The New York Giants on Tuesday will begin a mandatory minicamp that will run three days before the team adjourns for the remainder of the offseason. Here are five things we'll be watching in our final look at the Giants until they return for training camp in late July.
1. Jason Pierre-Paul. It does not appear as though the Giants' franchise defensive end will be on the field with the team this week. Yes, minicamp is mandatory for everyone who's on the roster. But since Pierre-Paul has not yet signed his franchise player tender, he's not technically on the roster, so he doesn't have to attend. Pierre-Paul has voluntarily skipped all of the voluntary portions of the Giants' offseason program, as is his right, while he works out at home with his own trainer. There's a chance he could be in the building and attend meetings this week, but he's not likely to practice, which means the Giants will have to wait another month and a half for Pierre-Paul to practice in Steve Spagnuolo's defense and for rookie left tackle Ereck Flowers to go up against the best pass-rusher the Giants' defense has to offer. They still don't have pads on or be able to really hit each other, but the Giants are eager to get Pierre-Paul out there to help speed up Flowers' learning curve.
2. The rest of the defensive line rotation. If Pierre-Paul isn't on the field, defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins is the only surefire defensive line starter who is. That leaves three open spots at which multiple people are auditioning for playing time and spots in the rotation. At the defensive tackle spot next to Hankins, Markus Kuhn got a lot of work in organized team activities. But Kenrick Ellis and second-year man Jay Bromley are eager to make their cases for playing time along with veteran Cullen Jenkins. At the left defensive end, on the other side of the line from Pierre-Paul's spot, the Giants hope to see Robert Ayers, Damontre Moore and Owamagbe Odighizuwa back from their early-spring injuries and getting their reps along with George Selvie and Kerry Wynn. The Giants have a lot to figure out on the defensive line, and this week offers the final chance for players to show off their footwork and their understanding of the defense for the coaches before training camp.
3. The newly configured offensive line. The plan wasn't for Flowers to play left tackle right away as a rookie. But when Will Beatty went down for 5-to-6 months with a pectoral muscle injury, the plan had to change. The Giants have been working Flowers at that spot all spring, with Marshall Newhouse at right tackle, Justin Pugh at left guard, Weston Richburg at center and Geoff Schwartz/John Jerry at right guard. Unless Schwartz's injuries linger and Jerry plays right guard, that means all five offensive line spots currently have players in them who didn't play those spots last season. The Giants' plan after Beatty got hurt was to use this alignment in the spring and then spend their pre-training camp time evaluating how it looks before deciding whether the plan needed to be changed again. But it's tough to really evaluate offensive line play in no-pads practices. "It is not easy," Coughlin said last week. "You look at every tape and try to be as technical as you can, but there are obvious restrictions for both defense and offense without the pads."
4. Opportunity at wide receiver. Victor Cruz won't be practicing, as he's still recovering from the serious knee injury he suffered in Week 6 of the 2014 season. And the Giants are considering holding Odell Beckham Jr. out of this week's minicamp due to the hamstring injury that cost him the last handful of OTAs. That leaves Rueben Randle as the only projected starting wideout practicing, which means guys such as Dwayne Harris, Corey Washington, Preston Parker and Marcus Harris will get a chance to show what they can do. Unlike the lines, where the lack of contact severely limits evaluations, wide receiver is a position where a player's skills can shine during this time of year. Coaches will be able to evaluate the players' route-running, their understanding of concepts and of course the reliability of their hands. There's a big crowd at wide receiver and not a lot of open spots.
5. Finding a free safety. Second-year safety Nat Berhe has been injured all spring and is missing out on a chance to show what he can do with a starting safety spot open. Rookie Landon Collins is working on learning the free safety position, but he's likely better suited as a box safety. So players such as Berhe, Cooper Taylor and maybe even fifth-round rookie Mykkele Thompson will be asked to show whether they can conduct and handle coverages on the back end. Wide-open competition here.
