Perhaps the best thing to come from the first day of New York Giants' rookie mini-camp was that, by all accounts, new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell was impossible to ignore.
Every mini-camp report I read on Friday included some discussion of Fewell's energy, his presence and the fact that he could be HEARD throughout both practices.
I remember attending training camp in Albany last summer, and spending most of the month never having a clue who then defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan was, or where he was. The man was almost always invisible, and his voice was absolutely never heard during workouts.
Not that it guarantees better defense, but that won't be the case this time around.
"Well, hey, that's just ball," Fewell said about his verbal demeanor. "I'm excited about being here and I'm excited about ball starting. ... I enjoy and am passionate about the game. I enjoy communicating with the players. I'm excited about football. When they make a good play, I get excited about that. When they make a bad play, I encourage them to make a better play. That's just the way I coach football."
Fewell also said he wants to see physical play -- something coach Tom Coughlin and Jerry Reese said was not always in evidence last season.
"I'm going to demand that we be physical and play physical," Fewell said. "The Giants defense is a physical defense, and we know that from history. I want to return to that defense."
- With the Giants having drafted just one offensive player, you can't blame offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride if he feels a little like the last kid selected when picking sides for a softball game. Gilbride is trying to take it in stride, though.
"Fortunately I think we feel good about the players we have coming back and the coaches and so we are excited about what we can do offensively. Selfishly we wish we had gotten a few players. But it wasn't meant to be." - Special teams coach Tom Quinn says the Giants want directional kicking from new punters Matt Dodge and Jy Bond, but they know they won't get the precision Jeff Feagles offered.
"The big thing for these young guys will be to hang the distance. We don't want a 55-yard punt with 4.1 hang. That is very tough to cover," Quinn said. "So we will get the hang, the distance consistent and then we will start working direction when it is the appropriate time."