ONE TOUGH JUDGE
Giant coach takes old-school approach to disciplining team
Center Joe Looney signed with the Giants on Saturday, but he didn’t know exactly what he’d signed up for with Joe Judge until Looney snapped the ball too early to Daniel Jones on Monday.
“Take a lap,” a coach yelled out.
“I haven’t heard ‘take a lap’ since I was young, 10 years old,” Looney, 30, said with a laugh. “That’s something I ain’t done since little league. But you know what? I loved it. It’s another way to hold us accountable as professionals. If you make a mistake, you’re gonna have to run a lap for it. I’m all about it.”
Looney ran two laps in his first Giants practice with the Giants, actually. But that spectacle was nothing compared to when Judge sent the whole defense, coaches included, for a full lap over a “substitution error.”
Multiple defensive players weren’t ready for the start of a field goal drill. So Judge shouted the entire white-jerseyed defense and their coaches off the field and around its perimeter.
“We weren’t all paying attention when we were supposed to be on the field,” inside linebacker Tae Crowder said. “It’s just a discipline thing so we can focus on the details and know what we gotta do, we gotta do.”
This is all Judge building up his team to Tuesday’s first practice in full pads, when the heat of this training camp in East Rutherford will turn up.
The Giants will hit the field in pads at 9:30 a.m. And on Wednesday, Judge has added a 5:15 p.m. practice that promises to ratchet up the intensity of the battle between the offensive and defensive lines.
The offense continued to struggle at Monday morning’s practice.
Jones hit Kenny Golladay upfield on a slant with the receiver defended by corner Sam Beal. Golladay also beat Beal deep on a go route.
But Jones’ pass landed a couple yards too far on the deep ball (it was unclear if it was an overthrow or the receiver didn’t have the speed to get there).
Corner James Bradberry also had his workload dialed back, and Golladay failed to come down with a Jones target in the back of the end zone while defended by Adoree Jackson, too.
Sterling Shepard continued to exhibit the best pace and production for the first-team offense, though his targets mostly came closer to the line of scrimmage.
Jones and running back Devontae Booker twice in the past few days have been on different pages on dump-offs or routes. The offense had to ground one screen attempt.
Evan Engram made an excellent catch behind his body in the end zone, but Jones also sailed an inaccurate incompletion intended for him toward the left sideline.
The best chemistry of the day belonged to second-string QB Mike Glennon and wide receiver David Sills. They connected deep downfield and again for a red zone touchdown.
The most interesting development of Monday, though, might have been how quickly Looney jumped in as a major part of the Giants’ center competition.
Nick Gates was still the first-string center, but Looney took some snaps with Jones and already was working with the second team, leapfrogging undrafted free agent Brett Heggie.
This is reinforcement that Gates will get work all over the line in camp. There is a strong chance the Giants’ best five for Week 1 will not include Gates at center.
“We were actually talking about taking some snaps before practice,” Looney said of his conversation with Jones as they both took a lap. “With me being a new guy, we hadn’t gotten any snaps. Things take time. It just takes time with that center-quarterback relationship.”
OPPORTUNITY FOR AZEEZ
The Giants are paper thin at the edge position with Lorenzo Carter (lower body), Oshane Ximines (hamstring) and Elerson Smith (unknown) all sidelined. Judge said the rookie Smith, who hasn’t taken a snap yet, “had a small setback early in training camp.” The coach couldn’t say exactly when he’d be available, either.
“We don’t think it’s something that’s going to long-term limit him, but I don’t want to put a timetable on him in terms of when he’ll be back absolutely,” Judge said.
The good news is second-round pick Azeez Ojulari has taken regular first-team snaps on the right edge and has a terrific opportunity to assert himself early.
Judge said “the biggest thing for Azeez right now is he’s really shown us a lot of jumps in how he came in in-shape to training camp.
“When we saw him in the spring, like all
rookies, they come in and they’re not ready to go,” Judge said. “That was evident with the way some of those guys handled the conditioning throughout practice in the spring. You watch him out there throughout the duration of practice maintaining his conditioning level, conditioning at the end of practice, where he is in the pack as far as running. He’s not towards the back, he’s getting up there towards the front.”
Ojulari, 21, said he worked out at Pinnacle Performance in Atlanta with Evan Engram and Andrew Thomas, his former teammate at Georgia.
“I just came in every day, no days off, kept running and working every single day,” Ojulari said.
CAMP NOTES AND NUGGETS
Judge said RB Saquon Barkley (knee) is “making tangible progress daily.” Barkley continued to run and catch passes on the back field … LB Blake Martinez was on the field but not in uniform and did very little in his first post-COVID appearance … Tight end Kyle Rudolph did work inside with trainers instead of out on the field … Rookie Kadarius Toney, who is ramping up from a COVID absence, briefly practiced fielding onside kicks, his first meaningful on-field work of any kind in camp. Judge kicked one himself that Jabrill Peppers failed to field, which provided some good entertainment … The Giants re-signed RB Alfred Morris, 32, last season’s second-leading rusher (238 yards). RB Mike Weber (unknown) didn’t practice and worked with the injured or recovering players on the side.