The New York Giants completed the first of three scheduled workouts at their mandatory minicamp on Monday, the first under new head coach John Harbaugh and his staff.
Two of the groups that onlookers were interested in seeing were the receivers and the defensive backs, two units that got an infusion of new faces this offseason.
“I thought they competed,” Harbaugh said of the wideouts. “The biggest challenge for us as coaches on these kind of days is to keep them within the framework of what we’re trying to do and not get too physical, right, because these are not live contact practices. So we try to talk to them all day, and I thought they did a good job, for the most part, of trying to avoid taking it too far. But they’re competitors. They want to do well.”
“The wideouts made some catches,” continued Harbaugh. “The DBs made some plays on the ball. It was good to see. Everybody was flying around.”
The wide receivers are down two starters this week. Malik Nabers is still rehabbing his knee, and Darius Slayton is sitting out after undergoing surgery to address a sports hernia. Nabers’ status is still unknown. The Giants hope to have him back for the start of the regular season. Slayton is expected to be ready for training camp at the end of July.
“I’m excited about the group, especially when we’re healthy,” Harbaugh said. “If you get Malik out there, you got, I would say arguably — I know his goal is to be the best in the league. That would be his goal. And he’s capable of doing it. And after that, we got some guys, man. I like the guys we brought in.”
The Giants brought in a gaggle of free agents this offseason to compete for roster spots. They inked Darnell Mooney and Calvin Austin III early on in free agency, re-signed Isaiah Hodgins, and then added Odell Beckham Jr., Braxton Berrios, and Juju Smith-Schuster last week.
“They’re practicing well, as you see. All those guys are practicing well. The guys we brought in in free agency. We drafted a really good player (Malachi Fields). We’ll get Darius back, another guy. When you step back and look at it, you’ve got about five guys you feel really good about,” Harbaugh said.
“From there, you got some competition. I think we stocked the room with as much competition as we could,” added Harbaugh. “The guys that we brought back from previous years, those are all good football players. All those guys, those young guys, they’re good football players.
“You know, and who’s just going to really show up when it counts, you know, in games and stuff, and in practice, I’ve been impressed with them. And then we brought the veteran guys in. So that adds another layer of competition in the mix. There are a lot of guys going for a spot or two there that we’ll see what happens.”
The real competition will start in late July when the Giants open their summer training camp at The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: New York Giants’ John Harbaugh pleased with fierce WR competition
Reporting by John Fennelly, Giants Wire / Giants Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By John Fennelly, Giants Wire | USA TODAY Network
