just in time too, as the offense and defense will start working against each other this week.

I’ll have an update for you as soon as I can get everything written, transcribed, and edited. . In the meantime, I’d like to remind you that if you want to get instant reports headline style from the workouts as they happen, be sure to follow Inside_Football on Twitter.

Now that the Giants’ off-season conditioning program is over, it’s now time for the team to kick off their OTA program tomorrow.

For those who don’t know, the OTAs (Organized Team Activities) is the first chance for the rookies and veterans to get together and begin learning the fundamentals that they’ll work on during the mini camp and then training camp.

For those curious, the media access days are June 1, June 5, and June 9. The OTAs end on June 12 and are followed by the three-day, mandatory mini  camp (to which the press gets full access).

Don’t forget to let me know what players you’re interested in hearing about. Your feedback will help me plan my blog entries and my “Tweets” accordingly.

* * *

Speaking of your feedback, I’m looking for your memories of Giants Stadium. As you probably know, the building is set to close its doors forever after the 2009 season concludes (though hopefully the Giants will still be playing in January 2010.)

I’m going to be running a chronological list of my memories (both professional and personal) from the place starting the week after the veteran mini camp and leading up to the start of training camp. I have begun reading some of the submissions that have come in from the fans and I’m really enjoying the different stories people have been sharing.  I hope you’ll consider sharing your stories with me as well.

* * *

I posted a new edition of Letters to the Editor in my blog earlier this evening, and one letter in particular inspired me to do some further research on the current Giants roster. I’m currently developing an article  about it, so I don’t want to say too much about what I’m writing, but I will share a couple of interesting facts that came from my research.

As of this writing, the average age of the Giants’ roster is 25.5 years old. That number will probably go up slightly once the free agent hopefuls are cut throughout the summer,  but let’s say for argument’s sake the average age goes up one full year. That’s still a great average age for a football team because it means that most of the guys have at least four years of experience, which is around the time most players come into their own as far as making contributions.

Here’s even more good news. Of the 11 players currently on the roster who will be 30+ by the start of training camp, their average age comes out to 32, which means they’re still young enough to make at least another 2-3 years of contributions while the youth behind them develop. THAT is how you plan your football team, folks.

Further, if you look at the talent on paper, the Giants are loaded. I know you don’t award the Vince Lombardi Trophy in May, but unless massive injuries wipe out the depth on this team, I can’t see any reason why come January 2010 they’re not still playing ball.

Want another statistic to help you over hump day?  This is a team that in four years under head coach Tom Coughlin has made the playoffs four times and has won two NFC East Division titles, one NFC Conference Championship, and one Super Bowl. That’s impressive!

* * *

Last but not least, I received a very cool e-mail earlier today advising me that the book I edited on behalf of Inside Football, “Giant Journey: The Story of the New York Giants’ Road to Super Bowl XLII” is now available on Amazon.com!  The book, which is a compilation of articles, tells the story of the Giants’ rise to Super Bowl XLII Champions.

Tagged Giants Stadium, Roster Notes |

Not much going on right now in Giants country — there are a couple of  charity golf outings coming up, one on May 20th (Shaun O’Hara‘s charity event) and the team’s annual Giants Foundation Outing on May 26.

So while we have some downtime, I thought I’d go back into my blog archives to see if I had anything that might be of interest to you. I actually have loads of topics that can do the trick — more than 500 pieces since I started the blog last June. So in choosing a topic, I thought I’d pick one that’s near and dear to my heart: The NFL Salary cap.

I have done a lot of research on the cap both on my own and by picking the brains of current and former NFL front office people who gave me a great overview of how it works.I compiled a breakdown of every Giants’ player’s contract.  While I might be off by a few bucks here and there, I’m fairly certain I’m in the right zip code with my data.

I wrote these two articles in response to the misconceptions I saw on the Internet. I’ve been told they’re pretty informative, but I’ll let you be the judge (the second article, by the way, gives you an estimate as to where the Giants stand cap wise as of May 1).

