Prince Amukamara is like a glorified rookie at this point, given how much time he missed with a broken foot after what was already an abbreviated 2011 offseason.
Prince is making progress, yeah, he is, Giants coach Tom Coughlin said of last years first-round pick. Theyre letting him do up to a point and hes out there competing. Its a whole different year for him, really, since he has had that experience and a lot of that is behind him. Hes doing a good job. Hopefully, hes going to continue.
I mentioned in Tuesdays practice report and previously here Amukamara has to work on playing aggressively and with an edge. Coughlin expects that part of the game to come in time.
That will happen, Coughlin said, If he gets himself in position where he;s comfortable and knows what hes doing, we have seen that other aspect the physical part of the play. You saw it, too. As a collegiate player, that's what he was. He was a physical player.
* * * *
And now, the rundown of todays practice, which included a bunch of interceptions left on the field by Amukamaras buddies in the defensive backfield. But first, the injuries:
--Sitting out: TE Travis Beckum (knee), CB Corey Webster (hamstring), WR Hakeem Nicks (foot), DT Chris Canty (knee), LB Clint Sintim (knee), DT Shaun Rogers (elbow) and DT Markus Kuhn (work visa).
--CB Terrell Thomas (knee) sat out all of todays session after doing limited work for much of the spring. Well see if hes back on Thursday. Similarly, it appeared RB Ahmad Bradshaw (foot) was held out today as well.
--DE Osi Umenyiora was back in action after sitting out on Tuesday in order to pace himself and manage unspecified soreness, as Coughlin termed it. Umenyiora ran with the second team but was also a part of the first-string "NASCAR" (four defensive end) package.
--No team reps for S Kenny Phillips (knee) and LT Will Beatty (back).
--LB/DE Adrian Tracy left practice briefly after appearing to knock or jam his left elbow. (He missed all of the 2010 season with a right elbow injury.) Tracy, who impressed LBs coach Jim Herrmann with a nice pass-rush move early in practice, got the elbow wrapped and returned to show good speed in chasing WR Jerrel Jernigan on a crossing route. He appeared to be fine.
* * * *
To the action we go:
--Okay, so I mentioned the dropped interceptions. All of them were on passes by QB Eli Manning. The guilty parties were: rookie CB Jayron Hosley, S Stevie Brown and S Antrel Rolle. Hosley jumped a route at the start of 7-on-7 passing drills but couldnt bring it in. The entire defense groaned and safeties coach David Merritt told Hosley, You owe us one! Browns dropped pick came right after that. Rolles wouldve been a tough one but probably shouldve been caught. He had slipped underneath a slant route from Manning to WR Domenik Hixon in the end zone.
--CB Justin Tryon had seen enough of the drops. While his fellow DBs were missing out on the easy interceptions, he grabbed a tough one by getting position on WR Rueben Randle as the rookie tried to run a hook route. Tryon won that little battle and held on to the ball from QB David Carr for a nice interception.
--Just so you dont panic about the camp Manning has had so far (eye roll), Ill let you know he had a terrific touch pass to TE Bear Pascoe on a route up the right seam over LB Jacquian Williams. Manning also got LB Michael Boley to jump offside with the hard count to start the play.
--Speaking of Pascoe, he said this today: "My plan is right now to work hard and make our team better and hopefully kind of take over that No. 1 spot." We'll see if he can do it.
--WR Ramses Barden put on a show with a few sliding grabs from Carr in the 2-minute drill to end practice. One catch required excellent concentration because LB Keith Rivers was breaking underneath him in an attempt to get a hand on the pass. The other one came with CB Bruce Johnson on his back. The one negative for Barden today came early in practice when he got past Tryon on a go route and had very good separation, only to have to work back to an underthrown ball from Manning. He went up to try getting the ball with a one-handed attempt that didnt seem to please the coaches.
