New York Giants: Notes and Quotes from 1st Day of Training Camp

The boys in blue are back in town.

That would, of course, be the New York Giants, who reported for the start of their 2015 training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center.

With the humidity levels off the charts—just the way head coach Tom Coughlin likes it—the players went through their annual conditioning test, a series of 40-yard sprints in which the coaches gauge who stayed in shape over the six-week break and who did not.

It was also a busy media day as well, as team co-owner John Mara, Coughlin, cornerback Prince Amukamara, offensive lineman Justin Pugh and receiver Victor Cruz all held press briefings to talk about the upcoming training camp.

Let’s sort through the key points of what was said and try to make some sense of everything and what it potentially means moving forward. 

Giants Remain Concerned About Jason Pierre-Paul...

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Giants Remain Concerned About Pierre-Paul

Although defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul isn’t technically under contract to the New York Giants and thus doesn’t owe them any type of explanation, that hasn’t stopped many members of the organization from reaching out to the 26-year-old as he recovers physically and emotionally from a severe hand injury suffered over the Independence Day weekend.

“I think this would be the best place for him to be for a number of different reasons. He would have the opportunity to learn the defense, but more importantly, we have the best training staff in the league here,” said team co-owner John Mara, adding that the team had access to “some of the best doctors in the world.”

He added, “I don’t think he’s receiving the best advice. That’s sad as far as I am concerned.”

It’s an unprecedented situation that has been muddied thanks to Pierre-Paul’s contract status, but Mara later went on to say that the team was willing to sit down with Pierre-Paul to discuss numerous topics, including his contract situation, if only the defensive end would take down the wall that his people have apparently erected around him.

“All we know is what some of his people have told us, but until we see him for ourselves, that doesn’t give us any comfort,” Mara said, adding that he has no idea when or even if Pierre-Paul will show up to the team’s facility.

If/when that time does come, Mara said there will be no hard feelings on the part of the organization and that it'd be willing to talk turkey regarding compensation once it knows what Pierre-Paul would be capable of handling as far as a workload.

“We would be open to discussing anything, but we first need to see him,” he said.

...but Are Ready to Move on Without Him

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With the Giants having missed the playoffs the last three seasons, everyone from John Mara down to head coach Tom Coughlin wants the team to focus on the task at hand, which is preparing for the 2015 season.

To do that, they are ready to work with the players who are presently in camp.

That was Mara’s message when asked if the team was prepared to move on if defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul continues to put up a wall between himself and the team.

“I think we have to plan on moving ahead without him at this point. Until we see him and make some sort of determination on the condition he is in, I don’t see how we can count on him, certainly not for the opening of the season,” Mara said.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the co-owner wants it to be that way. He told reporters that his message to the 26-year-old Pierre-Paul was, “Come home; we miss you.”

As concerned as the team is about Pierre-Paul, Mara and the rest of the organization have business to take care of and are not going to allow Pierre-Paul’s absence to divert them from their goals.

“Listen, he is a great kid, and we love having him around here. He fits in very well, and he’s very cooperative,” Mara said. “I just don’t know what is going on here. Again, I can only surmise that he is not receiving very good advice.”

Mara shook his head when asked if he thought Pierre-Paul was trying to force the Giants into rescinding the franchise-tag tender.   

“I don’t think we are going to do anything until we actually see what type of condition he is in,” he said.  

The Giants Are Leaving Nothing to Chance Regarding Injuries

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If there’s one statistic that a team doesn’t want to lead the league in, it’s injuries.

Welcome to the Giants’ world, where for the second year in a row, they are the defending world champions in the injury department.

To make sure that the streak is broken, head coach Tom Coughlin and the rest of the organization did some research in order to find ways to improve what they are doing.

One such change they made was to alter their annual conditioning drill. Instead of having all of the players run a series of sprints, the Giants’ conditioning drill consisted of a mix of stretching, longer warm-ups and then the sprinting.  

“Little more emphasis on the conditioning part of it coming back,” Coughlin explained, adding that practices will include a recovery stretch as well.

The good news is that everyone on the team who took the drill passed; in fact, the only two players who will start the summer on the PUP list, according to Coughlin, will be offensive tackle Will Beatty and rookie receiver Ben Edwards.

Want even better news? The notoriously regimented Coughlin—whom former cornerback Walter Thurmond III suggested was old-school when it came to modern medicine, per B/R's Brent Sobleski (h/t Pro Football Talk's Curtis Crabtree)—has made peace with the fact that he is going to have to do things he might not have thought of doing years ago to keep his key players healthy, even if it comes at the expense of practice time.

“Again, coming from where I’m coming from, it’s not a question anymore about what we used to do,” he said. “It has to be what’s best for the current times, and this seems the way to go.”

Justin Pugh Wants the Offensive Line to Be 'Tough Guys'

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Last year the Giants running game fell to 23rd in the NFL thanks to a 100.2 yards-per-game average.

A big reason for that was the run blocking by the interior offensive line, which at the time consisted of Weston Richburg at left guard, J.D. Walton at center and John Jerry at right guard. That trio for whatever the reason lacked the bite necessary to impose its will on the defense.

This year, new starting left guard Justin Pugh wants to change all that.

“We have to go out there and be a group of tough guys,” Pugh said of the offensive line, which will sport new starters at all five positions.

