RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesWHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — John Harbaugh ran the most grueling Giants practice in recent memory Thursday in the West Virginia humidity. And the team made progress but also saw a couple offensive starters go down.
Center John Michael Schmitz “got his bell rung,” as Harbaugh said, and left practice early with what could end up being diagnosed as a concussion.
Then running back Cam Skattebo limped off after back-to-back run stops by rookie linebacker Arvell Reese, who ran Skattebo down on the second play and then ran him over.
Edge rusher Brian Burns also stepped out of practice midway through as he manages an ankle issue.
Harbaugh said Skattebo’s ailing was more a “natural working through the football shape part of coming off rehab” and “it won’t be a serious injury at all.” And he said Burns is “fine.”
Still, the pace of this training camp has been relentless, with nine practices in 11 days and six straight practices this week, including five in pads.
Reese actually said the Giants’ practices remind him of how he was drilled at Ohio State, a Division I powerhouse that is not governed by the strict rules that limit how much NFL coaches can do with their teams.
“At O State it was amped up just like this, if not a little bit more,” Reese said with a smirk.
Fullback Pat Ricard, who followed Harbaugh to New York from Baltimore, said “you get a little sore or whatnot” during Harbaugh’s camps, “but it’s our job to take care of ourselves. I think it’s a good thing, and it’ll get us ready.”
“I’ve been with Harbs my whole career, and I think that’s the way you want football to be,” he said. “You want it to be hard. You want training camp to be hard, to get your bodies ready.
“Especially him coming in here, he has to assess the whole team,” the fullback added. “He has to see who he thinks should be playing. And you need to be in pads to really assess football players. I think he wants to bring that physical toughness, and you have to be physical and tough when we’re in pads.”
The Giants aren’t tackling to the ground. The players actually are doing a pretty good job of thudding each other without crossing the line. There is simply no give from Harbaugh on the pace of these practices.
After an extended ramp-up period of individual positional drills and special teams work, Harbaugh essentially puts his team through 90 minutes of live, 11-on-11 football.
There is one period in the middle of that when the team splits up to do 1-on-1 blocking and pass rushing with the linemen while the quarterbacks throw 7-on-7 passes to wide receivers defended by defensive backs and linebackers. And then just a couple small breaks for water.
They work on the run game often. The defensive line and linebackers won the battle with the offensive line on Thursday, but it’s all with an eye on strengthening both sides of the ball.
Harbaugh liked how his team responded on Thursday to the grind.
“We had a hot practice. It was a big practice,” he said. “We had certain really good situations, very basic situations we were working on. Guys did a great job with all of that.
“I thought the competition level was high. The execution level was high,” Harbaugh said. “It’s heading in that direction. It’s not there yet, but its heading in that direction. We’re happy with the day. We feel like we got a lot done, and we’ll finish strong here [Sunday].”
The offensive line already needs reinforcements.
Schmitz is now hurt, and his backup Lucas Patrick, who stepped in for Schmitz on Thursday with the first team, is clearly hobbled and banged up. He actually missed a practice previously in camp already.
So the Giants are signing career backup Brenden Jaimes and waiving injured corner Jarrick Bernard-Converse to keep their operation running in camp.
He will join third-string center Bryan Hudson in putting a Band-Aid in front of Jaxson Dart and Jameis Winston until Schmitz and Patrick can get back consistently on their feet.
Still, Harbaugh was encouraged that at the end of Thursday’s marathon practice, his players actually begged him for one extra play in the red zone.
The coach was planning to end the practice, but the players were shouting at him to let them run one more play.
“They lobbied. I wanted to be done,” Harbaugh said. “That was supposed to be the last play before that, and they wanted the last play. And I cracked. I gave them the last play.”
Dart was barking at the offensive players to get up on the line of scrimmage. The energy stayed high. Fans chanted for the offense to get the ball to Odell Beckham Jr.
OBJ went in motion behind Dart to the left, and Dart turned to his right and lofted a touchdown pass to Darius Slayton.
“I wasn’t gonna do it because we’re doing some goal line [Sunday],” Harbaugh said. “But I thought ‘Wow, they wanna do it. Let’s do it.'”
These are the makings of the new Giants. Of a Harbaugh football team in New York. As long as the players can stay on the field through the grind.
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