Jones balancing boldness, caution

There will come a time when interceptions matter for Daniel Jones. Now is not that time. Giants coach Pat Shurmur wants his rookie quarterback to test the limits of how aggressive he can be during training camp practices when there is no harm, no foul.

“This is where you see what you can get away with a little bit and how your receivers function down the field. It’s practice,” Shurmur said Thursday. “You try things and you do things. There are tight-window throws. I’ve said it before. In fact, we were joking about it with the quarterbacks. Defenses push back in the NFL, and they do things to try to take things away. You’ve got to continually try to stay aggressive, but also be smart and take care of the ball.”

Jones threw his first interception Tuesday on an aggressive pass downfield, but has bounced back with a pair of strong practices. On Thursday, he was 12-for-16 with three touchdowns, including a perfect deep ball to Paul Perkins down the sideline.

Competition against players in another jersey won’t start until next Thursday, and it won’t begin for real until September. But the Giants are getting the most out of their training camp practices by having the first-team offense face the firstteam defense during 11-on-11 drills.

“I’ve been other places where you went ones-on-twos, twos-on-ones,” Shurmur said. “I just think the competition of ones-on-ones is important, as long as you’re competing and you’re being smart.”

Jon Halapio, healthy again after breaking his ankle in Week 2 last season, has been getting the majority of the first-team reps at center, but offensive line coach Hal Hunter said he still views it as a competition with Spencer Pulley. The Giants will likely make a final decision following the third preseason game, Aug. 22 at the Bengals.

“My job is to make Pio the best player he can be, and my job is to get Spencer to beat him,” Hunter said.

Linebacker B.J. Goodson left Wednesday’s practice with a hamstring injury, Shurmur said, and he was held out again Thursday.

“It’s not terrible,” Shurmur said. “We’ll see. He’ll be back soon.

Tae Davis got even more firstteam reps in his absence.

When Grant Haley left practice early Thursday with an injury,

Ronald Zamort stepped in at nickel cornerback with the first team. The third-year pro out of Western Michigan has yet to play an NFL game.

An officiating crew led by referee Shawn Hochuli joined the Giants on Thursday and will be with them for the next few days reviewing new rule changes.

Former Giants quarterback and current CBS analyst Phil Simms attended practice, spending some of it chatting with co-owner John Mara.