Giants Training Camp: Rookie Report Card

One of the most interesting parts of training camp is always to see how rookies adapt to the NFL. Coach Ben McAdoo said over the weekend that the Giants evaluate them the same way they evaluate everyone else on the roster, but they recognize that each young player will develop at a different pace.

“We want to develop them. Again, it’s not all the rookies. Everybody’s different, each player is different. You have to treat them all that way and bring them along as fast as you can bring them, but you have to tailor some things to each guy,” McAdoo said. “Almost like an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) sort of, to try to bring them up to speed as fast as they can come.”

With that in mind, let’s check in quickly on the Giants’ 2017 NFL Draft class and see how each player is adapting. We will get more in-depth once we have seen more, but for now a brief overview of each player’s progress.

Evan Engram

There is a lot to like about the Giants’ first-round pick. He is well-spoken, smart, quite obviously willing and able to take the coaching and adapt to the techniques the Giants are asking him to learn. Oh, and talented.

Engram made a few catches during the two days of team drills, but no real “wow” plays. What’s interesting is the Giants are not backing off in what they are asking him to learn. They have moved him all over the field on offense, including asking him to work inline some and as a lead-blocking fullback at times. They have also asked him to work on punt and kickoff coverage skills.

“Honestly, the offense in college, the tight end was by far the toughest position to learn so I was already kind of adjusted to that, being asked to do a lot. But like I said with the blocking, this is a lot of different technique stuff that I have to learn that I didn’t really get to master and nearly get the reps in college. Tight ends are kind of the Swiss army knife, especially like ours, so there’s a lot we have to learn. But, there’s a lot of technique for us to learn so we can be successful in the things we have to do.”

Dalvin Tomlinson

The second-round pick is a big man who moves well, and might eventually become the starter next to Damon Harrison. Really, though, we haven’t yet been able to see what Tomlinson can do. That is one of the things that makes upcoming padded practices interesting.

Defensive captain Jonathan Casillas is looking forward to seeing what happens when Tomlinson gets to hit someone:

“Dalvin, a young guy, can’t really say he’s done too much because we can’t do anything, interior-wise. Now we’re going to see how good Dalvin is and that’s going to be interesting,” Casillas said.

Davis Webb

If there was any doubt — which there really should not have been — that the Giants’ intent is for Webb to be the No. 3 quarterback and “red shirt” in 2017, Saturday and Sunday should put that to rest. The rookie third-round pick and potential quarterback of the future got a grand total of four reps during regular team practice periods. Josh Johnson and Geno Smith got far more.

His only extended work came during Sunday’s “opportunity” phase for the young players. Webb went 4-of-8 during that phase, missed badly on a couple of throws and spent a lot of time in-between plays discussing what went right or wrong with coaches.

Wayne Gallman

Gallman, like Webb, didn’t get a ton of reps Saturday or Sunday. Most of his time has come in the “opportunity” portion of practice, and he has looked pretty smooth catching the ball.

Avery Moss

Really little to tell about Moss at this point. We will find out much more this week when the Giants get into full pads.

Adam Bisnowaty

The sixth-round pick has worked exclusively at right tackle during camp. Right now, Bisnowaty doesn’t appear to be a legitimate threat to incumbent starter Bobby Hart. We’ll see if that changes once the hitting starts.