Giants Training Camp Day 8: Odell Beckham Jr. Looking Like He Can Carve Out A Role | Blue Rush

The offense strikes back. This is your New York Post Sports Post Practice Report. Still, to this day, I'm still messing up saying that sometimes. Practice number seven, day eight for the New York Giants. The third day in pads. Offense, defense, it looked like one of the best or most balanced practices. I'm Brandon London. This is a special episode, a collaboration episode. We have Ed Valentine from Big Blue View here today to give his view of what he saw at practice today. Ed, you're the guest. Thank you, sir, for coming in today. We will start with you. Where do you want to start with? What type of notes or observations do you have from another pad of practice from the Giants? First, thanks for having me. Appreciate the opportunity. I thought this was the best day for the offense. Easily the best day for the offense. I would not say that they dominated in any stretch. Today was a little different. We saw a lot of first-team versus second-team offense and first-team defense versus second-team offense. We saw some things mixed up today, but there were more plays. There were fewer penalties. Odell Beckham had a nice day. Yes, he did. We'll talk about that. I'm sure nobody wants to talk about Odell. Why? Why? It gives no retweets. But I did think this was a better day for the offense just in terms of the number of plays that they were able to make down the field. I think there was a session late in practice where Jameis Winston threw touchdowns on three straight red zone plays. Better day for the offense, not a terrible day for the defense either. Maybe what you would call the most balanced day that we've seen so far. Yes, sir. To elaborate on the ones going up against some twos or threes, Coach Harbaugh talked about that. He said that the coordinators wanted to script some things. They wanted to get certain looks rather than be one offense versus two or three defense or vice versa. He said that they were still running their plays, their offense, their defense, but that was a chance for coordinators to script some stuff so their offense or their defense could get certain looks. Obviously, before we talk about OBJ and the day that he has, you're going to see Jackson Dart through two picks. I'm sure you've seen it by now. It's on Twitter. People are talking about it. We can talk about the type of picks. Me and you had an off-camera conversation already. First, there was one across the middle. A little behind, Darnell Moody. It gets tipped. It gets picked. I believe Lane was the one who picked that off. The second one, deep crossing route to one of his favorite receivers of camp, Calvin Austin III. He looked like he was just trying to fit something in. As a wide receiver, I put him down with one on him, one interception on him. Two, I call it a camp interception. What say a few? We had a little bit of this discussion during practice, as you said. I was thinking about Eli Manning in training camp years ago because Eli used to throw a lot of balls that would get intercepted or knocked down or not look great. Part of that was to learn. To learn whether Brandon London could make that play. To learn whether his new wide receiver could make that play or would make a play on a 50-50 ball or would knock down a ball that maybe Eli shouldn't have thrown. Or maybe as he got older, to see if he still had the juice to squeeze a ball in. We talked about that. Maybe the second one was dart, just seeing if he could squeeze that ball in. The first one, a little bit behind Darnell Moody. I don't know if you call it a drop, but it's the seventh day of training camp. Your timing's not always going to be perfect. A little bit behind him, Moody batted it up in the air. Defense did what it's supposed to do. Absolutely. Again, I put that one on Jackson Dart. Obviously, he took accountability for throwing the ball at Greg Newsom yesterday. He'll probably step up, take accountability for throwing that interception. Receiver-wise, we're still going to call that a drop in the room. You put your hands on it. That's the Plaxico bird method right there. I just come from that. While receiver room, if we get our hands on it, it touches any part of our body, we've got to come down with that. But again, like you said, that second interception, again, it's still an interception. You're going to still see it in meetings as an interception. But if I'm Calvin Austin and I'm having the camp that I'm having with Jackson Dart so far, I want him to try and fit that in. If I'm Brandon London, Jalen Hyatt, Dalen Cambry, a bubble guy, and I get a chance to go with an Eli Manning or a Jackson Dart, the QB1, I want you to throw that football and try to fit it in because I have to try and do everything I can to come down with that football. So we got that out of the way. We gave our big blue view of what we saw on the two interceptions. Now