He’s back!

DE Osi Umenyiora, who has had a strange camp thus far that has seen him report a day late and then sit out of practice due to a sore knee, was back on the practice field today without a new contract and wearing his familiar blue 72 jersey.  

Looking very active on the field, Umenyiora  showed no signs of being disgruntled, as he went through the individual unit drills and worked hard in team drills.

And his teammates were happy to have him back.

“Still smiling and I feel like he’s having fun being around the guys,” said DE Justin Tuck about Umenyiora’s mood.

“Osi is a great player, he is one of our top defensive pass rushers,” added second-year man Jason Pierre-Paul.

Pierre-Paul praised Umenyiora for his ability to get to the ball quickly and said he hoped to learn that skill from his defensive teammate. “I’m still trying to learn how to get around the corner and work my foot work out and he is going to teach me all of that and so will Tuck and (Mathias) Kiwanuka and all the defensive players. I am just going to learn from them.”

While Umenyiora was unable to practice, his teammates praised him for not being a distraction.

“He’s been alert at meetings, been at every practice, hasn’t said much, paid attention, getting his knee right and I think it was more of a media stunt to make it a bigger deal than what it really was,” said CB Terrell Thomas. “He has been a team player about this the whole time. It’s unfortunate about the situation, but I’m happy that it was all corrected and he’s being a Giant again.”

Tuck, who admitted to having doubts about whether Umenyiora would actually go through with practicing – he cited other instances where Umenyiora said one thing and did another – was asked if he thought his fellow defensive end had finally put his situation concerning his contract dispute with the team behind him.

“Well there are still some things in the works as far as him and his contract, but for us as players it hasn’t been a distraction,” Tuck said. “He’s done a great job of not letting it become a distraction with how he’s approached it in the meeting rooms he has still been that guy that’s coached up the young guys and doing everything possible to help this football team. I look at it as he’s back on the field and we’ll take it one day at a time.”

Pierre-Paul is Having Fun
Giants DE Jason Pierre-Paul, who had a big night against the Panthers with two sacks and a quarterback hurry that resulted in Michael Boley’s return for a touchdown, shrugged when asked about the plays he made.

“Basically Coach (Perry) Fewell called a few plays and I understood them and was just able to play fast,” he said.

Despite his big night, Pierre-Paul has not locked up a starting job and instead will be part of a rotation. “The coaches already told me that I am going to be working both sides. I am not going to be on one side. I will be playing right end and left defensive end. That is how I played last year.”

If he’s not a starter, that’s just fine with Pierre-Paul. “They say that I am still a rookie so it doesn’t matter if I start or not. I just want to go out there and play football and do what I need to do.”

Terrell Thomas Not Worried about Future
CB Terrell Thomas is entering the final year of his rookie contract this season, and like anyone else in his situation, is hoping to get a new deal done so that he can secure his financial future.

So when asked if he learned anything about waiting after seeing what happened with defensive teammate Osi Umenyiora, who extended his rookie contract but who, of course, now feels underpaid and unappreciated by the team,. Thomas shook his head no.

“I’m not worried about that. The Giants take care of the draft picks that they draft. I’m pretty loyal to them. I love the Giants and I’m not worried about that.”

Still when asked if he thought he could be happy with the last year of a long-term extension as he’d be with the first year, Thomas said, “Well you never know. It changes over time. There are a lot of people that sign a contract that get cut after the second year or third year. It’s unfortunate, but it goes both ways. You can’t be mad at the player or when an owner cuts that player.”

Manning, Snee: Offense Will Be Okay
RG Chris Snee said he wasn’t worried about the fact that the offensive line had some communication issues in Saturday’s preseason opener. “There’s no panic here. We know what we have to fix.”

Snee acknowledged that there were communication issues, but insisted that they would be resolved with repetition. However, when asked if he might have to become a bit more verbal until new C David Baas becomes more comfortable inn the Giants’ scheme, Snee said, “I guess a little bit. I don’t really care to do that. He knows all the calls. He does a good job coming off the ball. If there’s something that needs to be changed or we disagree upon, we come to the sideline and talk about it. He’s the center. He’ll make the calls. We’ll go from there.”

QB Eli Manning also defended Baas. “He has only had a week of practice and a lot has been thrown at him. He is in a whole new offense where most of the guys on the offensive line have been here six or seven years,” Manning said.

