The New York Giants traveled to Florham Park, N.J., for their first of two joint practices against the New York Jets on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Giants were short-handed at wide receiver with Malik Nabers, Jalin Hyatt and Da\u2019Quan Felton not practicing, along with running back Cam Skattebo and guard Evan Neal.<\/p>\n
The absence of three receivers led to first-team reps for both Beaux Collins and Montrell Washington. The Giants and Jets first squared off in practice after individual drills and stretches; their first drill against each other was seven-on-seven.<\/p>\n
This drill ran simultaneously with the trench one-on-ones. Unlike the 11-on-11 drills, the Giants offense successfully moved the football during this period.<\/p>\n
Russell Wilson started the drive by connecting with Theo Johnson on a quick pivot route underneath. He then connected with Collins twice in the first session; one of the passes was a beautiful 18-yard corner strike that was placed well over the top of a trailing defender. He finished his first session with an out route to Wan\u2019Dale Robinson. Wilson went 4 of 4 before Jaxson Dart took the field.<\/p>\n
Dart went 3 of 3, with connections to Jermaine Terry II on a stick route, Montrell Washington on an intermediate horizontal crosser, and Dante \u2018Turbo\u2019 Miller on a flare to the flat. Jameis Winston received a few snaps before Wilson returned to the field.<\/p>\n
Wilson went 2 of 4 on his second seven-on-seven session. He started by hitting Johnson in the flat and then found Greg Dulcich on an OTB route (Over the Ball). Wilson then attempted a deep one-on-one shot to Lil\u2019Jordan Humphrey that was not secured. The pass was high and adequate, but it was a tough play to make. He then delivered a very nice pass over the middle to Robinson, but the limited catch radius of the smaller receiver made securing the pass difficult; it fell to the deck.<\/p>\n
Dart then went 3 for 3 on his second session: he found Zach Pascal for a short gain on an in route, connected with Dulcich on a stick to his right, and then another quick in route to Dalen Cambre. Tommy DeVito earned two plays and went two-for-two with an out to Terry and short comeback for a few yards to Cambre.<\/p>\n
While all this was going on, the Hog Mollies were battling closer to my vantage point. I tried to write down as many notes as possible, but I was more interested in the seven-on-sevens. Here are my notes from the one-on-ones.<\/p>\n
Below are observations of the Giants\u2019 offensive line against the Jets\u2019 defensive line. The Giants\u2019 offensive line held up well, generally speaking.<\/p>\n
Marcus Mbow mirrored and held up well against Eric WattsMbow had a second win but I failed to see the numberJermaine Eluemunor beat Jay TufeleJohn Michael Schmitz initially lost vs. Phidarian Mathis; he reanchored but I wouldn\u2019t call the rep a winJon Runyan defeated Eric Watts with ease on a repJames Hudson III was beat around the edge by Michael ClemonsHudson followed it up with a quality rep against a Jet (couldn\u2019t get the number)Austin Schlottmann defeated Fatorma MulbahJimmy Morrissey was defeated by Derrick NnadiJake Kubas lost to Payton PageJosh Ezeudu lost badly \u2014 I didn\u2019t catch the Jet player<\/p>\n
The one-on-ones ended about midway through the period and the trenches handled combo pass blocking (twists\/games\/stunts). The Giants won some and lost some.<\/p>\n
The Giants\u2019 offense looked flat out bad in their two 11-on-11 periods prior to the red zone drill that concluded practice. The first Giants\u2019 offensive period started on their own 20-yard line. Wilson completed one pass with the first team \u2014 a play-action rollout to Collins in the flat.<\/p>\n
The Giants offensive line struggled to hold up. The first play was a holding penalty, the second a sack (Tufele) surrendered by Greg Van Roten, who was bull-rushed into the ground; the third play was a pass batted at the line of scrimmage, and the fourth was a Will McDonald IV sack, who cleanly beat Eluemunor.<\/p>\n
To the Giants\u2019 first team\u2019s credit, they ran a weak-side halfback toss to Devin Singletary who had a great gain with an impressive cutback. Then they false started and the second-team came onto the field.<\/p>\n
The aforementioned pass to Collins kicked off the second-session of the first team period. It was followed by a good Tyrone Tracy Jr. run. Singletary had another very good cut with a long run that would have likely went for 15+ yards. The Jets then jumped offside before Wilson threw two incomplete passes.<\/p>\n
The first incompletion was to Darius Slayton on a vertical fade from the slot, angled toward the sideline. It appeared catchable, albeit tough. The second was an underneath pivot route in tight coverage that Robinson got his hand on but could not secure; the coverage was tight on Robinson.<\/p>\n
The second 11-on-11 team period started at midfield and the Giants focused more on the rushing attack. Wilson and the first-team offense received ten plays. There was one completion \u2014 a hot throw after a blitz to Theo Johnson in the flat. He had two incompletions (one was a probably a sack) and he also scrambled for six yards on a rollout.<\/p>\n
