OTA report: McAdoo praises JPP, rookies Darian Thompson and Sterling Shepard

As the final week of OTAs began, New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo Monday complimented several players on the team -- from veteran stars to the rookie class. Arguably the most encouraging remark he gave is regarding the progress seen from Jason Pierre-Paul, who missed the entire offseason and the first eight games after his fireworks mishap. Now that he is working out with the team again, McAdoo already sees the improvement.

"Well, obviously he has a year under his belt now," said McAdoo. "He has been able to hit the weight room and is able to go out and practice fundamentals with it for a year, so obviously he is ahead of the game that way ... He has definitely improved his fundamentals. I’m sure if you asked him, he would be able to give you a pretty good indication of it. He looks a lot more comfortable. He has always been a very disruptive player and we expect that to continue."

McAdoo said the defense as a unit was impressive in the two-minute drills as they have been able to make a stand and get stops. One of these stops highlighted the skills out of third-round pick Darian Thompson.

"Darian Thompson picked the ball off and then took a knee," McAdoo said. "He had enough awareness to know that the game was over at that point in time with the offense only having one timeout and under 50 seconds; I believe that was what was on the clock at that point on the tipped ball, so he showed good awareness there. You can obviously feel the pass rush a little bit with the front and the secondary has good coverage, so that is encouraging ... he can communicate well and we know he has good ball skills. That showed up in his stat line and on his film study and he is making the most of his opportunities."

On the other side of the ball, wide receiver Sterling Shepard has been turning heads for the entirety of OTAs.

"The thing about Sterling is he will make a mistake, as a lot of young guys do and a lot of veterans do, but he doesn’t seem like the guy that is going to repeat that mistake," McAdoo said. "So once he makes a mistake, he will fix it, he will move on, he will learn from it and he is continuing to pick things up and he is doing a nice job right now for us."

McAdoo said not repeating mistakes is an important trait. This would seem to bode well for Shepard.

"Probably most importantly is if they can digest the information, not repeating mistakes," McAdoo said. "That is an important part of the learning process for us. They have to be able to play fast, drop their weight, push out of breaks so they can create separation. If you can’t drop your weight and push out of breaks, it is tough to separate in this league. It doesn’t matter how fast you are, they need to be able to detail the way they catch the ball. They need to be able to pluck it away from their eyes and their body and do it on the front end of the ball."

The next media access will be at the mandatory minicamp, which will be from July 14-16.

Remaining OTA schedule

Tuesday, June 7

Thursday, June 9

Friday, June 10

Mandatory minicamp will be held from June 14-16 (media access)