Training Camp Update: New York Giants

There are many stories from the first day of training camp for the New York Giants.

The players arrived on Sunday at the University of Albany, a place that is now the longest tenured venue for the Giants' camp.

There were some concerns the Giants had to deal with, however, and they will hopefully resolved by the time the season starts.

Fred Robbins, who will probably be the backup (but still see several minutes of playing time), was put on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. His placement on this list was expected, but it's still worth mentioning.

Michael Boley was also placed on the PUP list which wasn't a surprise either, but the coaches thought he would be further along with his rehab from hip surgery.

In an intriguing development, Bryan Kehl took the morning's practice at starting weakside linebacker in place of Boley. Chase Blackburn started nine games at that position last season, and was the seemingly evident choice to start in week 1.

Gerris Wilkinson started the afternoon practice with the first unit, showing that the team is willing to give everyone an opportunity to prove themselves.

Bill Sheridan said the job was not Kehl's yet, however, and they would sleep well at night if they had to start Blackburn in week 1. It is a definite battle for the job, and no one should feel safe yet.

Discouraging news came as Rocky Bernard was placed on the non-football injury list (NFI). He hurt his shoulder during the off season workouts and had left the program to solve the issue.

However, in doing so he injured his hamstring while working out on his own. The team thought he would be ready by camp, but that is not the case.

Good news entering camp was the signing of draft pick Hakeem Nicks on Saturday, this means all of the Giants' picks from the 2009 draft have now signed on, with Clint Sintim doing so on July 30.

It was imperative that Nicks be at camp, and the Giants' signed him just in time.

The huge story on Monday was the clearing of all charges against Antonio Pierce in the Plaxico Burress case. The league has since come out and said he will not be suspended and they agree with the grand jury's decision.

Pierce's arrival at camp marked the end of the Plaxico Burress distraction, and the team can move forward and forget it ever happened.

On the first day of practice, sophomore Kenny Philips performed very well, intercepting two passes from Eli Manning.

Several players missed portions of practice, including Fred Robbins, Rocky Bernard, Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, and Barry Cofield.

One rather exciting element of camp was the arrival of Keenon McCardell to be a mentor to the young corps of wide receiver.

McCardell has expressed a great deal of interest in the coaching profession, according to Coach Coughlin, and the Bill Walsh Minority coaching program presented them with this opportunity.

I am excited at this notion, many consider McCardell to be a hall of fame wide receiver with his 883 receptions and over 11,000 yards. He will definitely be an asset to the team.

All factual information can be found at www.giants.com by Giants reporter Michael Eisen.