Golladay getting through camp’s ‘ups and downs’

Maybe Odell Beckham just spoiled us. He was typically great in practice. He could make the average route or catch look spectacular. He was a true alpha, a playmaker. He stood out every time he was on a Giants field.

So it isn’t fair to compare Kenny Golladay to Beckham as the Giants’ modern-day No. 1 receiver after only three days of July practices in his first training camp in East Rutherford.

However, it is fair to expect Golladay to dominate or stand out from time to time given the four-year, $72 million contract with $40 million guaranteed he signed this spring. And so far, Golladay hasn’t made many plays.

He’s tall, but he has struggled to gain separation from top corner James Bradberry in man-to-man coverage. He hasn’t used his size and hands to rip the ball down on contested catches.

He has used his chest a bit too often when he has hauled the ball in, even in individual drills. And he and Daniel Jones haven’t clicked yet, even though they’re putting in a lot of extra work.

“Ups and downs,” Golladay said Friday in a self-scout. “But at the same time, it’s Day 3 … We’ve got a lot of training camp left, a lotta ball left. I’m out there trying to get better every single day.”

In fairness to Golladay, too, it’s not just him. The entire Giants offense has underperformed.

Coordinator Jason Garrett pulled the offense aside for a long conversation after Friday’s practice as the defense walked off the field as winners of a third straight practice. Garrett then kept some players on the field for an extra 20 minutes.

Garrett’s offense has looked sloppy and disjointed. There haven’t been enough clean completions from Jones and the first team especially.

Judge spends the bulk of his time with the offense when the “O” and defense are split between separate fields, reflecting the coach’s emphasis and urgency on fixing that side of the ball.

But on Friday, when Judge had the offense run plays upfield and away from the end zone for the first time in camp, Jones’ first-string unit was unable to complete anything downfield.

In the red zone, corner Adoree Jackson batted down a jump ball from Jones to Golladay in the back left of the end zone. Logan Ryan intercepted Jones on a fade to Evan Engram on the left side.

Golladay was double-covered coming out of the slot on another play by Darnay Holmes and Xavier McKinney, when Jones threw elsewhere.

Then when Golladay finally made a catch over the middle, going left to right against zone coverage, linebacker TJ Brunson smoked Golladay down to the grass.

Center Nick Gates and the offense didn’t appreciate the hit. Golladay said he didn’t mind.

“That’s football,” he said. “There’s a lot of competition going on out there, a lot of guys competing. It’s football. It’s gonna happen.”

Sterling Shepard had run over Jackson on a bubble screen earlier in practice, so the offense delivered some licks of its own, too. When the pads come on Tuesday, however, Golladay needs to help this offense assert itself as a strength and not a liability.

Judge, for the coach’s part, raved about Golladay’s work ethic and knowledge of the offense.

He said Golladay is always at the “top of the scale” in the Giants’ GPS tracking numbers measuring volume, yardage and “high intensity reps.” The coach said Golladay is “very ahead on how he pays attention in meetings,” that he’s caught on “really fast” to what the Giants are asking him to do, and that he carries it over to the field.

Judge also said the coaches purposely haven’t let receivers turn loose their downfield routes yet because they don’t want to risk injuries.

Golladay sounded level-headed and grounded in his process on Friday, too, a good sign that he’s sticking to the work and not hung up on the lack of results.

LEMIEUX AVOIDS ‘WORST-CASE’

Left guard Shane Lemieux looks to have avoided the “worst-case scenario” with the knee injury he sustained on Thursday, Judge said. It will probably take another day or two to narrow down the exact diagnosis and timeline for Lemieux’s return.

“Shane, he’s kind of like a wild animal,” Judge said. “He’d cut his leg off to get through a bear trap if he had to, so him not being out there is kind of driving him nuts. He’s already been in my office today talking about the fastest way to get back.”

GIANTS IN NEWARK

The Giants are practicing in Newark tonight at Eddie Moraes Stadium as part of the NFL’s “Back Together Saturday” initiative. The event isn’t open to the general public.

Local high school, Pop Warner and youth program players are expected to attend the workout. The Giants expect about 2,000 people.