• An In-Depth Look at the NFL Salary Cap
• Crunching Numbers: A Projected Update on the Giants Salary Cap

Our next media access won’t be until June 1, so it should be relatively quiet for the next two weeks. The team is moving to its new practice facility this weekend, and the veterans will be joined by the rookies, who are due to show up starting May 18.  If anything new breaks before then, I’ll let you know.

It was a busy Tuesday at the stadium – it usually is when we get all of the assistant coaches. But with that said, there was a ton of great information shared by the coaches, some of which is below.

You can get the full flavor of what was said, my reflections of the place we beat writers refer to as “the dungeon” and a nice feel-good story about WR David Tyree, by visiting me over at Inside Football’s blog.

Don’t forget you can also follow my updates on Twitter. My ID is Inside_Football.

* * *

Defensive Coordinator Bill Sheridan

On possibly moving one or more of the excess corners to safety:

“One guy I thought about was Vince Anderson from Webber Int’l because he is so big.”

On his impressions of the draft picks after the mini camp:

“Clint Sintim definitely has a natural pass rushing ability.  He has some shake to him and he did a really nice job. He is going to be a very good outside linebacker as well because he is such a big, thick kid.  He is smart; he can pick the stuff up.  He will do a real good job up over the tight end as far as playing run defense.

“The two corners, Stoney Woodson and De’André Wright almost look like clones in uniform. They have the same kind of body types, 5-11ish, 195.  They are good size corners.” 

 * * *

Quarterbacks Coach Chris Palmer

On the noticeable difference in André Woodson:

“His mechanics were better.  A year ago he wound up and brought the ball and twisted it around his ear.  He completed 72% of his passes in the camp with receivers that he really hadn’t worked with.  So we were very, very pleased there.”

* * *

Defensive Line Coach Mike Waufle

On Penn State DE Maurice Evans:

“Maurice is a local kid who showed some pass rush ability at the point of attack. He’s going to be pretty strong against the run, so he’s promising.”

 

On the message he gave his players regarding earning playing time:

“If we can remain unselfish, then we can be more durable at the end of the season, and the plays you do play will be more productive.

* * *

Special Teams Coordinator Tom Quinn

On the challenges posed by the new rule eliminating the three-man wedge:

“It will be an adjustment on both sides of the ball, on kickoffs and kickoff returns. You have to adjust as to how they’re attacking you. It will be interesting to see how teams install kickoff returns and how they place their players, and you’ll have to adjust your fits to that.”

On whether the change to the wedge affects what qualities they will look or in a kickoff returner:

“It could because in the past you’d have four big guys and you’d have the returner run right behind them, so he was protected. Now you’re going to have two guys and another guy two yards apart, so there’s more seams so you might need a little more elusiveness back there.”

Quinn also did not rule out having Domenik Hixon or Ahmad Bradshaw as punt and kickoff returners despite their anticipated increased roles in the offense.  

 

* * *

Offensive Coordinator Kevin Gilbride

On the state of the receiving corps: 

“Losing Plax was huge.  I don’t know if you replace a guy like that.  But hopefully, collectively, we have enough quality young players.”

Gilbride also confirmed that, as of right now, Domenik Hixon is the X receiver and Steve Smith will play the Z. In three-receiver sets, Smith will move inside with Sinorice Moss playing outside.

 

On the role for TE Travis Beckum, who will be used from the slot:

 “I don’t know that he is big enough to be an every-down point of attack tight end,” Gilbride said. “In fact I know he is not big enough to be an every down point of attack.  He has exceptional quicks and athleticism when you look at what he showed on film.  So he is more of a glorified slot.” 

* * *

Offensive Line Coach Pat Flaherty

On the plans for the backup center:

“Richie (Seubert) has played center, Chris Snee has snapped the ball – center/quarterback exchange.  Adam Koets is the candidate that we want to get a lot of work this spring in the OTAs and going into training camp at the center position.”  

On whether they would consider shuffling the line in the event of an injury in order to get the most experienced guys in there:

“It is always the old adage, ‘you want to replace one with one’  without shuffling everybody around. Sometimes you don’t have that luxury, depending on the chemistry that you have going into that particular week. You like to plug one for one when possible.” 

