It is more like reporting to work for the Giants rather than reporting for training camp as they gather Friday at a familiar place with an unfamiliar name.
For all the veterans, all the rookie draft choices and virtually everyone else on the roster, arrival Friday at the facility formerly known as Timex Performance Center will seem like a return and not a rebirth. For 16 of the past 17 years, the Giants this time of year checked into their dorms at the University at Albany, hunkered-down for a month-long stay on campus at what became the Summer Home of the New York Giants. Youngsters packed and went off to camp and so did the Giants.
No more. Players this morning report to the newly-named Quest Diagnostics Training Center for physicals, followed by the first team meeting of the new season. At 4 p.m., Tom Coughlin and his coaching staff will oversee conditioning running, which all players who report to camp in shape figure to be able to pass with relative ease. On Saturday, the first practice of training camp kicks off at 1:30 p.m., free of charge and open to the public.
The early interest is with who is on the field and who isn’t. We know DE Jason Pierre-Paul won’t be as he continues his rehab from back surgery, a procedure that will land him on the physically unable to perform list for the start of camp. The same with FB Henry Hynoski coming off knee surgery. WR Hakeem Nicks, coming off arthroscopic knee surgery, is expected to practice on the first day but at what pace? There’s no doubt RG Chris Snee (hip surgery) and C David Baas (elbow surgery) will have some limitations but will they be out there with the starting offense for the first drill? CB Terrell Thomas, attempting a comeback from two ACL reconstructive surgeries in one year, says he’s about 85 percent but the Giants will be extremely careful with him, not wanting to see a repeat of last summer’s incident where Thomas didn’t make it out of the first week of camp.
Just because a player starts camp on PUP doesn’t mean he cannot come off in a day or two. Training camp, with no more two-a-day practices, is not the grind it once was and once the Giants “break’’ camp on August 21 they still have 18 days before their Sept. 8 regular-season opener in Dallas. This year, breaking camp does not mean packing up and leaving Albany behind. It means players no longer have to stay together in hotel rooms nearby and can stay in their houses or apartments as practice continues in the same place it was during camp.