I see you smiling. It's time to talk about Odell Beckham Jr. Coach Harbaugh spoke about him. Craig Newsome kind of talked, and Odell talked at the podium as well. Here's what Odell had to say about his day. It's all in my room at the hotel. You know, there's absolutely nothing to do here. Beautiful place, but nothing to do here. And a quote that I kind of share with the team was, yesterday's touchdown doesn't win you today's game. And I felt like I came out yesterday and I was like, I want to have my best day. And I felt like I had a good day, right? Some things to work on, to learn from, okay, to get better. And I was like, all right, I want to have an even better day tomorrow. And I feel like the whole team kind of is carrying that mentality. But personally for me, it's just about stacking those days and just finding ways to build confidence, build confidence from within the team and myself included. You were off doing an interview during that time when he was at the podium, but he basically said he's been waiting for this opportunity. He's getting more opportunities. He's getting more targets. He feels comfortable. I mean, from what you saw from Odell, not only today, but the last two days, does it look like he could carve out a role and targets in this offense this year? Absolutely. I mean, the thing about it for Odell is more than anything else, Odell Beckham has to show that he can show up every single day, that he can practice every single day. And so far he has done that. The last two days, I know people want to make a huge thing out of the fact that he's gotten first-team reps the last couple of days. And he has. And today he made a lot of plays, first team, second team, some catches from Brandon Allen, third-team quarterback. He made plays. This was easily his best day. But let's not go so far as to say, hey, it looks like Odell's a starting wide receiver because we also saw Jalen Hyatt get first-team reps today. We saw Xavier Gibson get first-team reps today. They are mixing and matching. But I will take nothing away from Odell because Odell has looked better. We were talking about it in the media tent a little bit. He's shown more than I think any of us after a year away and not being productive in 2024. He's shown more than we thought he would. You mentioned the interview that I was doing. It happened to be with Ardarius Washington, former Baltimore Ravens defensive back who played with Odell in 2023. And I asked Ardarius about Odell and whether he was still the same player that they saw in 2023, which was really Odell's last productive season. And he said he looks better. He said he looks better. He looks healthier. He looks more comfortable and happier. What Ardarius said is sometimes Odell gets in his own head. And he said that Odell just seems to be happy and relaxed and playing and looks better than he did the last time they played together. When it comes to getting in our own head, that's every receiver. Because, I mean, you run a route, you don't get the ball. You're thinking in your head, was that a good enough route? Was I locked up? Did I get jammed up? Was I in my spot? And we've seen it. Everyone on the beat, they've seen it. We had our Ryan Dunleavy here for the Post yesterday, and he's talking about Odell is getting open, but you're not getting targets. So that's the thing. In order to evaluate wide receivers, you have to get the ball thrown to you. You can't tweet that, hey, Odell was open. Hey, Odell ran a nice curl route. That's not retweetable. No one's going to care about that. They want to talk. Everybody wants to highlight plays when it comes to this guy. And he had a catching run off of a shallow cross today where he turned on some jets. Had some nice catches, and he just looks comfortable within this offense. But he has since day one. He came in the spring. Again, I said it yesterday, the mittens haven't gone anywhere, and he's going to catch the football. Just to move on when we're talking about this offense, and I should have told you this before we walked over here. I think I see a camp battle or a camp position battle at the TE2 position between Tanner Conner and Theo Johnson. Is that the bubble guy in me trying to create an opportunity for Tanner Conner, who is catching the ball very well? You're stirring stuff up, Brandon. You're stirring stuff up. But what I will say is Tanner Conner has been very impressive. Tanner Conner is making a bid to force the Giants to make a decision. Okay, all right. And now what I will say is Theo Johnson is an incredibly frustrating player simply because he's so big, he's so talented, he moves so well. Yes, he does. He gets himself open. And today we saw him make two very difficult catches with Tyler Newben all over him. But you throw the ball to Theo Johnson when he's wide open and he somehow manages to leave it on the ground. And that is very frustrating. And for me, look, right now as I sit here today, I