* * *

Running Backs coach Jerald Ingram

On the comparisons between rookie draft pick RB Andre Brown and former Giant Derrick Ward: 

“I just see Derrick has quicker feet. But it’s hard to compare right now. In the NFL you don’t want to compare anyone from that stand point because everyone has their own style.”

On whom the third down back will be:

“Ahmad (Bradshaw) will start in there, Danny (Ware) will be in there and we’ll go from there.”

* * *

Wide Receivers Coach Mike Sullivan

 

On whether Steve Smith can be an outside receiver:

“Steve has primarily had great success inside as a slot receiver in the sense that he’s been cast in that mold. In my opinion, he’s certainly one of the best in that role as a slot receiver. I think when you look at some of things he’s able to do outside – his patience in his route running, the quickness, being a very smart player, and being someone who has shown great commitment. However, one of the things he needs to work on is ball security.”

Just a quick heads up that Tuesday is an open access day for the media. The rookies won’t be there — I think they show up next week — but we’ll have access to all of the assistant coaches and veterans. (The vets were off last week while the coaches were busy with the rookies.)  

As a side note, tomorrow is the last time we in the media will be working from the Giants Stadium press room. The next time we get access (which will be in early June) I believe we will be at the new practice facility.

Be sure to check back with me as I’m sure I’ll have more than a handful of nuggets to share. Don’t forget you can also follow me on Twitter @Inside_Football

Greetings from your newest Giants football blogger! I’m Patricia Traina, Editor of Inside Football, an accredited, independent publication that covers the New York Giants. From time to time, I’ll pop in to share tidbits, observations, quotes, and other goodies that I collect from my visits to Giants central. I hope you enjoy what I have to offer in the way of information!

For my first blog, here is a quick snapshot of how I thought the Giants’ 2009 draft class looked during this past weekend’s rookie mini camp.

WR Hakeem Nicks: The first rounder came as advertised – very polished. He’s not very tall, but he plays “big.” He’s not afraid to go into traffic and he has good concentration, especially in traffic where he successfully used his body to shield the ball from the defender.

LB Clint Sintim: He worked  on the strong side, and from what I could tell, this kid definitely has a nose for the ball. He diagnosed quite a few plays correctly, though he always wasn’t in a position to make the play. Still he showed great hustle and I think once he puts it all together, he is going to be just fine.

OT Will Beatty: I was surprised to see him exclusively at right tackle as he’s supposedly the future at left tackle. Beatty is a big guy, but he said that they want him to get a little bit bigger. I thought he played a little high at times, but there is definitely some talent there to work with and he does have a very good attitude.

WR Ramses Barden: Definitely a man amongst boys, especially during the 11-on-11s. He still rounds off some routes, but he does a nice job of using his height to his advantage. In fact, they had him running a few corner fades in the end zone.

TE Travis Beckum: I thought he had a quiet camp. He lined up at tight end and at times was split out wide. He also had some problems disengaging from coverage, but the tools are definitely there. He has nice size and did a nice job using his body to shield the ball from the defender on his pass receptions.

RB André Brown: I was very impressed with this young running back. He showed good quickness and vision with finding the hole. I think this kid could be the steal of the draft for the Giants, who got incredible value with this pick.

QB Rhett Bomar: I immediately noticed his unusual throwing style – he has a bit of a side-armed motion. He really zips the ball to his receivers and I think the speed of his passes caught a few guys off guard.  Head coach Tom Coughlin indicated that QB Coach Chris Palmer will work with Bomar to correct his throwing motion.

DeAndre Wright / Stoney Woodson: Of the two drafted corners, I thought Wright was more impressive. In one drill, the defensive backs had to come out of their backpedal, turn around, and make a catch, Wright caught the ball with no problem. Woodson, meanwhile, seemed to fight the ball at times, and tended to leave his feet.

Be sure to stop by at my other “home,” Train-a Thought. You can also follow my Giants updates at Twitter, where my ID is Inside_Football.

Till next time!

Tagged Andre Brown, Clint Sintim, Giants 2009 Draft Class, Giants Rookie Mini Camp, Hakeem Nicks, Ramses Barden, Rhett Bomar, Travis Beckum, Will Beatty |