Trio of Giants begin camp on PUP list
The Giants will have to wait to get a look at their new-look defensive line.
Defensive tackle Damon Harrison, who left the Jets as a free agent and signed a five-year, $46.25 million deal with the Giants, will begin training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list due to swelling in his knee. Joining “Snacks” on the PUP list are linebacker J.T. Thomas (hamstring) and defensive tackle Jay Bromley, who underwent an ankle procedure in the offseason.
The three players can be activated from the list at any time and coach Ben McAdoo doesn’t consider any of the injuries “extremely serious at this point.”
“It’s probably a combination of things over the years,” McAdoo said about the cause of Harrison’s injury. “He’s had some procedures to his knee so it may just be a reaction to some of the training he was doing when he was away from here.”
In regard to his knee, Harrison posted on his Twitter account, “Everything is cool man calm down ... just precautions.”
Victor Cruz is not included on the PUP list and is expected to make his long-awaited return to practice Friday. He was cleared after passing a conditioning test on Thursday. After missing the final 10 games in 2014 with a ruptured patella tendon in his right knee, Cruz missed all of last season with a left calf injury. In 2014, Cruz missed the final 10 games with a ruptured patella tendon in his right knee.
Second-year safety Landon Collins hasn’t forgotten how the Giants’ defense ended last season — ranked last in the NFL.
“It’s motivation, it’s a chip on our shoulder,” Collins said. “You put it behind you, you don’t think about it, but you know that you’re 32 in the league and now you’re just pushing to be top 10 at least.
“The struggle that we had last year, I don’t see coming this year.”
Collins said it took the defense seven games to get comfortable with each other last season, a process he believes will be accelerated by increased familiarity in defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s system.
However much talent the Giants had on defense didn’t matter because the players didn’t trust the system.
“I think that we had the answers, we just didn’t trust it,” Collins said. “We’d see something and then be like, ‘Is this the proper way to play it or should I be here?’ We just didn’t trust the call or the position of where we were supposed to be.
“We have the ability and we have the coaching staff. All we need to do is just put it into one and trust one another and definitely we can be up there.”