Giants training camp: What we learned on Day 2

One-on-one battles, Jaxson Dart’s education, Abdul Carter’s dominance, more

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Day 2 of New York Giants training camp provided another lesson for Jaxson Dart, a glimpse at how special Abdul Carter could be, and a highly entertaining matchup between Wan’Dale Robinson and Dru Phillips.

Your daily Dart

Brian Daboll says young players can’t be put into real game action until they prove they are not an “error repeater.”

Well, rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart repeated an error on Thursday, throwing a red zone interception for the second straight day.

This time, Dart was trying to hit Zach Pascal down the right sideline. The rookie quarterback gave a shoulder fake, then let the ball fly to a seemingly wide open Pascal. Cornerback Tre Hawkins undercut the play and made a nice interception.

Mistake by Dart? Just a great play by Hawkins? We will find out what Daboll thinks of the play on Friday morning. For now, though, suffice it to say Dart’s education continues.

Daboll was asked Thursday morning about Dart’s Wednesday interception, a play where he tried to thread the needle on an underneath pass to tight end Greg Dulcich, but was picked off by cornerback Nic Jones.

“The defense made a good play,” Daboll said. “He’s going to make those mistakes. Everybody’s going to make them. There’s plenty of other mistakes that happened and there’s plenty of good things. He did a good job coming back. You don’t want to throw picks, but that’s why we’re practicing.”

By my unofficial count, Dart was 4 of 8 on Thursday. He had the interception, and threw a pretty back shoulder fade to Jalin Hyatt for a touchdown.

Dart worked mostly with the second unit ahead of Jameis Winston.

Here are the other unofficial quarterback stats:

• Russell Wilson: 10 of 14, 3 TDs, 1 INT
• Winston: 3 of 3, 2 TDs
• Tommy DeVito: 1 of 3

Abduuuuuuuul!

The Giants drafted edge defender Abdul Carter No. 3 overall to wreak havoc on offensive linemen and to harass quarterbacks. On Thursday, the rookie did a lot of both.

In one sequence with the second unit, Carter beat fifth-round pick Marcus Mbow on three straight plays. Twice he flew around Mbow, and once he just bulled his fellow rookie back into Dart. Carter forced incompletions on two of those plays.

On the fourth play, the Giants blitzed off the edge behind Carter and Nic Jones got a sack of Dart.

We saw on Thursday many of the ways the Giants could use Carter this season. He aligned standing up on the edge, with his hand in the ground as a defensive end, at defensive tackle next to Dexter Lawrence, and a few times standing up over center as an interior pass rusher. On one of those plays over center, he appeared to knock starting center John Michael Schmitz off balance.

Below, Carter dominating Mbow:

Here is another play:

Play of the day times two

As camp unfolds, we begin to see certain matchups — an offensive tackle vs. an edge defender, or a cornerback vs. a wide receiver — that prove to be excessively entertaining.

It would appear that is what we have developing with slot receiver Wan’Dale Robinson and slot cornerback Dru Phillips.

On the play below, Robinson made a fantastic catch on a deep ball from Russell Wilson. Under tight coverage from Phillips, the 5-foot-8 Robinson dove toward the corner of the end zone for a pass that appeared overthrown, managed to ward off Phillips, then somehow get one hand under the ball and haul it in for a crazy touchdown.

I have to admit, when I saw where the ball was thrown and which receiver it was intended for, I pre-emptively wrote the play down as an incompletion. I was stunned when Robinson came away with the ball.

On the next play, Phillips got even. Wilson tried to target Robinson again on a play from the 2-yard line. Robinson ran an out, but Phillips was physical with him and took the pass away. Robinson came up complaining to the officials, but the play stood.

Here is the interception:

There are a couple of noteworthy points about this matchup.

First, the two players were teammates at Kentucky and their battles with the Giants are a continuation of something that started on the Wildcats practice fields years ago. Second, the Giants threw two deep balls and a wide receiver screen to Robinson on Thursday. We did not see those kinds of throws to him last year, especially the deep ball.

WR1 vs. CB1

Malik Nabers and Paulson Adebo hooked up for a pair of entertaining reps during 1-on-1 drills. Nabers beat Adebo clean across the middle on the first rep. Nabers also won the second rep, using a move to the outside to snag a low throw from Wilson with Adebo in tight coverage.

Hyatt hurt?

Hyatt had the touchdown catch from Dart early in practice, but finished on the sideline. At one point, he was getting his left leg stretched by the training staff. Hyatt had a left hamstring injury at the end of mandatory minicamp. We will see if he is on the practice field on Friday.

Pillow? What pillow?

During OTAs, Robinson said he liked catching passes from Wilson because “the ball comes in like a pillow. It’s really, really easy to catch.”

Daniel Bellinger might have a different impression. The 37-year-old Wilson showed that he still has a fastball by zipping a 10-yard laser to Bellinger for a touchdown with a diving Cor’Dale Flott unable to bat the ball down.

Quote of the day

Kayvon Thibodeaux on why he spent part of his offseason doing wrestling training:

Malik’s input

Nabers made it seem on Wednesday that Daboll had sought his opinion on offseason personnel decisions.

“Dabs did a great job of asking me questions about making moves, and me and him were in contact about moves to be made,” Nabers said. “That was a great job of him reaching out to the players about things that we were missing that we want.”

Daboll on Thursday downplayed the idea that he was taking personnel input from a player with a year of NFL experience.

“I stay in touch with a lot of players in the off season,” Daboll said. “I try to have good communication with the guys on our football team, build relationships with them. That’s what’s important to me.”

Make of that what you will. I am still not sure what it adds up to.

Offensive notes

• Thursday’s starting offensive line was again James Hudson (LT), Jon Runyan (LG), John Michael Schmitz (C), Greg Van Roten (RG), Jermaine Eluemunor (RT).
• As he had on Monday, Evan Neal took a few first-team snaps at right guard. He mostly worked with the second unit at left guard.
• This one is sure to push some buttons. Joshua Ezeudu took reps at left guard, left tackle and right tackle throughout the practice. Some of those were live reps protecting the blind side of Winston or DeVito at left tackle.
• Tight end Greg Dulcich had a second straight productive day. He caught both of Winston’s touchdown passes. One was a typical Winston laser from the 1-yard line that somehow found it’s way through three or four defenders to Dulcich at the back of the end zone. The other came on a cross field throw from Winston as he rolled right and threw left to Dulcich at the goal line for a score.
• Undrafted rookie free agent wide receiver Da’Quan Felton and tight end Thomas Fidone, a seventh-round pick, had highlight reel catches during 1-on-1 drills.

Defensive notes

• Flott and Deonte Banks continued to alternate at cornerback with the first unit, but it seems clear that at this stage Flott is getting more reps with the starters.
• It can be difficult to judge sacks or pressures when the action is not directly in front of media, but Thibodeaux appeared to beat Eleumunor for a sack on Wilson on one play.
• The Giants ran at least one first-team rep with Dane Belton on the field in a three-safety package.

Remaining open practices

Gates will open at 8:30 a.m. ET
All practices will begin at approx. 10 a.m. ET*

Friday, July 25
Sunday, July 27 (Back Together Weekend)
Monday, July 28
Tuesday, July 29
Thursday, July 31
Friday, Aug. 1
Saturday, Aug. 2
Monday, Aug. 4
Wednesday, Aug. 13 (Jets Joint Practice)

*Scheduled times subject to change. In the event of inclement weather, practice will be moved indoors and there will be no public viewing. For the most up-to-date information on training camp, visit Giants.com, @Giants on Twitter, the Giants App, or call the Training Camp Hotline at 201.935.8111 ext. 1070.