“We’ve been watching ’08 film when the Giants O-line was probably the best in the business. They were tough guys, doing a little extra stuff. Between the whistles they were knocking guys down, and no one really wanted to play against them.”

Before the offensive line can get to that point, there is the matter of each man settling into his new position.

Richburg has shifted to center, his natural position. Geoff Schwartz is moving to right guard, where in 2013 he had the best year of his career for the Kansas City Chiefs, per Pro Football Focus. 

The tackles are less settled. Veteran Marshall Newhouse is penciled in to take Pugh’s old right tackle spot, while rookie Ereck Flowers is set to protect quarterback Eli Manning’s blind side.

“He’s a big, tough kid. I think he fits in here as far as what we’re trying to do,” Pugh said of Flowers (6'6", 329 lbs).

Pugh believes that the sooner Flowers and Newhouse, both of whom weren't with the team last year, learn the playbook, the better. 

"I think the big thing with most guys is knowing the playbook. Once you know it and have an understanding of it, then it’s a matter of doing the little things and nuances you might not have known before." 

Victor Cruz Has Officially Launched His Version of 'The Comeback'

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Receiver Victor Cruz had that twinkle in his eye when it was pointed out to him that his choice of attire, a Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls jersey emblazoned with No. 45, was significant.

“It was just a coincidence,” Cruz said, trying to deadpan but failing miserably at doing so. “I walked into the closet, and it was kind of glowing. I don’t know if it was the sun from the window or the overall glow of the red jersey, but I just put it on.”

The jersey, for those not familiar, is what Jordan wore after his two-year hiatus from the NBA to play MLB. Jordan, of course, went on to score 55 points against the New York Knicks wearing that jersey, a performance that showed that he was still one of the greatest in the game.

That message was not lost on Cruz, who has been known to carefully plan his wardrobe. Cruz suffered a serious knee injury last October, his first serious injury of his career and one that had some people wondering if he’d ever recover from it.

Through hard work and sheer determination, Cruz, who vowed not to start training camp on the PUP list, came through, passing his conditioning test with flying colors.

His teammates have taken note of the new and energized Cruz. Cornerback Prince Amukamara, who ran into his teammate out in Arizona at a training facility, believes that Cruz is even faster than he was before.

“We were just out there in Arizona at a performance spot and he came out there for a day and ran a couple routes with [49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick] and Tyrod Taylor, and I told him, ‘You look faster than before,’” Amukamara said.  

“It could be because I haven’t seen him on the field in a while, but he looked great.”

That’s great news for the Giants, who are counting on the tandem of Cruz and Odell Beckham Jr. to become a living nightmare for opposing defenses. However, before they get to that point, head coach Tom Coughlin indicated that he is going to ease both Cruz and Beckham, the latter of whom was bothered by a hamstring strain the spring, slowly.

“I’m sure we will have to limit and build him up, but [Cruz] will be out there,” Coughlin said, adding that the same would hold true for Beckham. 

Cruz, who did say that he would have to get himself into football condition by getting used to the pads and helmet and going against live competition, was optimistic about what was still to come. However, if he’s expecting Amukamara, his friend and teammate, to go easy on him as he gets used to that, he should think again.

“Anytime someone is on the field, I definitely have to treat them as if they’re 100 percent unless they have the [red] jersey on, which means you can’t really touch him,” Amukamara said, adding that he would also back down if Cruz asked him to.

That, however, doesn’t appear to be in the plans as far as Cruz is concerned, not after he waited so long to get back to playing the game he loves.

“If you had told me nine months from that time [of the injury] that I’d be playing and practicing and feeling really good about myself, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But I know the work I put in that I would get to this point. I just didn’t know when.”

Prince Amukamara Believes the Defense Is Going to Be Better

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The New York Giants’ 29th-ranked defense last year has nowhere to go but up. 

That’s the goal of the players, all of whom have spoken enthusiastically about new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s attacking and proactive system that he installed this spring.

“That’s definitely our goal,” cornerback Prince Amukamara said about the defense raising its rankings. “I can’t give a great assessment right now because we haven’t played anybody and haven’t even played a preseason game yet, but I would say in OTAs and minicamp, I felt as if we were headed that way.”

If the Giants plan to be better, one of the things they are going to have to do is cut down on the number of big plays allowed last season.

In 2014, the Giants gave 62 big-play passes of 20 or more yards, 13 of which went for 40 or more yards.

“I’d say that there can be many reasons for why the big play happens— a couple of times, I think it was a communication issue, and there were a couple of times where that guy gets paid too, and that guy just made a play on someone on our defense,” he said.

“The only thing that we can control is our effort and getting on the right page. Every year it seems as if we’ve had a communication problem, so our goal is to limit that this season.”

One of the challenges, though, for the defense is the possibility that it will field two inexperienced safeties, one of whom is expected to be second-round pick Landon Collins.

Amukamara said he wasn’t sure yet what kind of ripple effect the potential lack of experience might have on him and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, but he was confident that they’d be able to adjust.

“If it is two rookies, I think it just depends on what they show us. If they show us that they can handle it and they don’t need us to talk to them a lot, then we’ll adjust,” Amukamara said.

“But I would say that Coach Spags knows the type of personnel he has to work with, and you do have two veteran cornerbacks who are pretty good, so he might try to lock me and DRC up so there’s not a lot of pressure on those guys, but we don’t really know yet.”

Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.

Follow @Patricia_Traina.