NY Giants training camp report: Winners, losers, more takeaways from Day 2

Fans watch practice Thursday at The Greenbrier Sports Performance Center. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Abdul Carter was dominant, Malik Nabers worked again, Kayvon Thibodeaux made an impact, and fans had fun on a beautiful West Virginia day as the New York Giants

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What is the story about?

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Abdul Carter was dominant, Malik Nabers worked again, Kayvon Thibodeaux made an impact, and fans had fun on a beautiful West Virginia day as the New York Giants held their second practice of training camp.

Here are some of the winners and losers, as well as other takeaways.

Winners

Abdul Carter — Carter got the better of Andrew Thomas on Thursday, and let everybody know about it. [More about Carter’s big day]

Braxton Berrios — The veteran wide receiver/return man made several

catches on Wednesday. He backed that up with another productive day on Thursday. Berrios is making an early impression in the competition for one of the final roster spots.

Dominic Zvada — There were no placekicking sessions in Thursday’s workout. On the final play of practice, though, Zvada walked on and drilled a 57-yard field goal after the ball had been clocked by backup quarterback Brandon Allen with :01 left on the clock. Score one for the undrafted free agent in his competition with Ben Sauls.

Leki Fotu — The journeyman defensive tackle had a disruptive day. Fotu had a tackle for loss and was in the backfield on a handful of other occasions.

Malik Nabers — The star wide receiver was on the field for a second straight day during individual drills. Every day that Nabers practices is a win for both him and the Giants.

Kayvon Thibodeaux — For the second straight day, Thibodeaux made an impact play. This time, Thibodeaux picked off a Jameis Winston pass at the line of scrimmage and took it to the house for a score. Thibodeaux has been working with the second team, but head coach John Harbaugh said he does not consider him a backup.

“He knows he’s going to play a bunch,” Harbaugh said. “We have three starters outside the linebacker. Those are all starting football players. Slice it how you want.”

Giants fans — This was the first practice attended by fans, and it happened on a gorgeous, sunny, comfortable day here in West Virginia.

Losers

Ben Barten — The Turk came for the undrafted free agent defensive tackle on Thursday, as he was cut and replaced on the roster by linebacker Anfernee Orji.

Theo Johnson — The third-year tight end, who has had an issue with drops over his first two seasons, dropped a pass for the second straight day.

Dante Miller — ‘Turbo’ fumbled after catching a short pass from Jameis Winston, with the result being a scoop-and-score for linebacker Micah McFadden.

Walk-throughs? What walk-throughs?

One thing we have seen is that Harbaugh doesn’t believe in using a bunch of walk-through or install periods. After early special teams and individual work, the rest of practice the first two days has been full-speed 11-on-11 and 7-on-7 work. That is much more competitive and a faster pace than we have seen from the Giants in training camps during recent seasons.

Rookie duties

As media members were walking to our station in a far corner of the Greenbrier practice facility, we saw rookie Sisi Mauigoa running a lap while waving at the crowd trying to fire up the fans. After practice, I asked Andrew Thomas what that was about.

“That was rookie duties,” Thomas said. “We made him go run around and fight the crowd. He did a good job.

“Probably made him some money, too. Probably about 10,000 Twitter followers.”

Quote of the day

Can Nabers be as good or better after his knee injury than he was in 2024?

“I got extreme confidence in myself,” Nabers said. “I’m not going to put myself in any spot that I feel like I’m not going to be better than what I was before. So, I don’t see myself being what I was before. What I was before, what you all saw my rookie year, I felt like that was basic. I got high standards for myself. I know everybody has high standards for me also. But the standard that I hold myself to is very high. I feel like whatever that standard that I hold myself to, you’ll see or sooner or later.”