“We have grown as a unit and put in more calls and checks and put a lot more on the offensive line and quarterback to communicate. You can get a lot of it in practice but these preseason games are very important because things come up that maybe you haven’t talked about or haven’t come up in practice. A lot is going to happen but no fumbled snaps and no miscommunication between us so he will get better every practice and every game.”

Practice Observations
* With Lawrence Tynes (thigh) sidelined on a day-to-day basis, the Giants had both of their punters attempt extra points. Steve Weatherford was two for two, splitting the uprights on both attempts. Matt Dodge, meanwhile when one for two, with both of his attempts hooked to the left, the second of which, a miss, hooked badly to the left.

Coughlin didn’t rule out adding another kicker on a temporary basis, saying that he would be fine with the decision to work kickers out. Meanwhile, Tynes said the results of his MRI were encouraging, though he stopped short of saying he’d be ready for next Monday night’s game against Chicago.

“I’ve got to kick first. I’m not going to make any predictions today,” he said. “I definitely mentally feel like I could get there. I’m a pretty fast healer. I generally have done well with things like this, so hopefully it’s fine.

Tynes shook his head when asked if he would mind if the team brought in another kicker until he was able to get back to full strength. “No, not at all. This is my job; no one is going to take it from me,” he said. “I feel if they want to make that decision, it certainly depends on my health.”

* RB Ahmad Bradshaw was unable to turn up field on a wide run, as LB Jon Goff did a nice job of staying with him stride for stride to string out the play. Bradshaw made up for his loss of yardage though on the next play by taking a swing pass and gaining about seven yards behind RT Kareem McKenzie’s lead block.

* WR Domenik Hixon had a ball go right through his hands. Granted the pass was thrown slightly in front of him, but if a receiver can get a hand on the ball, he should be able to haul it in. Hixon later on beat Aaron Ross, who again failed to get his arms around the receiver and instead tapped his shoulder pads.

* DE Alex Hall had no trouble getting by TE Travis Beckum to blow up a running play that was coming to the strong side. Beckum just completely whiffed on the block.

* Tynes praised P Matt Dodge, who handled kickoffs in practice last week and who could very well be on his way to handling that ob full time if he beats out Steve Weatherford for the punting job. “He can kick off, for sure,” Tynes said of dodge. “He just has not mastered the run up. I mean, you see what he can do from 3, 4 yards away. He’s got the ability and hopefully in two or three years down the road, I can say you kick off.”

* Speaking of Weatherford and Dodge, both punted extremely well this practice. You can, however, see the difference in the experience when it comes to directional kicking as Weatherford was able to drop the ball along the far hash marks whereas Dodge managed to get the ball just outside of the numbers. With Weatherford getting the ball closer to the sideline, that enabled the gunners to get down field and minimize the return.

* It was great to see Domenik Hixon fielding punts. I’m beginning to think that the reason why he didn’t handle punt returns last week was because they were still managing his knee (and they will continue to do so through the rest of the summer, according to Tom Coughlin). Meanwhile WR Jerrel Jernigan continues to look unimpressive in that role.

“In the return game he was okay,” said Coughlin when asked about Jernigan. “To tell you the truth, the last couple days practice wise and game wise the other night, he has probably performed better than he has the whole fall. I’m hoping that will transcend into the return game as well.”

Hixon predicted that he’ll probably end up winning the punt return job back. “It’s kind of something that (the coaches) have a plan and we’re sticking to it. Things may look good, but we’re still sticking to the plan.”

* In individual drills, corner backs coach Peter Giunta was teaching his troops how to jam the receiver. Michael Coe in particular did a nice job of jamming Victor Cruz, drawing praise from Giunta.

* RB André Brown does indeed look very quick. He showed excellent vision in picking out the correct hole to work his way through traffic, and he quickly hit the hole and was through it before the defense had a chance to adjust and get a hand on him.

*RB Da’Rel Scott seemed to have no trouble with executing an outside run; however, when sent between the tackles, he either doesn’t yet trust his blocking or is having trouble picking out creases because on at least two occasions, he stutter-steppe to the hole and was stopped for a loss of yardage.

* OL Chris White, who was in at left guard for one play, was knocked flat to the ground when he got poor leverage against his man. I didn’t see who the defender was, but I did see white get tossed aside like a rag doll on that play.

* Mathias Kiwanuka lined up at defensive end on a Manning pass to RB DJ Ware. With Osi Umenyiora apparently back in the fold, the Giants are rich beyond words at defensive end, as the plan apparently is to rotate Jason Pierre-Paul in at both defensive end spots, and move Kiwanuka from strong side linebacker to defensive end on pass rushing downs.

