Nicks instead assured Giants fans that he will continue to play a role on the team, stating that, “I was there for the mandatory minicamp and I’ll be there for training camp. I really don’t want to talk about the past too much.”

He was also asked by a Twitter user about the state of his contract, which is in its final year, and if Nicks would give up money to remain a Giant.

“My main focus is just getting into this season right now and being healthy and contributing to the team the best way possible,” Nicks said. “I love the Giants organization and I’m very happy to be a Giant.”

To hear Nicks answer more questions from Twitter, as well as Nicks’ opinion on the NBA finals, listen here.

This year, Kuhn was back watching minicamp drills again, rehabbing from the torn ACL he suffered in the Giants’ Week 10 drubbing in Cincinnati. His goal is to be ready for training camp, and even though he’s optimistic, his approach is pragmatic. 

“I’m a little more than six months in right now,” Kuhn said when asked how his rehab was going. “I’ve been here all the time working with the trainers in the weight room with the strength and conditioning staff…just getting better. I’m out there on the filled right now going through different drills. I’m not doing any contact with other guys. I’m just doing what I can and taking it day-by-day.”

Training camp is on his radar, and he feels he may be ready:

“There’s still time until then. The goal is to be ready for training camp. But if for some reason the trainers say or the coach says to back off a little bit or I don’t feel 100% right its just something you have to do. You have to try and see what you fee at that particular point. Maybe it feels good, maybe another day it doesn’t feel so good, so it’s just wait and see.”

Kuhn is doer by nature, so rehab is an evil necessity to him. He is using this time wisely, though, by doing as much work with the d-line unit as allowed.

“Last year I had that problem with my work visa and I couldn’t do anything during this time, so now I’m actually a step ahead. I’m just out there trying to get as many mental reps as I can,” he said.

In his rookie season Kuhn, a seventh-round draft choice out of North Carolina State, was thrust into action almost immediately. Chris Canty began the season on PUP and Rocky Bernard and Marvin Austin were ailing. Kuhn became the next man up in the d-line rotation, playing 166 snaps in the Giants’ first nine games before getting injured and lost for season in Week 10.

Nothing is guaranteed. Kuhn has two battles ahead of him this summer. First, he must show that he is healthy. Second he has a glut of competition on the line this year.

Veterans Cullen Jenkins and Mike Patterson were signed in free agency. The Giants used their second-round selection in the draft to take Ohio State’s Jonathan Hankins. Linval Joseph, a starter from last year, will be given avery opportunity to keep his position. Then there are Marvin Austin, who is on his last chance, and veterans Shaun Rogers and Frank Okam.

Kuhn has overcome great odds to get here, so the competition is welcome:

“The Giants are known for having a good defensive line, so you have to expect strong competition every year. The moment you feel comfortable is the moment you’re gone. So you want that competition, you want those good guys on the team to make everyone else better…My approach is always the same. I’m doing as much as I can under my power and at the end of the day we’ll see what happens.”

Kuhn showed some promise although he only registered eight tackles in the ten games he played. He believes he can pick up where he left off…

“Definitely. I’m in good shape, I’m feeling fine. Just from watching and understanding and actually seeing most of my teammates during practice that I pick up already a lot faster. I’ve seen plays so now it’s just…I’m really anxious to go out there and translation that on to the field and playing.”

Posted by John Fennelly

“It’s been a dream come true,” Weatherford said of playing for the Giants. “I enjoyed playing for Rex Ryan but the special teams coach [Mike Westhoff] was very difficult to get along with both on and off the field. Here, the Giants have treated me great since the moment I walked in here. I show up early and leave late and give everything I have. I think the Giants have an appreciation for that. I absolutely love being here. I’d play for free.”

-Giants’ punter Steve Wetherford as per Dave Hutchinson of The Star Ledger.

Jimmy: TE coach Mike Pope talked about the TEs. Good stuff. Here’s what he said about newly acquired Brandon Myers:

“I think at the Raiders he was more of an intermediate receiver,” Pope said. “And now our passing game does allow the tight end to get more vertically down the field -– flag routes, double seam routes, post routes. And he appears to have the skills to get those balls. He has a little bit of a jet that can accelerate and go get a ball that is a little deeper. You may not think he is going to reach it, but he has that little bit. So we are very interested to see him in pads.”

