Rookie mini-camp notebook: Daniel Jones, Darius Slayton, Eric Dungey, Corey Ballentine

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The first of two rookie mini-camp practices for the New York Giants is in the books. Here are a few notes from Friday’s practice.

Daniel Jones first day

Jones hit some throws, missed some others and generally looked like he had an idea what he was doing on his first full day as an NFL player. He threw at least one short pass much too hard early in practice, but seemed to settle down. There weren’t any interceptions, and no embarrassingly memorable snafus. He threw one really nice deep post to Darius Slayton — that was dropped.

“He did a good,” Shurmur said. “It’s a lot for a quarterback coming into an NFL system. I thought he did a good job today.

“You don’t really want to evaluate the quarterback on the first day because they’re getting used to the receivers. The second day things start to smooth out a little bit.”

More practice notes

• Slayton, the team’s fifth-round pick, dropped at least four passes from Jones. He did, however, make a couple of contested catches late in practice. Shurmur said of the drops “that’s why you practice. There’s a lot to get used to. ... I thought he finished the day pretty well.”
• Former Syracuse quarterback Eric Dungey might be a player to watch. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Dungey is listed as a quarterback/tight end on the mini-camp roster, and could eventually be in line for a look in a Taysom Hill type role. Shurmur said Dungey is “one of those guys we sort of had our eye on throughout the draft.” The coach added that Dungey is “a good football player” and “usually there’s a place on the field for guys that are good football players. We’ll just keep working with him and see what happens.”
• Name of the weekend? That would belong to Freedom Akinmoladun, a tryout linebacker from Nebraska.

Corey Ballentine update

Asked about the sixth-round pick who is recovering after suffering a gunshot wound in the glute when his friend and teammate Dwane Simmons was murdered, Shurmur reminded that Ballentine “was the victim of a crime.”

“He’s a great young man,” Shurmur said. “It’s very unfortunate. He was the victim of a crime. That could happen to any of us. We’re here for him. He’s going through the vigils and the funerals and the things he has to go through.”

Shurmur said he is “hopeful” Ballentine will return when the full team meets again a week from Monday. He said he wants Ballentine to get “full closure.”