* Rookie DT Marvin Austin looked like the one who flattened C David Baas on the play in which Baas appeared to tweak his leg. Baas was right back in action on his next series, so whatever the injury was, it clearly wasn’t serious.

* Chris Snee looked to be in mid-season pull, executing flawlessly on a pull and smacking in Jonathan Goff to spring the runner.

* Defensive coordinator Perry Fewell didn’t like what he saw from his defense after David Carr completed a pass to Domenik Hixon. He yelled for the defense  to pick up the tempo.

* Speaking of Carr, I thought he threw the ball well in practice.  Carr will get his chance in the battle of the backup quarterbacks next week against Chicago.

* I’ve been noticing RB Charles Scott flash at least once a practice. One on play today, he did a nice job of securing the ball, squaring his shoulders and hips, and plowing through traffic for about 6 yards. Scott doesn’t look to be particularly fast as far as foot speed goes, but he does run with power, a la Brandon Jacobs.

* In seven-on-sevens, TE Jake Ballard beat Jonathan Goff for a reception as Goff seemed to take a poor angle to the ball that left Ballard with a bit of a cushion in which to maneuver.

* Domenik Hixon failed to secure a ball that was deflected by Terrell Thomas right into the receiver’s hands.

* Duke Calhoun made a gorgeous reception on a deep ball thrown by Ryan Perrilloux, beating Darnell Burks, who was in on the coverage. Perrilloux probably won’t make the 53-man roster, but boy does he have a strong arm.

In addition to that pass, he also threw another beauty earlier in the practice, a ball that like the completion to Calhoun was a perfect spiral, hand good height and was thrown on a rope. His play drew praise from Coughlin after practice.

Interestingly, Coughlin, unprompted, agreed with our assessment of Perrilloux in our Carolina post game report that Perrilloux still looks a little hesitant with making his reads and thus takes a little longer to make decisions. That’s likely a result of him not having any chance to work with the playbook or the coaches during the spring.

* I’m not sure if this is a recurring habit, but on two pass receptions, I saw Travis Beckum leave his feet unnecessarily. This is something I’ll try to keep an eye on, as when a receiver leaves his feet automatically, that’s not a good thing, especially if he beats the defender.

* Victor Cruz ran well on an end-around, doing a nice job of protecting the ball despite a shoulder hit from DB Brian Jackson.

* FB Henry Hynoski, working with the second team, threw a nice block against a linebacker that sprung André Brown to the outside. Hynoski did a nice job in getting underneath his man’s pads and standing the guy up.

* In red zone drills, Michael Boley picked off a pass intended for Travis Beckum thrown by Eli Manning. Boley just managed to get himself into the right position to make the pick, and seemed to catch Beckum off guard by the mere fact that he got in front of him.

* Carr overthrew Darius Reynaud by a mile, and Manning, who to me didn’t look crisp in this practice, ended things by overthrowing Hakeem Nicks.

INJURY REPORT
WR Sam Giguere (groin) left in his car before the start of practice to seek some additional medical treatment for what  Coughlin described the receiver’s injury as being “serious.” According to Didier Ormejuste, a CFL analyst, the results of Giguere’s MRI revealed a partially torn groin.

Also missing practice today were DE Dave Tollefson (back); K Lawrence Tynes (thigh), S Jarrad Tarrant (shoulder), DB Woodny Turrene (calf), DB Joe Burnett (hamstring), and QB Sage Rosenfels (illness).

In addition to Umenyiora, returning to practice were TE Travis Beckum (hamstring), and S Brian Jackson (back).

BLUE NOTES
Coughlin clarified that Bear Pascoe is currently the team’s starting fullback and second tight end. However, at some point, it’s thought that rookie Henry Hynoski will eventually take over as the starting fullback, allowing Pascoe to move back to tight end full time.

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The Giants reportedly signed S Derrick Martin, formerly with Green Bay and Baltimore. Martin, who would provide veteran dept at safety, is also a special teams player.

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Manning praised the job done by the tights ends in the preseason opener against Carolina. “I thought we blocked very well. Seeing Jake Ballard in the run game gives us a strong guy and held his own in that aspect.”

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Weather permitting, the Giants practice will be open to the public tomorrow. It is scheduled to run from 1:30 – 3:30 at theTimexPerformanceCenter. If the weather looks iffy, fans are advised to call the team’s training camp hotline, 201-935-9385 to learn about practices times and other camp info.