Myers is going to be a massive upgrade over Martellus Bennett, in my opinion.

Fennelly: Bennett only had 55 catches last season and 5 TDs, three of which came in September. He never had more than six catches in a single game and was held to one reception four times. Not the workhorse the Giants had hoped for. He didn’t seem to complete his patterns and at times appeared to quit on plays. He clearly frustrated Eli Manning. The team is high on Myers, and from what I have seen, he runs good patterns and catches the ball well. Adrien Robinson is coming on and Bear Pascoe, if he’s not at FB, gives the Giants a nice trio at TE.

In minicamp, UDFA Chase Clement and FA Jamie Childers also appeared to be capable receivers. The Giants did well here, IMO, with the Bears doing them a solid by signing Bennett early on in free agency. I like the group they have, now. With Pope at the helm, they’ll all improve over time as well.

Jimmy: Perry Fewell thinks that stopping the read option will be similar to the way teams started stopping the Wildcat after its initial success:

“I look at that offense kind of like the Wildcat. The Wildcat took us by storm and then until you can see it, understand it; then you can defend it.”

Last season, the Giants gave up 455 yards in two games to the Redskins. I’m not so sure it was because they were fooled by some kind of exotic look. A few interesting formations aside, the Redskins’ offense was extraordinarily simple. There isn’t much to grasp. The Giants gave up huge rushing days to read option teams and non-read option teams alike. They gave up 224 rushing yards to the Ravens, and 191 to the Eagles. Worse, they gave up at least 129 rushing yards to 4 teams in the bottom 8 in the NFL in rushing yardage (the Cowboys, Steelers, Falcons, and Saints).

The Giants’ ability to stop the read option will be more about whether or not they can keep from being dominated in the trenches, not “figuring out” a fairly simple concept.

Fennelly: No gap control. The Redskins have been taking the Giants’ milk money for a few years now. New faces have been brought in to solve this issue. 

If the DTs stay on their feet and mind the gaps, half of the read-option will go for no, or little gain. Handing off up the middle will be a fruitless exercise. It’s when they get outside the tackles that will continue to be a problem.

When your defensive scheme calls for your corners to play loose, plus they have no sense of how to codeswitch between pass and run, you’re gonna get bled to death on the edges. In the past, Terrell Thomas knew how to seal off the edge. The Giants also don’t have a run LB to hang their hat on. Antonio Pierce wasn’t great, but he could read plays and close the gap on running plays. The players they have now, outside of Jacquian Williams, don’t – or can’t – do that.  Williams was hurting most of the season, as was Keith Rivers, so if they are both healthy, perhaps they can recover from those bad first steps and minimize those long gains.

Paul Schwartz of the Post put up a piece today on (who else?) Victor Cruz and his contract situation. Paul spoke to a “prominent” NFL agent who says Cruz should just sign the deal the Giants are offering because it won’t get much better:

“I don’t see any scenario where he gets any more money than they have on the table right now,’’ the agent said, “unless out of the goodness of their heart they decide to throw him a couple extra million.

“If you’re Victor Cruz, you’re never getting paid by the Giants, ever. They’ve never had an $11 million receiver, you’re not gonna be it. They had every opportunity to lock you up — they’ve given you exactly what they feel you’re worth.You can disagree until the cows come home, it does not matter. And now you’re going to go out there and help make them better, which is going to make them stronger. If you can live with that, then that’s what you should do.’’ READ FULL 

The Giants.com crew all agree with me that second-year WR Rueben Randle was the talk of minicamp. He came in “NFL ready” last year. This season, with Cruz missing and Hakeem Nicks limited, Randle was clearly the Giants’ most impressive offensive player in camp. That is good news for the Giants and bad news for the rest of the league…

The New York Giants opened voluntary OTA’s without the familiar faces of Hakeem Nicks or Victor Cruz. Neither have ideal contract situations, and both made their absences felt, at least initially. 

The Giants headlines were mobbed with the Nicks/Cruz drama, but as the days went on, the news slowly shifted from those off the field, to the ones actually on it. Giants wide receiver Rueben Randle seemingly stole the show with his performance during the OTA’s, as Tom Coughlin and Kevin Gilbride constantly praised the second year man out of Louisiana State University.

