Giants OTA takeaways: Wan’Dale Robinson’s spectacular grab is Thursday’s highlight

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Giants held their sixth OTA on Thursday, the second that has been open to media.

Red jerseys

As they did a week ago, the Giants had a hefty number of players working in red, non-contact jerseys that signify rehab from some type of injury. No. 5 overall pick Kayvon Thibodeaux, who left an OTA media had access to early last week, was among them on Thursday.

Players spotted in red jerseys were:

Thibodeaux, Sterling Shepard, Kadarius Toney, Dexter Lawrence, Blake Martinez, Nick Gates, Matt Peart, T.J. Brunson, Collin Johnson, Cam Brown, Jamil Douglas, Richie James, Rodarius Williams, Darren Evans.

One player NOT wearing a red jersey was wide receiver Kenny Golladay, who did have a red jersey during the OTA open to media one week ago. Golladay, though, did not participate in any of the 11-on-11 work.

Play of the day

Without doubt, that went to rookie wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson. Matched up 1-on-1 with cornerback Aaron Robinson, the 5-foot-8 second-round pick went up for a 50-50 deep ball from Daniel Jones and made a twisting grab in the back of the end zone for touchdown.

More noteworthy plays

There was a healthy amount of 11-on-11 action on Thursday. Here are a few more noteworthy plays.

• Daniel Jones was intercepted twice, but neither was his fault. Wide receiver Richie James appeared to slip down on a sideline route, and Adoree’ Jackson came away with the ball. Safety Xavier McKinney came away with a pick after wide receiver David Sills bobbled a pass that should have been a touchdown, batting it into the air for McKinney to grab.
• Saquon Barkley appeared to fumble after catching a pass across the middle, with edge Elerson Smith coming out of the pack with the ball.
• Nose tackle Justin Ellis destroyed a screen pass for Ricky Seals-Jones in the backfield.
• Seals-Jones dropped a seam route where the defense appeared to blow the coverage, leaving him without a defender within 10 yards.
• Backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor dropped a couple of dimes on deep outs, one to C.J. Board and another to Alex Bachman.
• Cornerback Maurice Canady had a nice pass breakup on a fade from Davis Webb to wide receiver Robert Foster.
• Jones hit Darius Slayton with a deep ball. Slayton beat Adoree’ Jackson badly on the play.

Daniel Jones and aggression

Daboll, for the second week in a row, was asked about his desire to see quarterback Daniel Jones take some chances with his throws during practice.

I think those are all good learning lessons. Can you fit it in that window, can he move the safety with his eyes, can he anticipate where a receiver is going to be based on the choice that the receiver has. That’s going to be all the way through the rest of these OTAs and through training camp,” Daboll said.

“I think that’s why you practice for a quarterback especially, it’s okay to make a mistake in practice. You touch the ball on every single play. Let’s go ahead and find out what we need to work on and let’s continue to be as aggressive as we can.”

Roster move

The Giants waived rookie defensive back Jordan Mosley. Mosley was signed as an undrafted free agent after rookie mini-camp, but was quickly placed on IR.

“Not a cookie-cutter coach”

Andre Patterson is a veteran defensive line coach with a reputation for teaching defensive line play in a way others don’t. He embraces that.

“I need to know my guys better than they know themselves because I’m not a cookie-cutter coach,” Patterson said on Thursday. “I don’t want them all to do the same thing because they’ve all got different gifts.”

I asked Patterson to explain what he meant.

“If you go to a store and you buy a box of cookies they’re all perfectly shaped, right? All perfectly round,” Patterson said. “What I mean by that is you don’t teach everybody to play the same way because my skills set is different than another guy.

“If I’m making them all play the same way there may be three guys in the room that that technique fits. The rest of the guys in the room it doesn’t fit them. So the impression is that they’re not good enough to play here, but if you mess around with the scheme within their skillset then their ability to be a great player comes out.

“Is it harder to teach as a coach? Yes. But my job is to get the best out of every guy who has a blue helmet on.”

It’s a business

Giants’ cornerback Adoree’ Jackson didn’t hide his feelings about James Bradberry being let go by the team.

“It hurts. That’s a guy that when I came in, we bounced ideas off each other, different techniques, how he plays,” Jackson said.

But at the end of the day, I gained a brother in the process of knowing him. At the end of the day, it’s like your brother going off to college. He’s my brother, he goes somewhere else but at the same time still being in touch with him and happy for him at the end of the day.”

Jackson echoed the feelings of many Giants fans about Bradberry signing with the Philadelphia Eagles.

“That sucks.”

Notable

Steve Smith Sr. showed up at Giants’ practice today. Smith was in New Jersey with a film crew. He posted a bad joke that wasn’t true.