New York Giants News

New York Giants' news, 8/2: Nicks sits, Pugh gets first-team reps, more

New York Giants notes for Friday morning.

By Ed Valentine@Valentine_Ed Aug 2, 2013, 8:20am EDT

Good morning, New York Giants' fans! Here is your Friday morning notebook.

Hakeem Nicks sits out practice

Sam mentioned this is the Thursday practice report, along with the fact that wide receivers coach Kevin M. Gilbride was pretty direct in his comments about the wide receiver needing to get on the practice field. Here is what Gilbride said:

"I think he needs to practice. He knows it. He and I talk about it all the time and he knows it. In order for you to be ready for the season, you need to have done it and done it over and over and done it wrong, made the adjustment and then have it become part of what you do, the correct way to do it," Gilbride said. "He’s not there yet, he needs to continue to improve and he knows that. He understands that. In order for him to be ready to produce the way that he wants to produce and the way that we need him to produce, he needs to practice and get ready for that."

Head coach Tom Coughlin was more tempered in his comments about Nicks.

"Certainly, I want to see him on the field and he wants to be on the field. It’s frustrating, but I’ve got to learn to control myself when it comes to that as well and just realize that you know what, he’s trying like heck to get out there and he knows he needs to practice and work at it and he came in excited about being able to go and then he had this little groin injury, which I hope is not going to set him back for very long, but obviously they’re taking all the necessary precautions," Coughlin said.

Beatty aims to reduce penalties

Will Beatty came into his own as one of the better left tackles in the NFL a season ago. The Giants rewarded him with a five-year, $37.5-million contract. Beatty, however, would like to improve in one area -- penalties. His 11 penalties in 2012 were more than twice as many as any other Giants offensive player (Sean Locklear and Eli Manning each had five).

"I still have to get rid of the penalties. That was a negative highlight of last season. Some close games, some of my penalties could have helped out, may have turned the tides. So it’s still getting better on footwork, still getting better on pressure, making sure that you clean it up more," Beatty said.

Justin Pugh gets first-team reps

Rookie offensive lineman Justin Pugh reportedly got a few first-team reps on Thursday. Head coach Tom Coughlin indicated Pugh won't be the only player currently listed as a backup on the depth chart to be given a few reps with the starters.

"We’d like to be able to do that. Basically, the first couple of groups are being interchanged every once and awhile, so you’ll see that," Coughlin said.

Friendly competition for Carr, Painter

The common belief at this point is that rookie Ryan Nassib will be the Giants third quarterback in 2013, leaving David Carr and Curtis Painter to compete for the No. 2 job. Both veteran quarterbacks insist it's a friendly competition.

"One thing that I've kind of noticed across the NFL, from team to team, is, at least in the quarterback rooms, I've never really gotten a feel for a huge competition," Painter said. "It's not one guy really trying to beat out the next guy. Everybody's helping each other. Eli's talking to us, we're talking to Eli, same with David and Ryan. We have a pretty good communication going on in our room. It's just really a matter of helping guys out to make the team better and whatever happens as far as depth chart, the coaches and the other people handle that. We're just all here to learn and get better, individually and that will take care of helping the team out."

Here is Carr's take:

"I'm not going out trying to be rude to anyone or steal anyone's reps," Carr said. "I'm just going out trying to be the best player I can be. Whatever happens, it's out of my hands. It's in God's hands. Coach Coughlin's going to make a decision based on what he thinks is best for his team. He knows what I am as a player. He's seen me for half a decade, so he kind of knows what I'm about. We'll go out there and play our best football and see what happens."