New York Giants OTA Practices Continue: The Giants held their fifth Organized Team Activity (OTA) practice yesterday. There will be three more practices this week and one more on next Monday. The Giants’ veteran mini-camp will be held on June 13-15.
Missing from practice yesterday were TE Jeremy Shockey, WR Plaxico Burress, DE Michael Strahan, FB Jim Finn, LB Zak DeOssie, QB Anthony Wright, and WR Darius Watts.
The first-team defense yesterday had Osi Umenyiora and Adrian Awasom at defensive end, Mathias Kiwanuka and Kawika Mitchell at outside linebacker, and Sam Madison and R.W. McQuarters at cornerback. When the Giants went to the nickel, McQuarters moved inside to the nickel position and rookie Aaron Ross played at left cornerback.
David Diehl worked at left tackle with the first team the whole practice.
Injury Update: Head Coach Tom Coughlin said that WR Amani Toomer (knee) will likely be limited to one practice per day at training camp. “That’s usually the way you work back from an ACL, with one practice a day,” Coughlin said. “Hopefully, that will be the case and he’ll be pushing to go more. But I would expect it to be one a day…He runs and he conditions and he works laterally and he is putting his surgically-repaired knee in all kinds of situations. It’s all about strength right now. When you go one right after the other, it’s also about how it looks the next morning, to what extent he can push it two days in a row.”
“I feel like I can do everything, but they’re not letting me do a lot of things,” Toomer said. “That’s a good sign. Hopefully I won’t be limited in training camp. I’ll try not to be. They’ve been slowing me down, trying to get me ready for the long haul. I just want to get back playing every day, like I ordinarily do. I think it will help in terms of keeping me fresh. But hopefully it won’t affect me too much. I need to get back into the rhythm of the game. I think it will come quick…I’m probably up around 70, 80 percent, maybe even higher. I’m excited about how I’m coming.”
DE Osi Umenyiora (unknown ailment), who did not practice at last Wednesday’s OTA practice, did practice yesterday.
Aside from Toomer, not practicing yesterday were DE Justin Tuck (foot), CB R.J. Cobbs (knee), S/CB Jason Bell (unknown ailment), and S Craig Dahl (unknown ailment).
Mathias Kiwanuaka Adjusting to Linebacker: Mathias Kiwanuka, who was moved to linebacker from defensive end earlier this offseason, told the press yesterday that he is not comfortable yet at his new position. “It’s not going to happen overnight,” said Kiwanuka. “I knew it was going to be a process. But every day I feel more comfortable about it. You want to know everything immediately. There’s a little bit of time between knowing the stuff in the books and actually going out there and think through it in a split second and make those decisions. That’s exactly where I’m at right now.”
“(The OTAs are) good for (Kiwanuka),” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “This gives him the added advantage that he really needs. When you go ahead and switch positions like that you need a lot of reps, you need to be put in those pressure situations right away with no time, where you have to either adjust a coverage or react to something different. All those things thrown at him this spring are really good for him.”
Young Receivers Getting Quality Reps: With wide receivers Plaxico Burress (absent) and Amani Toomer (injured) not practicing at the OTA’s, receivers Sinorice Moss and Steve Smith are getting a lot of snaps at practice, along with the other young receivers on the team.
Moss has been helping Smith both on and off the field. He called him after the 2007 NFL Draft to congratulate him and welcome him to the team. “I don’t think that (drafting Smith) was a reflection of me at all,” said Moss. “They’re looking more for the long run, not about that I didn’t perform last year.”
“I look at me and Steve as being the wide receivers of the future,” said Moss. “(Smith is) my teammate first. We’re all here to help this team win football games. I look at it as me and him being the future of this franchise, not as him coming in and battling me for a spot. It’s not always about that.”
“(Moss is ) a guy for me to learn from and look up to, show me around the city,” Smith said. “I went to his house, he showed me places around, took me out to eat. He reached out to me early.”
Speaking of his injury-plagued first season, Moss said, “It was a pretty tough experience last year, something that was very unusual for me…It was a frustrating first year. But I’m not a rookie anymore. I feel a lot more comfortable in the offense. I know the plays and the philosophy of them.”
“(Smith) was a really outstanding player (in college) we were very excited about who just happened to be there (in the second round of the draft for the Giants),” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “We even reminded ourselves as we went into the draft how highly Sinorice was picked and respected last year. So he is a bonus.”
Article on CB R.W. McQuarters: McQuarters Has Clean Cut From a Trend-Setting Past by John Branch of The New York Times