For the first time since October, Odell Beckham Jr was a full participant in practice for the New York Giants and looked as good as ever.
On Thursday rookies and veterans participated in practice on the second day of training camp for the New York Giants. One veteran that was practicing at full capacity to everyone’s delight was Odell Beckham Jr.
This was the first time since fracturing his ankle in October that Beckham was a full participant at practice. During 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills during minicamp, he was just a spectator and only participated in position drills.
But he wasn’t a spectator on Thursday as he participated in drills with the first team offense. There was a point halfway through practice he caught two consecutive passes from Eli Manning and looked fast and crisp in his route running.
Manning connecting with Odell at practice today. #GiantsPride #NYG pic.twitter.com/tIyxNooJH4
— Jason Leach (@JasonKLeach) July 26, 2018
Towards the end of practice, Beckham was even fielding punts along with Kalif Raymond and Hunter Sharp.
During a break between sessions, Beckham entertained the fans that were in attendance by dancing to Michael Jackson’s Beat It.
OBJ dancing to Michael Jackson's Beat It @EliteSportsNY #GiantsPride #NYG pic.twitter.com/1WWpVrZYSO
— Jason Leach (@JasonKLeach) July 27, 2018
Prior to the Giants practice session, President and CEO John Mara spoke with the media and was asked if contract negotiations have begun between the Giants and Beckham.
“I anticipate that we’ll be speaking with his agent sooner rather than later. I’m not going to give you an exact timetable on that, nor are we going to give daily or weekly updates on that, but I think those will start pretty soon and hopefully we will be able to come to an agreement”.
Mara was later asked if he had any concerns with giving Beckham a long-term contract with guaranteed money.
“You gonna negotiate for him? Let’s have that negotiation. [Laughter] We obviously want him to be a Giant for a long time and we hope to be able to come to some agreement with him. I’m not going to negotiate that publicly, but obviously, you know, we know what it’s going to take – we think we know what it’s going to take to sign him, and we’ll see if they agree”.
Other news and notes:
- Damon Harrison was in attendance at practice but did not participate in 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 drills. Robert Thomas took Harrison’s place at nose tackle with the first-team defense with Dalvin Tomlinson and B.J. Hill at defensive end.
- Cody Latimer seems to have a firm hold towards being the number three wide receiver on the depth chart as he took reps with the first-team offense when they were in two and three wide receiver formations.
- Eli Manning tried to connect with Latimer deep down the left sideline, but the pass was intercepted by Janoris Jenkins.
- Manning also misfired on a pass that was wide of Saquon Barkley in the middle of the field. Barkley was almost able to make a spectacular one-handed catch but the ball was just out of his reach.
- Manning’s backup, Davis Webb had a solid practice as he continues to make strides. He completed a nice pass over the middle to tight end Jerell Adams when the second team offense was going against the second team defense.
- The Giants will be back at practice on Friday at 2:45 p.m. This will be open to the public.
