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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. –** Time off was good for Tim Duncan, and Chris Snee figures it will be beneficial for him as well.
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Snee, 32, is preparing for his 11th Giants season after undergoing offseason hip and elbow surgery. The continued recovery from the latter is keeping him out of the Giants' minicamp, which opened today.
"You saw what the Spurs did, right?" Snee said. "They rested some older guys.
"At this point in my career, when they say, 'Take a breather,' I'll take a breather."
Snee expects to be back at his familiar right guard position when training camp opens next month. Coach Tom Coughlin is not trying to rush Snee, a four-time Pro Bowler who has started all 152 regular season and postseason games in which he's played.
"His elbow is bothering him, so we're kind of taking it step by step on that," Coughlin said. "He had surgery on his elbow. … I think it's started to bother him. He did all of the separate days and pretty much all of the OTAs and then the elbow started to bother him, so we kind of shut it down.
"The plan with him is to see if we can get the elbow right so that he feels comfortable and confident."
It won't be this week.
"No, we won't be in a rush in that regard," Coughlin said. "He's played enough, we can get him healthy and get him right back to where he was. We know what we have."
Brandon Mosley has been playing right guard with the starters in Snee's absence.
Snee still has work to do. After dropping to 275 pounds, he is back up to 300, but would like to gain an additional 10 pounds. But he also wants to be rested and healthy when camp opens.
"I've been training pretty hard," Snee said. "I've been in here since February and I'm just following every order they give me, so I'll do the same for this next month. In past years this would kind of be a month where you relax and make sure your body is ready. But whatever they tell me to do, I'll do."
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Left tackle Will Beatty, the Giants' other sidelined offensive line starter, said there is "no doubt in my mind" that he will be ready to go in training camp. Beatty hasn't participated in team drills this spring after fracturing his leg in the Dec. 29 season finale and subsequently undergoing surgery.
In his public comments, Beatty has been vague about a return date, but today narrowed it to a more specific time frame.
"It's camp," he said. "They're not saying what day of camp, but they're telling me that when this break comes Thursday, you're preparing yourself to get ready to come back on the 21st (of July). They're not putting any numbers out there in my head, but they're making sure I'm ready, because we have five preseason games, which leads to our advantage with a new offensive system in play. So an extra preseason game is going to work toward our advantage and make sure I can do as much as I can, so I get out there and it's not like, 'This is all new.'"
Free agent acquisition Charles Brown has taken most of the first-team snaps at left tackle.
- Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. the Giants' first-round draft choice, participated in position drills, but not the team portion of practice. He has been bothered by a strained hamstring.
"He did all of the individuals and then we kind of backed him down a little bit," Coughlin said.
"He was able to go, whether he could hit that top speed was another question. Why take a chance on it right now?"
Eli Manning doesn't have Beckham to throw to this week, but is still impressed with his group of wide receivers.
"We've got a couple guys who have stepped up and played well," he said. "We're still waiting for Odell to get back out there, he was out there some today running some routes. We have to get him out there, we get Mario Manningham (recovering from a knee injury) back out there and it will be helpful but we've got a couple young guys who have made some good plays for us. They have gotten a lot of reps because of having some guys out and they've done a good job getting open and understanding the offense. I'm excited about who we have who's out there and working right now. Hopefully, we can get some guys back healthy for training camp."
- Defensive tackle Markus Kuhn and tight end Daniel Fells were not feeling well and left practice early.
