New York Giants training camp: Friday morning practice report

Here is your Friday morning practice report from New York Giants training camp. Sorry it is a little late, but it has been a busy morning here in Albany.

• The 'Wildcat' offense made an appearance this morning, mostly with rookie running back Andre Brown running it. Never fear, though, the Giants don't plan on using it. They were simply working on defending it, using second and third-team offensive players against the first team defense. Coach Tom Coughlin said, incidentally, that the timing of the work against the Wildcat had nothing to do with the Eagles signing Michael Vick. 

We’ve been planning this all spring," Coughlin said. "It’s just (a matter of) when you introduce this because you know you’re going to see it this year. We really didn’t see it last year. We planned to do this and it just so happens that it was inserted for this morning. We’ll continue to do it as we can. As we go along here, we do have reduced practice time once we start playing. But we’ll continue to do that to try to make sure that our guys are ready for it when it occurs.

Brown, incidentally, threw an interception that got drew a very funny comment from Coughlin.

I saw him out here throwing the ball one day, but I’ll give you the rest of that. He said "I’m going to throw the ball" and I said, "Yeah, throw it to the guy in the flat." Did you see where he threw it? Down field and got it picked. Who’s he working for? He could be colorblind, I don’t know.

• Eli Manning did finally sign his contract extension this morning. I will have more on that later if the Giants issue a release.
• Discussing the Vick signing by Philadelphia, safeties coach Dave Merritt called Vick "the ultimate Wildcat quarterback."

• With both Steve Smith (knee) and Sinorice Moss (hamstring) not practicing, Mario Manningham had a nice morning. His best catch was a leaping grab over Terrell Thomas, who had excellent coverage, on a lob from Manning.
• I mentioned Andre Brown before. He seems to have moved ahead of Danny Ware for the third running back slot. He is getting many more reps.
• Best throw of the day was a gorgeous floater from Andre Woodson to Travis Beckum, which dropped beautifully out of the sky into Beckum's arms in between a linebacker and a safety. Might be the best throw I have seen in the entire camp.
• Interesting stuff going on with the linebackers. Coughlin says not to read anything into it, but Danny Clark has been working with the second team, Clint Sintim with the first group, Gerris Wilkinson has been taking some snaps at middle linebacker and Chase Blackburn has been outside lately.
• One interception today, by Bruce Johnson on a ball Manning tried to squeeze inside to Manningham. Also, one bad snap -- zipped a mile over Brown's head by Adam Koets during the 'Wildcat' work.
• Ramses Barden got to take a few snaps today matched up against Terrell Thomas, the biggest and most physical of the Giants' corners. He could not hang on to a beautifully thrown corner route on one play with Thomas draped all over him. On the second play, Thomas jammed him and he never really got into a pass route.
• Domenik Hixon made a tremendous leaping catch on a back shoulder throw by Manning at one point.
• NOTE: Check the 'Transcripts' page. A bit later I will have Coughlin's daily press briefing, a perhaps some other interviews for you.