Giants OTA No. 4: Corey Ballentine practicing, Dexter Lawrence at DE, more

The New York Giants held their OTA on Tuesday in the East Rutherford rain. Here are some notes from the fourth on-field practice of the spring.

Corey Ballentine progressing

The rookie cornerback, shot in the buttocks in an as-yet unsolved crime that took the life of his friend Dwane Simmons, is doing more and more. Reports indicated that the sixth-round pick did some work during 11-on-11 period in addition to the early-practice individual drills.

“He’s doing what he can do,” coach Pat Shurmur said. “Last week he did a little bit more in individual work and today he finally got his first team reps. He looks good moving around and he gets better each day.’’

The shooting took place just a few hours after Ballentine had been selected by the Giants.

Dexter Lawrence at defensive end

Reports indicated that Dexter Lawrence, the 342-pound collegiate nose tackle selected 17th overall by the Giants, was aligned at defensive end during practice. He was with the second team.

That seems odd, to be honest. The Giants, though, had success playing B.J. Hill, a pure run-stuffing nose tackle at N.C. State, as a defensive end in their base 3-4 alignment a season ago. Perhaps they see a similar role for Lawrence.

Patricia Traina reported that Lawrence did get a few first-team reps.

Jackrabbit not in attendance

OTAs are voluntary, so taking attendance really shouldn’t be a major thing. The absence of Janoris Jenkins was noticed, though. Shurmur told reporters that Jackrabbit had checked in, and that he missed the workout to attend a family graduation.

Depth chart stuff

The first-team defensive alignment, without Jenkins:

Your obligatory Daniel Jones update:

Center competition:

Media madness

You would like to think that TV and radio crews in attendance would have plenty of time to get set up before Shurmur steps to the podium for his post-practice press conference. Having been there for these myself, I know, however, that it doesn’t always work out that way.

Eli, Daniel and “covers”

I’m not sure Shurmur really wanted to put this picture of Eli Manning and Daniel Jones in anyone’s heads. But, he did.

For our Syracuse fans

NOTE: Yours truly had intended to be in East Rutherford today, but didn’t make the trip as I’m a bit under the weather. So, we’re relying on media reports.