New York Giants Tight Ends Coach Mike Pope Is Not Sounding Happy

New York Giants tight ends coach Mike Pope revealed during a session with reporters on Thursday that Martellus Bennett, signed as free agent during the offseason to help replace the injured Jake Ballard and Travis Beckum, has been limited during the team's OTAs due to a hamstring injury.

Pope said that Bennett, listed at 270 pounds, recently weighed in at 291 pounds and "that is probably a little too big for his legs to carry."

Pope does not appear to be thrilled that Bennett, entering his fifth season, is missing reps.

"We run a lot more than he might have been accustomed to. Plus we are in the middle of a weight program and the combination of those two things has caused him, especially, to have some problems with his hamstrings," Pope said. "He can't afford to miss time, either. Because he needs every possible rep he can take."

Reading through Pope's remarks from Thursday's news conference, you get the idea that the long-time tight ends coach was not happy in general.

"I told them today that not only do they not know what they are doing, but I don't know what they are doing. I don't know what I'm doing. This is a crash course for guys that haven't had the opportunities that we have had in past years where we could meet with these guys. These new guidelines that we are working under really, really do make it difficult for us to transport the knowledge to these guys," Pope said. "Today was just not very characteristic of Giants football. We have to be much better ... So we have many miles before we sleep."

One other thing making Pope grumpy is that fourth-round draft choice Adrien Robinson is not attending this session of OTAs as he is finishing up classes at Cincinnati.

"I wish he was here now, because this is valuable time that he is missing. And these are almost irreplaceable," Pope said. "We try to provide as much information before he left as we legally could. But these are new rules and guidelines that we are operating under. So I can't go out there and work with him. If I could, I probably would have tried to have done that over the past weekend. Because in order for us to see if he is going to be able to help us this year coming up, he needs to catch up very rapidly."