Notes and Quotes From Camp

Tom Coughlin continues to be impressed with rookie WR Ramses Barden, and while Barden’s fellow rookie Hakeem Nicks, the team’s #1 pick this year, caught a nice vertical pass last night, Coughlin seems to downplay Nicks’ accomplishments a bit.  “That was last night,” he said of the play.  “Today is this morning. (Nicks is) not even out there.”

Is Coughlin trying to make Nicks work a bit harder?  Because here is what he said about Barden: “He’s in there. He’s a battler. He caught the deep one over the top. You stand there in the green zone and you notice what a difference it is with him. Hopefully we can take advantage of that. He’s plugging along, doing what we ask him to do and he’s on special teams.” 

Part of it may be Barden’s work ethic..listen to this quote from him last night: “I’m a very big critic of myself. There are certain things I’m happy about, but there’s not one thing that I can’t do better.”  Stuff like that is always music to Coughlin’s ears.

S Kenny Phillips also continues to impress, and Coughlin talked about the interception Phillips made this morning in which he went up with WR Domenik Hixon and came down with the ball.  Meanwhile, Phillips spoke last night about how he feels more confident and comfortable knowing that he’s a starter going in, he has a year of experience under his belt and he also trained hard during the offseason.  “(During the) offseason we kept in touch, made sure that everybody was doing extra drills and working on their hands so that when we get the opportunity to make a play we’ll make it,” Phillips said.

While our secondary has always been a bit suspect, the team has drafted well with CB Aaron Ross in 2007 and Phillips last year. 

Injury notes: Nicks has a bit of a hamstring strain….WR David Tyree has a hip flexor issue….C Shaun O’Hara has a triceps injury, though Coughlin admitted he didn’t know much about it….and DT Chris Canty also has a hamstring injury.  All of them seem to be minor at this point.

Tags: Aaron Ross, Chris Canty, David Tyree, Domenik Hixon, Giants training camp, Hakeem Nicks, Kenny Phillips, New York Giants, Ramses Barden, Shaun O'Hara, Tom Coughlin