After two days of joint practices, the New York Giants take on the Cleveland Browns this Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. It is the second of three warm-up games as the NFL reduced the preseason schedule with the addition of a 17th regular-season game in 2021.
"I don't think as a coach you ever feel fully confident in where your team is conditioning-wise until you can measure it against somebody else on a field for a duration of time," coach Joe Judge said before Friday's joint practice. "In terms of where we are, I mean look, training camp's not what it used to be. The duration is different. The ramp up is different. You try to push your team to make sure they can stay on the field healthy and then play effectively for 60 minutes with good football position and fundamentals. That's the key part of what we're looking for. I thought that was a positive yesterday that showed up in our practice."
As the Giants continue to evaluate their roster, here are five players to watch on Sunday in Cleveland:
OT Matt Peart
While the Giants rested most of their starters on both sides of the ball last week, including quarterback Daniel Jones, Judge chose to play the first-team offensive line for a handful of series to start the game. That included right tackle Matt Peart, who bookends the offensive line opposite fellow second-year pro Andrew Thomas. Peart played only 150 offensive snaps as a rookie, so the Giants will make sure he can as many live reps as possible heading into the regular season.
LB Azeez Ojulari
The rookie second-round pick generated some buzz last week with holding his own against Jets offensive tackle Mekhi Becton, last year's 11 overall draft choice who has more than 100 pounds on Ojulari.
"For his first game, he had some good plays, he had some bad plays," assistant head coach/defensive coordinator Patrick Graham said. "There were plays against Becton and the fullback that I saw there, but it was okay. He has a lot of room to grow. I'm encouraged by the fact that he played hard, his conditioning's coming along, he's playing with his hands being physical, but he still has a ways to go just like most of us. It was encouraging that he got out there and came away, no penalties, no injuries, so that was encouraging."
Check out must-see photos from the joint practices between the Giants and Browns in Cleveland.