New York Giants Official Website

Mini-Camp Report for Saturday, May 8
Carter looks to break out in 2004; Manning improves; Torbor earns praise.
By Michael Eisen, Giants.com
Related links - Message boards | Latest news

May 8, 2004

East Rutherford, N.J. - Tim Carter took baby steps as an NFL rookie in 2002, catching just two passes in five games before suffering a season-ending injury.

Last year, Carter learned to run with the big boys of the NFL, catching 26 passes but again finishing the season on injured reserve.

"I want to make some big plays out there," Carter said between mini-camp practices at Giants Stadium.

The Giants believe he can make a lot of them. Carter is perhaps the most impressive physical specimen on the team, with titanium-hard abs, impressive biceps and speed that would likely enable him to beat any teammate in a footrace. Those physical gifts prompted the Giants to select him in the second round of the 2002 draft.

Head coach Tom Coughlin has emphasized his desire to increase the Giants' speed, which would occur if Carter spends more time on the field.

"I have an opportunity, but I have to earn my position as a receiver and my position as a returner," Carter said. "I know there is an opportunity there for me."

The Giants would like Carter to produce as he did at Auburn, where he caught 57 passes and scored four touchdowns and averaged 23.9 yards on 40 kickoff returns, including a 100-yarder.

But Carter was slow getting started as a rookie, when a hamstring injury limited him in training camp. His first season ended on Nov. 10, when he tore his Achilles tendon in Minnesota. After an arduous rehabilitation, Carter returned strong last year. Though he finished fifth on the team in catches, Carter played in just 12 games and was finally placed on IR after suffering a couple concussions.

While his enormous potential tantalized everyone, his injuries and relative lack of production frustrated many - but not Carter.

"I look at it as part of the game," he said. "Sometimes, that kind of stuff happens. It's not what happens, but how you deal with it. That's how you come back from it. You get knocked down all the time in life. You have to look back on it and build from it and get better from it.

"Right now, it feels great to be out on the field. I definitely feel like I'm taking what I learned the first two years and taking it to another level. I don't have much experience, but I do have something to build on. I'm getting a feel for the system and sharpening up some things."

Carter hopes to play a big role as a receiver, where Amani Toomer and Ike Hilliard are the incumbent starters. And he would like to be the team's primary kickoff returner, though he had just one last year and five as a rookie.

"I learned a lot my first two years - a lot of little technique things, like how I drop my hips at the top of a route and that little angle of my foot when I come out of a break," he said. "It makes a big difference and can create a little more separation from a defensive back, because I'm able to drive out of my cut better. It makes a big difference when you're playing someone that's experienced.

"And I'd definitely like to return kickoffs. I had a lot of fun with it in college and I had some success with it in college."

To ensure that he works his way into Coughlin's plans, Carter has worked tirelessly this offseason. Before the Giants conditioning program began, Carter dropped from 193 pounds to 175. He is now back up to about 185 pounds.

"This has been my best offseason for physical training," he said. "I feel really good. I'm stronger than I was the last two years. I lost a little more weight. I'm more explosive. I added a little bit more speed. That's a good combination."

And what will the end result be of all that work?

"I think," Carter said, "I'll be playing on another level this year."

Notes

• Eli Manning appeared much more at ease on the second day of workouts and made some nice throws.

  "It definitely felt more comfortable today," Manning said. "I've already run some of these plays five or six times before, so I have a better feel for what I'm doing with the ball, even before I get the snap. I feel better today than I did yesterday."

  Because Manning has so much to think about prior to setting up in the pocket, the act of throwing the ball is not at the top of this list of concerns.

  "I'm focused on my reads and the snap counts and exactly what everybody is doing, so I'm probably not focused as much on my drops and my fundamentals," he said. "That takes time. When I run a play for the first time ever against a defense, I'm still trying to figure out my reads and thinking too much. But after a while, if you run the play 20 times, everything comes naturally. You're seeing things, you know what your first reads are, you know exactly what you're doing with the ball and you'll be throwing the ball better. Everything goes smoother."

• Jeremy Shockey can empathize with Manning. Two years ago, Shockey was the most heavily-scrutinized rookie in camp. But he was the 14th pick in the draft, and a tight end. Manning was the No. 1 overall pick, he was acquired in a blockbuster trade, and he plays the game's most prominent and important position.

  "Anytime you're a person coming into a new environment, you're young, you have no veteran at that position, it's going to be tough," Shockey said. "I get in the huddle with him and I feel for him. He has to learn 15 different words when he calls a play. He does a great job doing it. I think, `If I was in his position, I couldn't finish half the play-calling.' I know he picks things up fast. A couple more practices with him and we'll be headed in the direction we need to be headed in."

  Shockey conceded that as a rookie quarterback potentially leading a veteran-laden team, Manning could step into a pressurized situation. But he believes Manning will excel.

  "He's not a normal person," Shockey said. "He's got it in his blood. I can see he really wants to get better. When he makes a mistake he really gets on himself. He's really competitive. If he keeps that competitiveness about him, he'll come along a lot quicker than normal."

• Head coach Tom Coughlin said he hasn't talked to Manning about not pressing in his first pro camp.

  "I just continually stress to him to allow his athleticism to take over," Coughlin said. "It is difficult because he has a lot on his mind and he's more focused on the execution of the small things. Throughout the course of May and June he will have every situation and circumstance in the game thrown at him. He is so bogged down in just trying to understand that stuff that the execution of everything … is in the background. So I think that once he gets a little grasp of it, he will be able to respond better."

• Shockey missed the final seven games of the 2003 season with a knee injury and had the knee flushed in a minor surgical procedure on February 11.

  "He is not as comfortable as he wants to be and it is not the knee," Coughlin said. "It's just that he is not quite feeling real good yet, football wise. That is the situation with a lot of them. Does he have any issues? No. It doesn't appear to me."

• With 87 players on the roster and 80 players working this weekend, Coughlin is still getting to know his new team. But he promised it will be a quick study.

  "You'll see me during individual drills going from group to group trying to recognize and put people in my mind as to who they are and how they move and perhaps even how they rank," Coughlin said. "I'll do that throughout the spring. I'm not going to tell you I have them all memorized today, but it won't be long."

  Several players have made an impression on the coach, though the only one he mentioned by name is fourth-round draft choice Reggie Torbor, the pass-rushing defensive end/linebacker from Auburn.

  "I would say the linebacker group has got my attention in a very favorable way," Coughlin said. "A couple of linebackers flashed, which I was very glad to see. There are a couple of the defensive ends that have flashed, also. And speed shows up. Yesterday afternoon in the cover drill that we ran, you saw some of the rookie skill people returning - being the runners against the coverage - and those guys did a good job. So, from time to time it flashes."

• The veteran portion of the mini-camp has concluded. There will be one practice Sunday for the rookies.

  "We will do a lot of individual stuff," Coughlin said. "But it will be basically be a speeded up meeting on the field."

  Beginning Monday, the players are off for a week. On May 17, the entire squad will resume the offseason conditioning program.
  

Related links - Message boards | Latest news

Copyright New York Giants 2004

The Tradition Continues More>>