COOKIE CUTTER
Oreos out as Collins aims to be a top safety
Landon Collins is a quitter. “Cookies,’’ Collins told The Post during training camp. “Oreos. Vanilla Oreos. That was my biggest weakness. A whole pack in at least an hour and a half.’’
Collins did not even wash the cookies down with milk. He says he “swore off them’’ and as a result, he is down to 216 pounds, after arriving as a rookie last season at around 228.
“You have to change your eating habits,’’ Collins said. “My eating habits last year were worse than they are now.’’
Collins became the first Giants safety to start all 16 games as a rookie. He is noticeably quicker this summer and safeties coach David Merritt said the reduced weight is a big reason why.
“I told him, ‘If you want to become one of the elite safeties in the league you are going to have to at least get between 212 and 216,’ ’’ Merritt said. “He texted me this morning, it is funny and he said, ‘Coach, I am at 216’, I said, ‘Great. Keep it up.’ ’’
The result of the weight loss, plus Collins’ greater knowledge of the defense, prompted Merritt to say “So far, Landon has been a breath of fresh air versus the young man from last year.’’
Rookie safety Darian Thompson could be back sooner than expected from a shoulder injury. “We say week-to-week, but to me it’s hour-to-hour,’’ head coach Ben McAdoo said. Thompson will not play in Saturday’s preseason game versus the Jets.
It sure sounds as if Eli Manning, Jason PierrePaul and all of the healthy starters will play into the third quarter against the Jets. “As a general proposition, we would like to take our starters into early in the third quarter,’’ McAdoo said.
Rookie cornerback Eli Apple (knee) will play on Saturday night. Left guard Justin Pugh (shoulder) may not. “We will see,’’ McAdoo said. … Both Josh Brown and newly signed Randy Bullock will kick in the game. … McAdoo said second-year wide receiver Geremy Davis (hamstring) “is working to get out there’’ attempting to play this weekend.
Simulating a regularseason game week, McAdoo called Thursday’s activities “Fresh Friday,’’ with no real practice and plenty of physical recovery treatments. “We try and challenge them in as many ways as we can between the ears and keep it simple from the waist down,’’ said McAdoo, who labeled Friday’s practice — simulating a Saturday in the regular season “launch day for us. We try to launch and rev them up and get the speed going 80 percent or so and get everything functioning again and get it firing and get ready for the game day.’’