Rookie has shot to start at safety
Darian Thompson clearly will get every opportunity in training camp to make it two straight years that the Giants start a rookie safety. Coach Ben McAdoo wouldn’t call it Thompson’s spot to lose, but the rookie thirdround pick out of Boise State stepped out with the firstteam defense on day one of practice alongside secondyear safety Landon Collins.
For the Giants, there is nowhere to go but up from last season’s deadlast pass defense ranking, but it is intriguing to think that two safeties with one combined year of NFL experience could lead Big Blue’s rebound.
“I think it shows the coaches are believing in me so far, or I’m showing them something they can believe in or trust in, which is huge for me, and that I’m on the right track,” Thompson, 22, told the Daily News. “I have to just continue to do what I’m doing: keep my nose in the playbook, continue to improve every day, and those things will work themselves out when it’s time.”
McAdoo said the Giants will “give a bunch of guys some opportunities” at safety. “The preseason games will really determine who’s gonna start there in Week1,” he said, with third-year safety Nat Berhe and second-year man Mykkele Thompson among those competing.
But Collins said Thursday that he needs to be able “to trust the guy next to me,” and Thompson drew rave reviews this offseason not only for his play but for his vocal and confident on-field leadership.
“Every person that I practice with next to me I have to trust,” Collins said. “He has to know his calls. He has to be trustworthy so if I make a mistake or I make a bad call, he can overrule me and make sure we’re on the same page.”
LIMPING ON THE LINE
Starting left tackle Ereck Flowers, the Giants’ 2015 first-round draft pick who protected Eli Manning’s blind side for 15 games as a rookie, came up gimpy after blocking during a routine, simulated running play on Friday and limped through the rest of practice.
Flowers, a 6-6, 329-pounder out of Miami (Fla.), flexed and lifted his right foot between several drills and limped badly again after a later drill. The former ninth-overall pick battled a left ankle ailment through most of last season.
McAdoo said all players who practiced emerged healthy “as far as I know.
“I haven’t had a chance to walk in the training room yet, but it looks like we got through fairly clean,” the coach said.
SMALL SIGNINGS
The Giants worked out and signed defensive tackles Davon Coleman and Jermelle Cudjo on Friday to compensate for the absences of injured tackles Damon (Snacks) Harrison (knee) and Jay Bromley (ankle), who are on the Physically Unable to Perform List, along with linebacker J.T. Thomas (hamstring).
Cudjo, 29, has 41 career tackles in four NFL seasons, three with the St. Louis Rams and last year with the Detroit Lions. Coleman, 25, has three career tackles in four games the past two years for the Dallas Cowboys.
The Giants waived wideout Donte Foster and defensive tackle Melvin Lewis to make room. Rookie Greg Milhouse, a product of Campbell University – nickname Fighting Camels – took reps on the first team at tackle on Friday alongside starter Johnathan Hankins.
O.V. AND THE ‘D’
Olivier Vernon signed a stunning five-year, $85 million freeagent deal this offseason to leave the Miami Dolphins and join the Giants. And Friday, the defensive end challenged anyone who doubts that he’s worth it.
“You watch on film you see what I can do,” said Vernon, when told his contract had “raised eyebrows” around the league for a fifth-year player with a career-high 11.5 sacks in 2013. “You have something wrong about that, then you could always go against me and see what happens.”