would say Theo Johnson, fourth-round pick, been here for a couple years, I would say he's making this team over Tanner Conner. But the reality of it is we have never been through a John Harbaugh training camp, a John Harbaugh cut down to a 53-man roster. John Harbaugh's not going to be beholden to Theo Johnson if he doesn't do his job in training camp. He's not going to be beholden to Jalen Hyatt if he doesn't make plays in training camp. He's not going to be beholden to any of these draft picks. He's going to take the players who do the best job. And that's why I said there's some sort of camp battle going on because I feel as though Tanner Conner has put himself in the position to be talked about to make this team. Now we've got to see what he does in the preseason games, but if he's catching passes in the preseason games from Jackson Dart or James Winston, whatever, if he's being consistent, I think there's a conversation that can be held there. The only thing, Theo, when they go that 12 personnel, the two tight ends, because Isaiah likely is a hybrid receiver slash tight end, Theo Johnson may get that starting nod because he blocks better than Tanner Conner. But when you talk about John Harbaugh, Coach Harbaugh, not being beholden to some of these players, you said Theo Johnson, you said Jalen Hyatt who he mentioned today has caught their eye or has caught their attention in making some plays. There's also a guy, a Taye Banks. So we'll flip and talk about the defensive side of the football. We can talk Taye and we can talk about the secondary as a whole who I feel as though is having one of the better camps as a unit than what we've seen in years past. Greg Newsome today was talking about how Taye Banks is playing, did he say amazing? He did use the word amazing. He said he's doing a good job. We're seeing a lot from him, Colton Hood also, Paulson Adebo. We see plays made sometimes and we see balls caught on him at times. Right now, if I had to put you on the spot right now, one, who is your top four corners who are going to make the team, four corners, and then who are your top two starters? Well, it's Adebo, it's Newsome, it's Banks, and it's Hood is the top four. Okay, okay. Starters now. Well, Adebo is a starter. I think Adebo is a starter for me. If there was a game this weekend, I think it's Greg Newsome. Greg Newsome? But why Adebo if you say that Coach Harbaugh is not beholden to certain players? He wasn't a John Harbaugh guy in free agency last season. And Coach Harbaugh mentioned how he knows who Taye Banks is because he's from that DMV area down in Washington, D.C., played at Maryland. He said he was happy that he was on this roster when he took the job. So do you think Taye Banks could play himself into that starting unit? Absolutely, absolutely I think he could. Taye Banks, people have to remember, you know, Taye, maturity issues, whatever you want to say, the last couple of years he struggled in the defensive scheme that was being run. It really didn't suit the way he likes to play. I mean, Taye was drafted to come here, play press, play man-to-man, get in somebody's face and be physical. And that's not what he was asked to do the last two years. And I do think that a lot of things that went on, you know, affected him. And we did see the maturity issues, sometimes in the effort issues. But we saw right from the beginning of the spring, we saw a better Taye Banks. Without a doubt. And that has continued. And you have to understand, if you do all the relative athletic score and all the measurements and all of that, if you put Taye Banks next to Malik Nabors. They're probably top two. They are both. Their athleticism is identical. The skills, the physical ability with Taye Banks has always been there. So it's just a matter of getting the right scheme, getting the right system, getting him to learn to pay attention to the small details of how to do this. Because you know this, Brandon. There's very little difference in these players from, in all honesty, from the best player at any position. There are superstar athletes. But for the most part, there's very little difference between the guys who start and the guys who wash out of the league sometimes. Just in terms of athleticism and athletic ability. It's about attention to detail, study habits, footwork, doing all of the little things. Details. And being where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there all the time. Those are the kinds of things that you need to see from Taye. He has the defensive coordinator in a Denard Wilson who, again, Greg Newsome talked about. Each corner, their skill set benefits having a coordinator like a Denard Wilson. We'll talk about what gets your view on the defense as a whole and how that's shaping up. And then we'll give you a shout-out. Who do you think are some guys that deserve some shout-outs that's been making plays that maybe no one's going to tweet about? But your