The Giants ran the football with Tracy up the middle with a few misdirections that went four-six yards, with one stopped near the line of scrimmage. Singletary had another excellent run off outside zone on a cutback; this play started the period and was noteworthy because Elijah Chatman was the fullback.<\/p>\n
Jaxson Dart and the second team had more success than the first team, but most of that success came in the second session. In the first, he completed 2 of 5 passes in the first session, with a zone read handoff and a quarterback keeper. Dart connected with Ihmir Smith-Marsette for a small gain and he checked it down to Jonathan Ward for what would have been a big gain.<\/p>\n
Miller had a few runs up the middle that gained little traction. Dart delivered an impressive ball to Washington over the top but the receiver failed to haul in the pass. Dart also fumbled a snap as he was checking at the line of scrimmage; he was not expecting the ball to be snapped.<\/p>\n
Dart started his second session off with a beautiful corner route to Theo Johnson that would have went for 30 yards off a sail concept. He then found a quick out route to Washington out of a condensed BUNCH formation. He appeared calm and delivered with ease. He completed three more passes in the second session with just two incompletions: one was batted a the line of scrimmage, and the second a well-designed pop pass to Thomas Fidone II that was thrown a bit high, but was catchable.<\/p>\n
Dart found Washington on a deep cross, after going through his progressions on the play. He also ended his second-session with a connection to Smith-Marsette on the sideline, after he appeared to contemplate running the football up the middle. I appreciate that he kept his eyes downfield and found the veteran for a 10+ yard gain. The second-team offense did not run the ball as well as the first team, with a few Miller attempts that were quickly bottled up.<\/p>\n
Jameis Winston and Tommy DeVito split third-team reps. Winston\u2019s most notable play was a check down off a Yankee Concept in the flat to Ward, which would have resulted in a solid gain. He also took a sack. DeVito missed Terry up the seam and also had a checkdown to Ward. Overall, the two quarterbacks received nine snaps between the two periods with only 5 pass plays between them (two for DeVito).<\/p>\n
The Giants and Jets ended their joint-practice with a red-zone period, and the Giants executed well. The Giants first-team offense ran five plays in the red zone and scored three touchdowns. They started at the 18-yard line with a short run by Tracy before Wilson found Robinson underneath out of a BUNCH to the sideline for a few yards.<\/p>\n
Those two plays set up a beautiful touchdown pass to Theo Johnson up the seam between two defenders. Wilson threaded the needle for that score and the refs put the football back at the 10yard line where Tracy hit the B-Gap behind quality blocks from James Hudson III and Jon Runyan Jr. It\u2019s tough, sometimes, to know the extent of success on rushing plays since there\u2019s no tackling, but that one appeared to be a score.<\/p>\n
The ball went back to the 10-yard line and Wilson connected with Darius Slayton on a touchdown away from me to end the first-team\u2019s efforts strongly. Slayton caught the ball between two defenders, in front of him, going horizontally. The Giants defense then took the field \u2014 Ed Valentine has you covered with that analysis.<\/p>\n
Dart and the second team ran eight plays. There was a small scrum after the first play and then a much larger one after the second play where Dart had a designed quarterback run. Aaron Stinnie was shouting at Phidarian Mathis after the latter was on top of the former in a violent posture with some heavy shoving. But, to circle back, Dart\u2019s first play of the period was a deep flag route to Cambre that was overthrown.<\/p>\n
Dart would have likely been sacked on the next play, and Miller had a short run on the subsequent one. Then Dart showed his comprehension with the playbook by flipping the play to put Gunner Olszewski in a more optimal position; unfortunately, it did not work and Olszewski was hit by a Jet and then fumbled the ball.<\/p>\n
The Giants faced third-and-goal where Dart found Ward in the flat; it\u2019s possible that he would have spun out of the tackle and waltzed into the end zone \u2014 as he did \u2014 but the defensive back may have secured him to the ground. On the next play, Josh Ezeudu \u2014 who was hurt two plays prior but returned \u2014 committed a false start and Marcus Mbow replaced him with Daboll saying \u201cget him out of there, get him out of there\u201d after the penalty. Then the period was concluded with a Zach Pascal back-shoulder touchdown where the veteran receiver juggled the football and, apparently, got both feet in bounds.<\/p>\n
The Giants\u2019 offense finished the practice respectfully, but it still was not a great day.<\/p>\n