IT’S BACK TO JACK!
Rabbit emerging from his hole is key to Giant return
JANORIS JENKINS made the type of play at Monday’s OTA practice that served as a reminder he can be great. Not really good; great. As in shutdown corner great. As in take away a full side of the field from the offense great. As in best player on the field great.
“We saw Jackrabbit make a nice interception in the back of the end zone,” head coach Pat Shurmur said. “The ball was thrown well, everyone was in a good position, and he made a nice play on it.”
“It is good to show them what I got coming back from injury,” Jenkins said. “It is just competing. I love to compete.”
Here was Jenkins — “Jackrabbit,” that is — moving stride for stride defending wide receiver Cody Latimer up the left sideline toward the back corner of the end zone inside Quest Diagnostics Training Center. Eli Manning threw the fade route and Latimer should have had a chance, but there went The Rabbit, up to the ball’s highest point, two hands above his head for the catch, two feet down inbounds for the athletic finish.
And there went Latimer, down The Rabbit Hole, which Dez Bryant knows all too well.
“He is one of the top corners, I believe, in the league,” Latimer said.
The defense went wild. Jenkins jokingly punted the ball straight over his head, showing off because he’d certainly earned it. And here was a tantalizing reminder that two seasons ago in 2016, with a poor offensive line, an unproductive offense and a rookie coach in Ben McAdoo, the Giants went 11-5 and made the playoffs in large part because of Jenkins’ dominance at corner on a rebuilt defense.
If Jenkins can be the 2016 version of himself in 2018, a quick turnaround under Shurmur maybe isn’t so crazy after all. And Jenkins said at minicamp in April that he expects nothing less of himself.
“Nothing has changed (from 2016 except) I had an injury (last season),” Jenkins, 29, said of an ankle ailment that shut down his season in late November and required surgery. “Nothing has changed.” The Giants can only hope. Jenkins’ 2017 season didn’t go poorly due to injury alone, of course: He was suspended one game for missing an Oct. 30 practice, the first after the Giants’ bye week and the day after Jenkins’ birthday. And then he didn’t give full effort on several plays in an embarrassing Week 10 road loss to the previously winless San Francisco 49ers.
And yet Jenkins — who revealed in April that he’d dealt with the ankle injury from the start of the 2017 season — still recorded two pick-six interception returns for touchdowns: a 43-yarder in the Giants’ first win in Week 6 in Denver and a 53-yarder in Week 12 at Washington.
He is a game-changer, voted secondteam All-Pro in 2016 by both the Associated Press and Pro Football Focus, and ranked eighth among all corners by PFF with a grade of 88.3 that year (which means he played almost exactly to his bigmoney contract, which pays him $12.5 million per year on average, ninth among corners in the league).
In April, Jenkins vowed to be the best version of himself.
“I promise y’all that Jackrabbit says it won’t happen this year what happened last year,” he said. “There won’t be any animosity between players, no disrespecting the coach. There will be none of that. New York Giant football is back.”
Meanwhile, Jenkins wasn’t the only starting corner who stood out on Monday, either. Eli Apple, looking to pull a complete 180 from a disastrous second NFL season, made two strong plays on the ball at practice.
Apple first batted down a Manning pass to the back right corner of the end zone intended for Sterling Shepard, blanket coverage on a solid receiver. And then Apple knocked down a slant at the goal line from Manning for Latimer (who, it should be noted needs to make more plays at receiver, in my opinion, to stand out).
“Eli is comfortable now,” strong safety Landon Collins said. “A lot of stress off his shoulders and you can see it and he’s proving that in his practices. I know y’all only saw a few, but he’s out here making plays. It’s not the only thing. He’s doing his thing. I’m happy for him. He’s growing up and playing great ball.”
So sure, it’s early. It’s only June. And yes, as starters, Jenkins and Apple are expected to stand out.
Still, Jenkins’ jaw-dropping interception was a reminder of what he’s already done in games that matter for the Giants and what that could mean for this 2018 season if he’s back to being the best Rabbit he can be.