There was a surprise development at New York Giants training camp on Sunday as Ray-Ray Armstrong took reps with the first team defense.
The New York Giants were back at practice for the first time since defeating the Detroit Lions Friday night in their second preseason game 30-17.
Some notable players that were not practicing on Sunday were running back Saquon Barkley, who is still nursing his strained left hamstring, running back Jalen Simmons, who is recovering from a concussion he sustained Friday night, and cornerback Donte Deayon.
With Barkley out, it was veteran running back Jonathan Stewart who took the majority of the snaps with the first-team offense.
Jonathan Stewart working with the first team offense. #GiantsPride #NYG pic.twitter.com/4ZqBzBurQ9
— Jason Leach (@JasonKLeach) August 19, 2018
The Giants practice without pads for a little over an hour going through various position drills as well as 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills.
Defensive coordinator James Bettcher coaching up his players @EliteSportsNY #GiantsPride #NYG pic.twitter.com/CBbVeTqDJi
— Jason Leach (@JasonKLeach) August 19, 2018
Eli Manning once again enjoyed a solid practice as at one point, he connected on five consecutive passes.
Manning connecting with @CodyLatimer14 in 11 on 11. @EliteSportsNY #GiantsPride #NYG pic.twitter.com/2YeiLZ4u7t
— Jason Leach (@JasonKLeach) August 19, 2018
Curtis Riley was once again playing the first-team defense at free safety, just as he did Friday night against the Lions. With the regular season just under three weeks away, Riley appears to be in line to be the team’s starting free safety in Week 1 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
However, there was one change to the first team defense in Sunday’s practice. Ray-Ray Armstrong was playing inside linebacker with the first team while B.J. Goodson was taking reps with the second team.
Armstrong has been impressive throughout the entirety of camp and intercepted a Matt Cassel on Friday night.
Following practice head coach Pat Shurmur spoke about Armstrong playing with the first team defense.
“As a linebacker, he’s long and he can cover. He’s what linebackers should look like and he’s made progress. We feel like he’s done some really good things as we work through training camp, so it was good to see him have some success. We felt like he had a winning performance in the game the other night, and every once in a while everybody has a bad play, but in total, we felt like it was a winning performance and that was a game-changing play. We were able to intercept the ball, get it close and then offensively, we then punched it in, so it was good.”
The New York Giants will be back on the practice field on Monday, in pads, as they prepare for their third preseason game Friday night against the Jets.