After a rookie campaign that saw Randle catch 19 passes for 298 yards and three scores, a development was expected, but are the Giants intentionally driving up his value to spite Nicks and Cruz?

“His whole demeanor, his whole professionalism, was outstanding,” Gilbride said last week at Giants’ minicamp. “Now is that because they weren’t here or just because he had more reps? I don’t know but he certainly stepped into a leadership role. Not only did he grow he kind of became the bell cow of the receiving corps. He was first in line. He did all of those things. That was not what we saw last year; not by a longshot. So to see him growing like that was a great step forward for him, which will help us down the road.”

Serious high praise for a second year guy.

Gilbride added, “Oh, he is going to play – he is going to play a lot. He will play first and second-downs. He will be an outside receiver for us. Whether he is at the ‘X’ or the ‘Z,” he is going to play. He is looking like he deserves to be out there a significant time.”

What the Giants are doing makes sense on the most basic level, make the popular kids jealous with the new kid. Threaten their territory and make them react. Show them that everyone is replaceable, and drive up the value of the competition. If the Giants front office came out and pulled a Rex Ryan by criticizing their wide outs, Nicks and Cruz would control the situation. Both could easily sit back and let the pressure break the Giants, but now their future in a Giants uniform is seemingly in “jeopardy”, or at least that’s the perception.

The New York Giants Facebook page posted on Monday: “Giants.com debates if Cruz/Nicks/Randle is the best WR trio Eli Manning has ever had to throw to? What do you think?”

Seriously? We’re already debating Manning’s trio after a 19 catch year and and an impressive OTA showing?

The New York media scene can create a celebrity overnight, and expectations are already shooting towards the sky for the young wide receiver, and it’s only June.

The Giants aren’t new to this scenario, they’ve seen how this game goes after dealing with Osi Umenyiora.

With Nicks coming back from injury, the pressure is on him to prove to the league he’s worthy of a big pay day. As for Cruz, he’s already signed the one-year $2.879 million tender, so he’ll be in Dallas for the season opener. The Giants have almost an entire year to get a deal done and keep Cruz around, but could still franchise their star if no deal is reached.

So while it may seem like Big Blue is in big trouble, they’re actually in the drivers seat, and as for Randle, right now, it seems like just showing up has earned him as many headlines as his counterparts.

John Fennelly, Executive Editor

Here are question readers have been asking me the past week or so that I figure we should clean up before we get too deep into the summer…

1. Will JPP be back for the start of the season, and what can we expect when he returns?

The injury to JPP is more serious than many realize. A herniated disc in the lower back of a 270 lb athlete that makes his living by leveraging his body is indeed a challenge to overcome. Dr. Ronnie Barnes, the Giants’ SVP of medical services expects JPP to make a full recovery from the operation he underwent on June 4. Doctors have set a 12-week rehab period and Tom Coughlin said his star DE would begin the road back to the field sometime in July.

JPP will begin training camp on the PUP list and may very possibly stay there until mid-October. He is, however, a special athlete that may surprise us all by being ready for opening night against Dallas Sept 8th. But knowing the Giants, they may err on the side of caution just to make sure he is fully healthy before activating him.

The team is not going to rush him back. Not if he’s not going to be the old JPP. For now, they will put another first-round pick (Mathias Kiwanuka) in his place until he’s ready to return.

It is only then we will know if JPP can return to being the dominant player he was in 2011.

2. Will Victor Cruz have a contract soon? What are the chances he holds out?

I don’t see him holding out. In football, that is a sure way to sabotage your health and career. He is currently under contract and will abide by it’s parameters. Victor Cruz in another uniform is not worth what he is in a Giant uniform. His connection to the area and the fan base is just as valuable as his on-field presence.

His contract will get done, but it might not happen before the season. A compromise will be reached. He’s staying. Don’t sweat it. He’s not, so why should you?

