Here is your Wednesday morning practice as New York Giants training camp rolls merrily along here in Albany.
- For a guy who many (including myself) thought would not be on the field at this point following microfracture surgery, Fred Robbins sure does look good. Robbins completely blew up three running plays during 11-on-11 drills, and would have sacked Eli Manning on the first play of the two-minute drill in live action. Pretty amazing!
- If you are rooting for David Tyree to scratch his way on to the roster, today was a good day. Tyree won't go down without a fight, and he was sharp today. He made a variety of nice catches this morning.
- Ramses Barden continues to look like a third-round steal. Barden made two spectacular catches this morning. The first, a long ball down the right sideline from David Carr, was a play in which he just used that huge body to fend off DeAndre Wright, then just jumped over him to haul the ball in. The second was a crossing route over the middle where Andre Woodson threw the ball behind him. Despite heavy traffic, Barden was able to adjust and pull the ball in.
- Speaking of Wright, he left the field with an undetermined injury. Coach Tom Coughlin is getting concerned about his depth at cornerback heading into Monday night's exhibition opener. Aaron Ross and Corey Webster have spent the last few practices on the sidelines.
- Other guys who did not work today included receivers Steve Smith and Hakeem Nicks. Sinorice Moss took Smith's first-team reps.
- Derek Hagan continued his impressive work. He made a tremendous catch on a fade from Manning, hauling the ball in over Terrell Thomas.
- Andre Woodson and Rhett Bomar are locked in quite a duel for the third quarterback slot. Woodson threw a beautiful comeback to Domenik Hixon in traffic early in practice. Bomar responded with a perfectly thrown long ball to Taye Biddle, which Biddle dropped.
- The defense continues to be well ahead of the offense. I don't think the Giants were successful on a running play all morning. Defensive highlights included passes batted down by Mathias Kiwanuka and Maurice Evans, and a near-interception of a screen pass by Clint Sintim. Jay Alford stuffed a couple of runs, and would have sacked Carr on another play.
- Safeties coach Dave Merritt was all over rookie Vince Anderson for not knowing where he was supposed to be during a positioning drill.
- Since the Giants can't have a practice without one, Adam Koets botched a shotgun snap, failing to reach Woodson with the ball.
If anything else happened that I missed I am blaming sideline ... umm ... distractions. Let's just say the view on the sidelines this morning was spectacular (sorry, ladies!). 'Kudos' to whoever doled out today's field passes.