Pro Football Focus looks at Giants WR room

Pro Football Focus' Trevor Sikkema looked at all of the matchups in this weekend's slate of preseason finales, and chose something to watch for in each game.

For the Giants, Sikkema looked at David Sills V and the Giants' wide receiver room.

"On paper, the Giants have a solidified group of receivers to make the final regular season roster," wrote Sikkema. "But injuries during the preseason have opened the door for guys like Sills to stand out in a good way. Sills has earned a 79.5 overall grade through two preseason games and has generated a 94.5 passer rating when targeted."

Sills reeled in five receptions for 56 yards against the Bengals last weekend. With Collin Johnson now out for the season due to a season-ending Achilles injury, Sills and the rest of the wide receiver room will have an opportunity to step up this weekend in the preseason finale.

Sills caught six passes from Daniel Jones during 11-on-11 drills on Thursday on what was a positive day for the Giants offense. When talking to the media after the training session, Sills admitted that everyone in the wide receiver room was a little more excited than normal heading into the joint practice against the Jets.

"Obviously, you want to put your best foot forward," said the 6-foot-3 receiver. "There's a little bit more adrenaline. In meetings we were pretty hyped up, we had music going in the meetings, so guys were excited about it. I think we kept that energy throughout the whole practice. We did a good job feeding off each other. I know we had some guys limited today and they were really giving us motivation like, 'keep going, keep going.' It was awesome to see all of us pushing each other. We all have a really good relationship in that room, so it was exciting to see that today at practice."

It was a strong day overall for the entire WR room Thursday. While he did not participate in team drills against the Jets, Sterling Shepard did return to practice this week after passing his physical. The veteran's presence provides a boost to the room.

Additionally, Kadarius Toney made several catches during seven-on-seven drills, including one play in which he created a lot of separation from Jets No. 4 overall pick Sauce Gardner to make a first down catch. Kenny Golladay also made an impressive, leaping sideline grab that was heavily contested by CB D.J. Reed. Darius Slayton capped things off with an impressive one-handed catch 25+ yards downfield, in which the Jets defender was flagged for defensive pass interference.

Practice with Jets adds intensity as Giants embark on season

No one wants tension and acrimony at the beginning of a hoped-for long-term relationship, so the Giants and Jets were professional and civil toward each other throughout their joint practice today at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center.

Coaches Brian Daboll and Robert Saleh each said they hope to make this get-together an annual affair, so they instructed their players to avoid fighting and instead focus on working well and improving. The teams avoided the brawls that have plagued numerous joint workouts this summer – and the previous Giants/Jets practice in Albany N.Y. 17 years ago, when tight end Jeremy Shockey was in the middle of a multi-player fight on the second play of the day.

"All we're trying to do is get better," said Daboll, who spoke to his players about avoiding hostile extracurricular activity. "Improve our fundamentals. Compete against another team that has different skillsets, different scheme. We're not looking to go out there and fight.

"We'd like to do this for a while without anything happening like that again. I've been part of these, too. I understand how it goes. But we're certainly going to try to do what we can do to just have a good, competitive practice."

That's exactly what they had. While the workout was fast-paced and competitive, no punches were thrown and no players on opposite sides had to be separated. The vibe was one of mutual respect and geniality.

"I think that says a lot about the head coaches," running back Matt Breida said. "They stressed to us before practice, 'There isn't going to be any fighting. We're trying to get work done.' And we understand where they're coming from. Because at the end of the day, we're trying to get better as a team. And if we go out there and all we do is fight, we're not going to get anything accomplished. And like coach said, we're trying to do it every year - have a joint practice. So, we don't want to have those taken away from us. It helps guys get better."

Click here to read more about the Giants-Jets joint practice

More from Giants-Jets joint practice

The Giants hosted the Jets for a joint practice at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center on Thursday.

It was an eventful day as the teams went head to head in team drills. The Giants offense took on the Jets defense and the Big Blue defense went up against the Gan Green offense.

Go behind the scenes of yesterday's joint practice with the videos below.