True Blue

Beckum signed

The Giants have signed Travis Beckum, the second of
their two third-round selections in this year's NFL Draft. He is the fifth of the nine draft picks to agree to terms.

Beckum, a 6-3, 239-pound tight end from Wisconsin, was the 100th overall choice in the draft. He missed the Giants veteran minicamp because of a hamstring problem, but figures to work as a slotback-H-back type receiver once he grasps the offense.

To make room for Beckum, the Giants waived rookie Alex
Field, a free agent defensive end from Virginia.

 

Boley to miss start of camp, part of preseason

    The Giants announced Wednesday weakside linebacker Michael Boley underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. A full recovery is expected in approximately 8-10 weeks, which means Boley will miss the start of training camp August 2 in Albany and possibly half of the preseason.

    Boley signed with the Giants as a free agent on Feb. 28 after four years with the Atlanta Falcons. A slow receover would mean one of last year's weakside linebackers, Gerris Wilkinson, Bryan Kehl or Chase Blackburn,  may have to start the regular season in Boley's place.

   The Giants also announced the signings of two more draft picks, third-round WR Ramses Barden and fifth-round QB Rhett Bomar. To make room on the 80-man roster, TE George Wrighster, and OL  Mike Fladell were released.

 

Very un-Giantlike

CB Rashad Barksdale learned by text message he was cut by the Giants last week - and from a former teammate, not the team..

"I heard you got released," CB Terrell Thomas texted Barksdale. "Sorry about that."

"It was a shock," Barksdale told the Albany Times-Union. "I felt I was making improvement. ... The shocking thing about it is, I didn't receive any phone calls from anybody. I found out through a teammate."

The University at Albany product was a somewhat surprising cut to make room on the 80-man roster for the signing of draft pick CB Stoney Woodson. He said he eventually got a voicemail from Giants secondary coach Peter Giunta, who told him, "Sorry things didn't work out. You did a great job."

Yet it was very unlike the Giants not to have someone call Barksdale and tell him personally he was cut. "You know, it's the classy thing to do," said Barksdale, who hopes to catch on with another NFL team.

Good-by Barksdale

It's kind of hard to believe the Giants couldn't find someone else to cut other than CB Rashad Barksdale in order to make room for the signing of seventh-round draft pick Stoney Woodson. Barksdale wasn't that bad, he rarely was beaten badly during the recent minicamp. He was the No. 5 CB, and got a lot of time working with the first nickel with Corey Webster, Aaron Ross and Kevin Dockery all ailing at times. This certainly is not an earth-shaking move but it is a rather surprising one.

Wright signed

The reason the Giants cut DT Dwayne Hendricks was to make room on their roster for sixth-round draft pick DeAndre Wright, the first of their nine draft choices to sign his contract. That leaves the roster at 88 with eight more players to be cut as the remaining draft picks officially sign.

So long until Albany

The Giants finished up their three-day mandatory minicamp Thursday with a short practice which finished up with an 18-minute talk from coach Tom Coughlin.

"It was a pretty good one," Coughlin "if-I-must-say-so-myself" said after the monologue to 86 players, many of whom had visions of a quick getaway to start their unusually long six-week vacation period. "Can't go more than 20 minutes, you know the rule."

Coughlin first refused to divulge his message to the media but finally relented and said, "You can go with the idea about the summer and what they have to be careful of, it's a longer stretch. I gave them some notes about the number of practices up there [in Albany], we don't have as many of them, so we have to make them count when we get them."

But the main thrust of Coughlin's farewell-to-the-off-season-program message was one he has hammered at since the end of the playoff loss to Philadelphia last January.

"They need to think long and hard about the disappointment of January in terms of what we created for ourselves and how badly we want to prioritize our 2009 season," he said. "Stop and think about the bitterness of the January situation, and then realize as in, for example, the Laker team, you can focus on that as a primary motivational position to take and let that be something you train for over the summer for getting to and surpassing the circumstances we were in a year ago."

"It was good, getting us prepared for the off-season," said QB Eli Manning said of the speech. "We've got six weeks off now, a longer period than normal, and that we have to work hard and prepare for the season.

"He wanted to make everyone know we had an opportunity last year and if we have that same opportunity this year, we can't let it slip away."

Two players were excused from the final workout, DE Justin Tuck for a family situation, and G Chris Snee for a death in his family. One player was cut, free agent DT Dwayne Hendricks from Miami.

Giants at Yankees

    Tom Coughlin's "team" concept often involves a bonding experience, and he has managed to schedule one for the second night of the mandatory minicamp for the third straight year.

    After Wednesday afternoon's practice the team boarded busses and headed to Yankee Stadium for the game between the Yankees and the Washington Nationals.

    Two years ago Coughlin hosted a Casino Night for the players in Giants Stadium. Last year, he brought in comedians to entertain his team.

 

Few fists fly

A mini-altercation between TE Darcy Johnson and DE Dave Tollefson sparked the Giants Wednesday afternoon minicamp session.

Johnson landed atop Tollefson at the end of a running play and the defensive end did not appreciate the tight end not allowing him to get back up right away. The two entangled and eventually began wrestling before coaches and teammates rushed in to break them up. Tollefson appeared to land one punch before the whole thing ended in about 20 seconds.

Otherwise a great catch by Mario Manningham was the highlight of the practice. Eli Manning's pass for the wide receiver was deflected by CB Rashad Barksdale, who then accidentally kicked the ball skyward as he continued running. Manningham stayed with the pass and grabbed it as the cornerback fell to the ground.

Manning had completed a deep ball to WR Domenik Hixon over Barksdale on the previous play.

There will be one practice tomorrow before the veterans disperse until their August 2 reporting date at the University at Albany. The rookies will hang around one more week before taking time off before training camp.

Wednesday AM practice

There were 14 players, including WR Sinorice Moss (hamstring), who did not participate in the morning practice.

Moss, who has been having a great off-season, injured himself late in Tuesday afternoon's practice. Both he and coach Tom Coughlin did not think the injury was serious, but both were disappointed it marred Moss' off-season.

Coughlin was more exasperated about the continued absences of rookies like LB Clint Sintim, TE Travis Beckum and OL William Beatty. He said they are missing valuable time because of soft tissue injuries and can't understand why they have not returned by now.

Also sitting out were WR Taye Biddle, RB Andre Brown, CB Corey Webster, CB Kevin Dockery, TE Lee Vickers, LB Chase Blackburn, WR David Tyree and DTs Rocky Bernard, Barry Cofield and Fred Robbins. CB Aaron Ross did not participate in the final team session.

On the field QB Andre Woodson connected on a pair of nice deep passes, one to WR Shaun Bodiford, one to WR Domenik Hixon. WR Hakeem Nicks showed great concentrattion hauling in a long Rhett Bomar pass despite a swipe at the ball S Shar'reff Rashad. S C.C. Brown had the first interception of the three-day camp, picking off a red zone pass from Eli Manning to Hixon.

QB David Carr connected with Derek Hagen on a long ball, and also ran an option play which could be the beginning of a Giants wildcat package.

Those returning kickoffs were Hixon, Danny Ware, Nicks, Ahamd Bradshaw, Mario Manningham and Bodiford.

Timex Performance Center

The Giants have time on their side.

Timex has won the naming rights for the Giants new training facility. The watch company also will have some residuals during games, like "Timex Time Outs" and stuff like that.

As part of the deal Timex has agreed to set all its watches five minutes early to Coughlin Standard Time. Only kidding.