--The defensive coaches, particularly Merritt, are really working hard to coach up undrafted free agent S Jojo Nicolas, whom Merritt praised when he was able to track TE Ryan Purvis out of a bunch formation. Nicolas came down and fought through traffic to get to Purvis when he recognized the out route. Later, Nicolas was slow to react while playing the deep middle. He couldve come crashing down to step in front of the receiver running the out cut and make a play on the ball. That should be a pick, Jojo! defensive coordinator Perry Fewell yelled. And finally, it was Hixon yelling at Nicolas during team drills when he said, Watch yourself! Pick (me) up! after he set up to lay out Nicolas on a crack-back block. Hixon and Merritt then had a playful exchange of gestures seemingly about whether it wouldve been a clipping penalty or a clean hit by Hixon. Whatever the case, Nicolas head wouldve been ringing. But thanks to the no-contact rules of practice, he stayed in there and did a good job of communicating with CB Dante Hughes to cover Randle on a hook route, forcing QB Ryan Perrilloux to throw wide and incomplete of Randle.
--You can tell former Rutgers CB Brandon Bing trusts his speed. (And he does have plenty of it, by the way.) He wasnt giving Randle much of a cushion, nor was he backpedaling much, as Randle ran the stem of his route toward him. Obviously, he felt he could turn and sprint to cover any deep stuff. When Randle broke on an in cut, Bing was right on his hip, forcing the quarterback to look elsewhere.
--One of the big issues with Perrilloux the coaches have been trying to fix and that weve written about at length is his ability to see the whole field. On Tuesday, he missed Randle running free through the secondary. Today, he had WR David Douglas breaking past the DB on a go route but instead chose to throw for Purvis in traffic on a post up the middle. The ball fell incomplete. However, Perrilloux did lay one perfectly for WR Dan DePalma on a sail route near the sideline. Hughes was underneath DePalma, who ran a nice route, and clearly DePalma thought Hughes was going to get a hand on it because the ball hit him right in the face mask. That was a great pass, a shocked DePalma said as he jogged back to the huddle.
--Jernigan showed good hands on a quick out from Carr. He had to kind of reach back and turn his body to make the catch. Jernigan had a few grabs late in practice, too.
--Undrafted WR Brandon Collins ran a pair of stop-and-go routes very well. One was up the middle of the field and didnt result in a completion because the ball from Perrilloux was behind him (tough to see if LB Chase Blackburn got a hand on it, but he was at least close) and the other was up the left sideline forcing CB Janzen Jackson to grab him after he bit on the stutter step. Good shiftiness by Collins on both of those routes. Plus, he added some more on a post-corner route pas Hughes in red-zone drills to grab a touchdown when he barely got both feet in. Put your hands up! Bradshaw yelled to the rookie. Added Hixon, Call it now! Collins seemed to nod at their advice but decided to humbly jog back to the huddle. Smart move, rook.
--I cant recall if I mentioned or not that Jackson is playing corner despite arriving as a safety. At 6-1, 190 pounds, hes much better suited at this point to play corner.
--I got an email last night about the lack of updates on DT Marvin Austin, to which I told the gentleman what Ive written here a bunch: theres really no point in trying to assess the play of the interior lineman because theres no contact and the players arent wearing pads. Well wait until like drills and games for that. That being said, DT Martin Parker got off the ball really quickly on one play to get past OT Joel Reinders and into the backfield to make a stop on RB DaRel Scott. That play reminded me of how Parker did a bunch of that last summer in camp before injuring his foot and being knocked out for the season. Its a small sample size, but Parker has flashed. Hes a guy Im interested to see in camp and in the preseason.
--Rookie RB David Wilson continues to look as quick and shifty as advertised. He's going to make some people miss.
--And finally, I recall writing about how LB Mark Herzlichs pass coverage needed to improve after the loss to the Philadelphia Eagles last season. (To his credit, he was the one who said he struggled in that department that night.) Ive been watching Herzlich in coverage from time to time this spring, and something tells me well be writing about how solid he is in pass coverage because hes been looking extremely sharp in that department this offseason.
Come on Jake
faggits
shyt
