Giants’ ‘rookie’ coach John Harbaugh doesn’t miss details at minicamp

This might sound like obvious coaching protocol, but this is not how the Giants were coached the past four years.

Their failures in critical and unique moments in games were directly related to the fact that they did not practice those situations at all or that they did not spend full speed time on making the micro-decisions that decide games.

Harbaugh insisted this rookie minicamp is intended to be more of a “rehearsal” than a “competitive” camp, but he is still in evaluation mode. He’s just evaluating the elements that he believes matter most at this point for his young players.

Specifically, for example, he noted that first-round pick Arvell Reese had not missed an assignment in two days while being asked to know several different checks at a weakside linebacker position that Harbaugh’s defense asks a lot from.

“I’m one of those guys who’d rather be seen and not heard,” Reese said.

The focus, humility and intensity of Harbaugh’s first draft class stands out in a great way. Reese, right guard Francis Mauigoa and corner Colton Hood all are locked in on playing well and nothing else.

“He’s old school,” Mauigoa said of Harbaugh. “He likes people who work hard. I’m gonna work my butt off to be up to the standard — and hopefully uplift that standard.”

Hood made the play of the day in the two-minute drill while lined up as the right outside corner. He closed downhill in zone coverage and ripped the ball out of running back Miles Davis’ hands with a physical hit after a completion to the left flat and took it to the house.

“I took it from him,” Hood said with a smile. “I gotta get paid, too.”

The young players seem to like how Harbaugh is teaching and relating, too.

“He coaches hard and wants his guys to be great,” Hood said. “He gives good feedback when you do the right thing.”

Third round receiver Malachi Fields, who had a bad downfield drop but made some good catches on slants over the middle, noted that Harbaugh has been helping rookies understand the new demands of this next level.

“He’s all about teaching guys the tempo of the league,” Fields said. “You’ve got to go full speed but remain under control.”

Harbaugh differs from former coach Brian Daboll also in how much music he pumps into practice:

None.

There was no bass thumping on Saturday, no one standing around having a catch and doing minimal work. The only sounds, other than the planes, were the sounds of the coaches’ voices teaching and the players making checks at the line of scrimmage.

And Harbaugh’s first version of the Giants beginning to take shape.

Zvada kicks off 'competition'

Undrafted Michigan kicker Dominic Zvada went a perfect 5 for 5 on field goals to close out practice, including a 55-yarder right down the middle on his final kick. Harbaugh said there will be a “competition” between veteran Jason Sanders, incumbent Ben Sauls and Zvada, and judging from Saturday’s results, the coach said, the competition has “already started.” Harbaugh, a former special teams coordinator, said Zvada has a “vertical swing pattern” that keeps his kicks mostly straight while in the air. And that’s why he thinks he can have success with the Giants.

Nothing soon on OBJ

Harbaugh said he has spoken to Odell Beckham Jr. three or four times in the last week, and that is still a wait and see situation.

“He’s in Arizona right now training, spending time with his son,” Harbaugh said. “The goal right now is for him to get as ready as he can be, and we’ll see where we’re at at that time. For Odell, we had such an honest conversation about it. It’s gotta be right for both parties.

“Odell wants to be the kind of player that can make a difference,” he continued. “I’m pretty sure he could make a team in the National Football League right now, but can he make a difference, and is it something he wants to do, and is his body gonna hold up the way he wants it to?

The Giants’ coach said “all those things are questions that need to get answered for anybody at that age.

“You know Odell, he’s confident,” he said. “He’s working hard, and he believes in himself. I think we’ll just play it out over the next month and into training camp and see where we’re at.”

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