3. We keep hearing the Giants’ defense will be better this year. Will it?

Let’s put it this way – it can’t be any worse than last year, but then again…

The objective was to get bigger and meaner over the winter. We’ll see if they did that. They revamped the interior of the defensive line and their LB unit is a year older and deeper. The secondary is still a question mark, and in a passing league that is a bit unnerving. Not sure why they did’t address the corner position in the draft or free agency. The re-signing of Aaron Ross is not the answer, either.

There are so many “ifs” here, it’s difficult to predict which direction this Giants defense take this year. With JPP possibly missing the first part of the season, the pass rush cannot be relied upon like they have been in the past. That means the back seven will have to do a much better job in pass coverage – and I mean a much better job. The problem is, they don’t have the personnel to achieve that.

There are some new faces, but the old faces are the ones that worry me. Just hope the Giants score a lot this year.

4. Henry Hynoski: is he going to play this season?

I think he will, but maybe not until October. His knee injury is not a blowout, so he the timeframe for his return is shorter. It’s still aggressive to think he’ll be back for the opener.

The Giants have explored outside options, which tells you they aren’t confident Hynoski will be back for the first part of the season. Bear Pascoe is a capable replacement, but a completely different type of player. They place him on PUP at the onset of training camp and look for a veteran if they feel he is going to miss significant time.

5. What will the Giants do with Hakeem Nicks? Will he be extended, or allow to explore free agency?

The consensus is the Giants are in a holding pattern with Nicks. They need to see him stay healthy and produce A-list numbers this season before they commit to him long-term. The downside to that is every other team in the league will be doing the same. If he gets to free agency, the Giants are likely to lose him.

It’s going to be hard to keep both him and Cruz long term which is one of the reasons why the Giants are always interested in WRs in both free-agency and the draft. The emergence/performance of Rueben Randle and/or Louis Murphy will also be a determining factor in whether Nicks comes back next season.

Below is a calendar sent out by the league of important dates and deadlines.

June 23-29 – Rookie Symposium, Aurora, Ohio.

July 11 – Supplemental Draft (if necessary).

July 15 – At 4:00 p.m., New York time, deadline for any club that designated a Franchise Player to sign such player to a multi-year contract or extension. After this date, the player may sign only a one-year contract with his prior club for the 2013 season, and such contract cannot be extended until after the club’s last regular season game.

Mid-July – Clubs are permitted to open preseason training camp for rookies and first-year players no earlier than 22 days prior to the club’s first preseason game.

Veteran players (defined as a player with at least one pension-credited season) other than quarterbacks or “injured players” (as defined in CBA Article 21, Section 6) may report to a club’s preseason training camp no earlier than 15 days prior to the club’s first scheduled preseason game or July 15, whichever is later.

Veteran quarterbacks and injured players may be required to report to the club’s preseason training camp no earlier than five days immediately prior to the mandatory reporting date for all other veteran players, provided the club has already opened (or simultaneously opens) its official preseason training camp for all rookies and first-year players.

A three-day acclimation period will apply to players who are on a club’s roster up to and including the mandatory veteran reporting date. Players who join the roster after that date may practice (including wearing pads) and play immediately after passing a physical.

July 22* – Signing Period ends for Unrestricted Free Agents to whom a “June 1 Tender” was made by prior club. After this date and until 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the Tuesday following the 10th weekend of the regular season, prior club has exclusive negotiating rights.

* or the first scheduled day of the first NFL training camp, whichever is later.

August 3 – Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony, Canton, Ohio.

August 4 – Hall of Fame Game, Dallas Cowboys vs. Miami Dolphins, Canton, Ohio.

August 6 – Deadline for players under contract to report to their clubs to earn an Accrued Season for free agency.

August 6 – If a drafted rookie has not signed with his club by this date, he cannot be traded to any other club in 2013, and may sign a player contract only with the drafting club until the day of the draft in the 2014 League Year.

August 8-11 – First Preseason Weekend.

August 15-19 – Second Preseason Weekend.

August 22-25 – Third Preseason Weekend.

August 27 – Prior to 4:00 p.m., New York time, clubs must reduce their rosters to a maximum of 75 players on the Active List.

August 28 – All tryouts on this date and for the remainder of the season must be reported to the League office.

August 29 – Final Preseason Games.

August 31 – Prior to 6:00 p.m., New York time, clubs must reduce rosters to a maximum of 53 players on the Active/Inactive List.