overall thoughts on the defense, not only today, but how it's looked throughout the course of camp. Well, you've really got to go to the padded days, and I thought the defense, the first two padded days, really had an advantage. You still question when it gets to live games. You still question the defensive line, the run defense. But you're seeing such good play from Abdul Carter. You're seeing such good play from Kayvon Thibodeau. You know what Brian Burns is. You know what D.J. Reeder can do in the middle. And one of the things that's just sometimes you hear coaches and GMs talk about certain players or certain things, and you feel like, oh, that's just hyperbole. But Joe Shane and John Harbaugh both talked about when they paired Arvel Reese and Tremaine Edmonds. They talked about the size and the wingspans and the difficulty that that would create for quarterbacks and wide receivers to find passing lanes in the middle. And that plays true every single day. We've seen Tremaine Edmonds pick off passes that Jackson Dart tried very carefully to feather over the top of him. We've seen both of those guys knock down passes. That is absolutely something that's going to be a benefit to this defense is just the size and the athleticism of those two guys in the middle of the field. We're seeing a really good battle for the cornerback jobs. I don't know what's going to happen. You know, every day we see Javon Holland and Tyler Newben at safety. I don't know if a battle might eventually occur there. But again, Newben's a guy who I love the kid coming out of school. Hasn't made the plays. But again, I think this defense, as he said to me yesterday, he said, this defense asks me to do the things that I did at Minnesota. And that's what people want to see. You know, not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, if we were to talk about another position battle in camp or maybe towards as we get closer to the season, maybe a Jason Pinnock versus a Tyler Newben. It all depends on which one, I guess, fills that need of what Denard Wilson wants to have at safety because Javon Holland is having himself a pretty solid camp and looks like he's worth that money that they used to bring him here in the offseason last year. I just want to talk about some guys who didn't practice today. Coach Harbaugh said each one of these injuries were minor and had they had a game today, they would have played. Brian Burns didn't practice at all. Malachi Fields did individuals but not any competition periods for the second time today. There was a third one. Bo Braid, maybe? Bo Braid, I think. Yeah, another one. And then 22, Drew Phillips, went down today. We don't know what the injury was, but Coach also said it was minor and that they would evaluate it or keep an eye on it throughout the course of tonight. Before we close this thing out, again, we want to get your big blue view on some guys who are really starting to catch or has been catching your eye throughout the course of today and training camp. I'm going to cheat, all right? If you ain't cheating, you're trying. You ain't cheating, you ain't trying, or something like that. Something like that. I'm going to cheat because I'm going to use a guy that John Harbaugh pointed out today. Okay. That's wide receiver, special teamer, second-year guy, former undrafted free agent, Dalen Cambra. Okay, let's talk about it. Dalen Cambra is a kid who you go back and you look at his college stats and you say, well, how in the world is a kid who caught ten passes in a four-year college career on an NFL team? He's here because as a college player, he was one of the best special teams players in the country. Interesting. And he played well on special teams last year when he got an opportunity. But he has made big play after big play after big play the entire time we've been here in West Virginia. You don't often hear a coach say this, but Harbaugh said today, he's making a move. He's making a move on a roster spot. That just tells you that Cambra and, as you said, maybe Jalen Hyatt, some other guys, Braxton Berrios has done well. But Cambra has John Harbaugh's attention, and I think we'll see what happens when we get to more live special teams. But that's a really interesting one for me. And when you have a head coach who has a special teams background calling you out or giving you praise from the wide receiver standpoint of things, then all you have to do is handle business on the special teams side and, sir, go ahead. You can rent your apartment, maybe be able to get yourself a mortgage, but you are going to be in north New Jersey. You're going to make that team. Ed, appreciate you coming on with us today. This was fun, my man. Thanks for having me. That was another episode or another episode of the New York Post Post-Practice Report for Brandon London, Ed Valentine. We will see you guys for practice number seven? Eight. We're in the dog days of camp, y'all. Excuse me.