Giants training camp week in review: Plays, quotes of the week

The New York Giants had a busy week. The hatchet was temporarily buried between the franchise and star running back Saquon Barkley, as the 26-year-old signed a one-year contract worth 11 million with slightly more than $900,000 in incentives. Andrew Thomas also resigned on a five-year, $117.5 million contract with $67 million guaranteed. A busy week for Joe Schoen.

In typical Barkley fashion, he has said and done everything in accordance with the Giants since signing the contract. In the first training camp practice, Barkley channeled his inner Amani Toomer - ignoring the disdain for his Michigan roots - to pull off what Nate Burleson would deem this toe-drag swag catch after beating Xavier McKinney on a double (or triple) move.

Here’s the play in its entirety:

Not to accentuate the obvious, but this is training camp with no pressure or complex coverages, but it was nice to see the elusiveness and concentration of Barkley to break free and secure the catch with both feet in bounds.

A rookie sixth-round pick out of Old Dominion, Tre Hawkins III was savvy vs. rookie UDFA Bryce Ford-Wheaton in red zone drills on Thursday:

This clip made its rounds on Twitter, and it does show positive signs for Hawkins III, who understood the operating space on the field. With patience, Hawkins III knew that Ford-Wheaton had limited space to maneuver, so he positioned himself on the inside hip of the receiver and did not overplay his positioning, which could have left him susceptible to a back-shoulder throw.

Instead, Hawkins III allowed Ford-Wheaton to restrict his own space by gaining too much depth in his route; Hawkins III then waited on the break, didn’t bite on the fake, and undercut the dig, forcing Ford-Wheaton to the end-line and into a defensive position. Very good execution of technique and field awareness by the day three pick. However, Ford-Wheaton had his handful of impressive plays; here’s one of them:

Darren Waller has earned praise from teammates and media members since he arrived in New York, and he hasn’t disappointed through the early parts of camp. Waller embodies the team-name Giant.

Waller has been uncoverable and looks significantly bigger than the defenders tasked to guard him. For that, he earned the nickname Wun Wun from this writer. That is, of course, a reference to one of the Giants in the HBO series Game of Thrones.

George R.R. Martin wrote A Song of Ice and Fire - the book based on Game of Thrones. Martin was raised in New Jersey and is a Giants fan. He named the Giant Wun Wun in the book after Phil Simms, whose number was 11 (Wun Wun). Here’s Darren Waller epitomizing that nickname:

Great high throw by Jones over the middle of the field where only Waller could reach it. Holmes hardly had a shot. Speaking of ideal ball placement, here’s a beautiful throw to Slayton up the sideline against rookie cornerback Deonte Banks:

It’s difficult to see the passing concept, but it appears like it has elements of a sail (or flood) concept, which is a three-man route concept with the outside receiver taking the vertical to clear out space for the number two receiver to run a corner route or deep out. The number two is Waller (12), who we see at the beginning of the video against Bobby McCain (21). There may not be a third receiving option to the flat. Still, judging Jones’ eyes, he appeared to want the vert the entire time.

We can’t see on the video, but Darius Slayton (86) likely won off the release, stacked, maintained the red line, and Jones placed the ball well away from Xavier McKinney (29), who was the incoming post safety. Speaking of releases, let’s take a look at Jalin Hyatt’s (84) wide-step release against Tre Hawkins III (36):

The wide step is best used when a receiver wants to release to the inside. The receiver uses his outside (back) foot to step wide outside the defensive backs frame to threaten him outside. The receiver then explodes off the outside foot back to the inside, while dipping their inside shoulder to minimize the surface area of contact for the defensive back. With the defensive back influenced outside, the wide receiver can either work to stack the DB or lean into the defender to subtly create contact by using a flipper technique as the WR enters the break, as Hyatt does above. Here’s a quick summary of Hawkins III on the rep:

Last but not least for this week, here are a few video clips from various press conferences throughout the week: