Head Coach John Harbaugh

JOHN HARBAUGH: Good seeing you guys. Great day. Very pleased with the effort. We'll have a day off tomorrow. We'll be back at it on Monday, so that's our schedule. Happy with where we're at.

Q: Full pads on Monday?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Full pads, yes.

Q: What does that change for you?

JOHN HARBAUGH: It'll be a very similar practice. It'll just change the tempo of the period. Without the pads, you're not wrapping. We're not going to be tackling to the ground on Monday. We'll be doing what we call wrap and release. We're trying to stop the ballcarrier if we can on defense and get the pads behind us on offense, things like that. I'm sure inside will be a little more physical than it is out here without the shoulder pads. It just ramps up just a little bit. But other than that, everything will be exactly the same.

Q: Do you do full tackling at any point?

JOHN HARBAUGH: We might. There'll be certain guys, maybe the younger guys, before the first preseason game, perhaps. We'll see where we're at.

Q: John, four days in, and you'll get your first break tomorrow, as you already mentioned. Do you feel like you've made the progress so far that you hoped to make over the first period?

JOHN HARBAUGH: I would say so. You don't really measure it too much other than just try to get as good as you can in everything you can. I felt like today was a good step because a lot of the things that we were working on from yesterday and the first couple of days, you saw the improvement today in terms of execution. That's what you really to see. Better today than you were yesterday. That's kind of the measuring stick. I felt like we did that today.

Q: Can you give an example of something that improved?

JOHN HARBAUGH: The operation was better on offense, for sure. We're pushing the envelope on all the cadences. It's not like we're protecting them and doing simple cadences. There's a lot of tough cadences, and for the most part, we did a really good job with it.

Q: What have been your impressions of (wide receiver) Darius Slayton? He's been here a long time. He's been up and down. Obviously, before you got here, he had some big seasons, had some drops. What have your impressions been?

JOHN HARBAUGH: I like him. Hard worker, very determined. He wants to do well. Talented, big receiver. I think he's getting his strength back, basically. Two days ago, he looked really fast. Today, I feel – I've got to see the tape – I felt like he was back today. Yesterday, he probably was working through the soreness a little bit of recovery. So, that's part of that, coming off that sports hernia injury. But, yeah, I think he's on the way back, and I'm hoping for big things.

Q: How have these first four days for (wide receiver) Malik (Nabers) gone according to what the plan was coming into camp?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, like I said, the plan is just to take it as we go. You just never know how one day is going to go to the next, because we're definitely pushing the envelope on it. So, today seemed like a good day, from what I could tell. I'll talk to the trainers later and see where he's at. But, I would say he's generally on schedule. He's working to get himself back as soon as he can. We'll see.

Q: There's been a lot of tipped passes, it seems. What do you make of that?

JOHN HARBAUGH: On defense, I like it. I'm happy about it. On offense, it's a little tougher for the O-line to get the D-line's hands down, because we're not in pads. But, we don't tell our – I'm not an offensive coordinator by trade, so sometimes those guys who are offensive coordinator head coaches, they'll tell the defense not to bat the ball down. But I like our defense to learn how to bat balls down. So, we don't coach them not to do that. Probably that might be part of it, too.

Q: John, you and (outside linebacker) Kayvon (Thibodeaux) seem to have bonded very quickly and very early. Why is that, do you think?

JOHN HARBAUGH: I don't know.

Q: What is it about him that appeals to you?

JOHN HARBAUGH: I like him. I think he's a smart, thoughtful guy. He's all ball. He's determined. He's kind of no-nonsense. He's got a good sense of humor. I like him. He's a good dude. Works hard. You know, you're a coach, you like guys who work hard. He's a leader. All those things.

Q: He's a leader?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Oh yeah.

Q: In your running back room, I mean, (running back Cam) Skattebo gets all of the attention, but (running back) Tyrone Tracy's (Jr.) had two really good years back-to-back. What do you see from him and how do you feel about his role this year?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, I think he's going to have a big role. To me, both those guys are going to be together back there playing a lot of football. You can't play with one back anyway, and they're both competing for everything at this point in time. Against themselves, against each other, against the opponent, against the defense. Both those guys are going to play a lot.

Q: Speaking of the run, you've had a lot of run-heavy offenses and (Offensive Coordinator Matt) Nagy as well. How did you guys find ways to kind of find common ground? You met, interviewed and now put this offense together. How does that common ground work, meshing this offense together?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Well, common ground is a great way to say it. You have to build an offense that makes sense for our team at this time. We're still figuring that out. But we believe in systems. So, you put a system together that gives you the opportunity to do as many things as you might want to do. I'd say we're in the process of determining which pages we're going to use in the playbook, so to speak, and what we're going to be good at and those kind of things. That's part of that process. It'll probably be going on throughout the course of this year too. I mean, you're always sort of doing that. But we'll figure that out as we go. But we wanted to build an offense that gave us a chance to live wherever we wanted to live. And we've seen a lot of those different things out there, mostly first and second down stuff the last three days. But you've seen a lot of that stuff out there so far.

Q: Coach, a lot of heavy usage for (tight end) Isaiah (Likely) today in practice. How much is this team going to depend on him to be a big target in this offense?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, it's going to be big. I mean, him – and (tight end) Theo (Johnson) had a big day, too, so both the tight ends. But like I said, it was early down type stuff. And those guys are going to be out there quite a bit in those situations. And the ball should go their way when we're throwing it. A lot.

Q: You did a lot of situational stuff. How much is that specific to this team? Do you always do this much? Is it something you're focusing on this summer specifically?

JOHN HARBAUGH: Well, yes and yes, probably. I mean, we are focusing on it. We're focusing on the things that we think we really need to get good at for this team. There is a lot of fourth quarter work, you've noticed probably. But also, we've always done that. So, the situation stuff is whole, part, whole. We throw everything at them right away on every situation we can think of early. So, by the time we're through the first ten days, we'll have hit pretty much all those situations. And it's okay if we don't know exactly what we're doing or we don't quite have the play calls down yet. We want to expose them to all those situations right out of the gate because those things are going to be things that actually win you games. Those are game-winning play opportunities usually. So, we want to be as good as we can be at that stuff.

Q: There's no secret that last year, the fourth quarter, holding leads was a thing here. I was just curious how much that played into it specifically.

JOHN HARBAUGH: I think it's true for every team. We had some of those things in Baltimore. I mean, you can look at every team in the league and talk about the fourth quarter. You look at Chicago, probably their record is what it was because they made a bunch of plays in the fourth quarter. They had some crazy big plays in the fourth quarter to win games. So, it usually comes down to that. That's pretty much every team's story.

Outside Linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux

Q: How's camp so far for you?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: It's going good. It's going well.

Q: What is your knack for batting down passes?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: I mean, just getting your hands up. Just trying to stay active in your rush.

Q: Physically, where are you? How do you feel?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: I feel great. I feel like we're only, what, four days into camp? So, we've still got some ways to go, but I feel good.

Q: What do you expect from your role? Where do you think you fit on this defense?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: I'm not sure. We'll just keep working to figure it out.

Q: What's your mindset when you go into a year, a contract year like this? What goes through your head that you want to do to prove whatever that is?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: You just want to be the best player you can be. Keep finding ways to help the team, keep moving.

Q: Is it an added layer of motivation?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: I honestly don't think there are no more layers of motivation to be added. I think when you play in this league, when motivation kind of seeps out or when you have the most of it, you just got to kind of lean back on your discipline.

Q: I'm sure, I'd be surprised at any point of your football playing career, you've been playing with the second team defense very often. What's your mindset to that? Do you use that as motivation?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: I mean, it's all ball. It's all ball.

Q: Talk about that edge rush group in total. (Head) Coach (John) Harbaugh came up here and said that he's got three number ones in his mind with you, (outside linebacker) Brian (Burns), as well as (outside linebacker) Abdul (Carter). Talk about that group and what you guys have been able to do so far.

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: Super excited, just we're trying to keep working, keep getting better, keep gelling together. I think we've got a lot of moving parts to the defense. So, just continuing to feed off each other.

Q: What's it been like moving inside sometimes?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: It's been good. I did it last year and continue to sharpen my tools. So, it's been great so far.

Q: How much, I know it's kind of obvious, how much different is that? What's different there?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: It's just a little faster. I wouldn't say it's too much different, but you're closer to the quarterback. So, it is I would say a little bit more opportunities.

Q: What's the key for you in that spot, when you're in the interior, to having success?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: Play hard, play fast.

Q: You just try to use your speed there? Is that the goal?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: I mean, I just play hard, to be honest.

Q: Is this the best you've felt physically?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: No, it's camp, day four. So, I'm not saying we feel the best but the best I felt was like four days ago (laughter). But no, it feels good. I'm excited.

Q: Is this camp what you expected it to be so far?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: Yeah, I mean, this is your normal NFL camps, so yeah.

Q: It seems like you've been making a fair amount of plays pretty much each day. Do you feel like you're doing pretty well so far?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: I think I got a lot of room to grow. I think it's just practice. So, it's like half the plays, you're not really finishing. So, it's not really, there's no stats in practice, I can say. So, just being able to keep getting better and just make sure that you're prepared for the game.

Q: What do you make of the pace at practice when you saw the situational (drills)?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: I think it's good. I think players, we're getting smarter. We're always constantly learning. So, being able to have the situations on your mind as you're playing is always key.

Q: Such a big thing for this team the last couple of years has been the run defense. And obviously you guys brought in (defensive tackle D.J.) Reader and (defensive tackle Shelby) Harris. What do you see? I know there's no pads and you can't tackle, but what are you expecting?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: I mean, the OG's, they definitely, they get out up front. They know what they need to do and why they were brought here. So, super excited for them. But it means nothing until we get pads.

Q: How excited are you for the next practice to get those pads on?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: I mean, I'm just ready to go. It's almost that time.

Q: Have you seen any change in Abdul (Carter) from year one to year two?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: I think, yeah, he's grown. I mean, just continuing to get better and continuing to kind of hone in on his craft.

Q: Coach Wilson's (Defensive Coordinator Dennard Wilson) defense, what have you liked about it the most so far?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: Just being able to play in it, to be honest.

Q: How would you sum up your career as a New York Giant so far?

KAYVON THIBODEAUX: It's been great. I'm happy to be here. I mean, obviously we didn't win that much in the beginning, but no one really thinks about the years before. It's all about the opportunity we've got in front of us.

Wide Receiver Darius Slayton

Q: How are you feeling physically?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I feel pretty good, yeah. I feel pretty good right now.

Q: When did the sports hernia start impacting you?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I pretty much started with it last season and just kind of played that way throughout the whole season. Just because I wasn't going to just cut the season short with the surgery or anything. I got through last year and then I tried to kind of rehab it in the offseason and it just didn't really work. So, I just went ahead and got the procedure done.

Q: Coach Nagy's (Offensive Coordinator Matt Nagy) offense. What have you liked the most about it so far in the first few days of camp?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I like the variety. I like the variety of it. The variety of what people do. So far, I feel like everybody has had a multitude of roles. So far, it's not like certain guys are like, 'Oh, you're just going to run deep or you're just going to run short.' Or this guy's going to run this route or that route. I feel like it really has just been a mixed bag of everybody getting a shot at almost everything.

Q: You've talked a lot over the last four years about how complicated that offense was for receivers, all the different things. How does this, I don't know if compare is the right word. How would you describe this offense and what it demands of receivers?

DARIUS SLAYTON: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely – it's a little simpler I would say as far as conceptually simpler. But I feel like it also has a lot of variety to it, kind of like I just said, where you can end up in a lot of different spots.

Q: How have you felt just as far, with Nagy's offense, what's been the easiest adjustment, I guess, for you?

DARIUS SLAYTON: The easiest adjustment, I'd probably say is that. It's that it's a little more – I'd say our last offense was very memory based. So, you just had to hard memorize a lot of things, whereas this one's a little more intuitive. There are clues in the play calls, so to speak, that can be like, 'Okay, I know if I hear this word or that word, I kind of, either I know exactly what I have or I have an idea of what I have.'

Q: How's the pace of practice? I know some of the guys have talked about it's a different pace with (Head Coach John) Harbaugh, but for you, the veteran here, what do you see from how this pace of practice has been different than maybe before?

DARIUS SLAYTON: Practice has been at a great pace, but I feel like, again, we've done such a good job of mixing and matching guys that it allows for people to be able to play fast and play hard. Ultimately, you stack more explosive reps. You don't get into as many of those, six or seven, eight reps in a row, the reality is by the time you get seven, eight reps in, you're fried. I definitely think that's been great.

Q: What do you think of this receiving group? It's very different than last year's. Here's (wide receivers) Odell (Beckham Jr.) and (wide receiver) JuJu (Smith-Schuster) and (wide receiver) Braxton (Berrios) and (wide receiver) Malachi (Fields). What do you think of this receiving corps?

DARIUS SLAYTON: There's a lot of really good football players in our room now, and definitely from a competition-level standpoint, it's awesome. I mean, obviously I literally just missed Odell on the front end. He almost felt like a fake unicorn mythical creature that departed before I came. And then here he is back on the team with me. Obviously, JuJu is a great player. Braxton's been a good pro for a long time. And, obviously Malachi's an exciting, huge, young rookie. He's flashed a lot. Just these first few days, he's had some flashes, so definitely raised the competition level in the room for sure.

Q: How do you do rebound from last year?

DARIUS SLAYTON: First and foremost is getting healthy. I need to be able to run, I need to be able to move how I'm accustomed to being able to move. Honestly, once that's all done, I believe I'll play to a level that I need to play at.

Q: How do you feel after that surgery? You had surgery, right?

DARIUS SLAYTON: Yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah, I had sports hernia surgery on both legs, but I feel good.

Q: How much did that impact your last season?

DARIUS SLAYTON: A good bit. I mean, I'm not a big excuse person. So, at the end of the day, I could have played better regardless, but obviously it's different when maybe you're used to being able to catch the ball a little easier. You're having to strain a little more and maybe come up an inch short here or there. But at the end of the day if you're out there, you've got to make it happen.

Q: How do you think you fit in this new wide receiver room?

DARIUS SLAYTON: Yeah, well, everybody keeps trying to fit me in the old guy role. But you know Odell's older than me, Braxton's older than me, JuJu's the same age as me. So, I'm trying to shake that narrative. But, no, other than that I feel like I've always just kind of been a glue guy. Kind of a do-it-all guy. There's not really too much for a receiver position that you could of that I'm not capable of doing. My plan is to fill whatever holes need to be filled and be successful at my role.

Q: The last time we talked to you was baggy day. And you said you need a (Former New York Giants Head Coach) Tom Coughlin-esque guy. Do you remember that? Did you get that?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I would say so (laughter). Yeah, absolutely. I feel like he's in that echelon, that elk. You know, he obviously came from arguably one of the most old-school divisions in football of the Ravens and the Steelers. I definitely think he's what we needed. There's definitely been a sense of accountability off the rip, which has been huge for us. I'm definitely glad Coach Harbaugh's here.

Q: How do you feel the sense of accountability has imparted to you guys?

DARIUS SLAYTON: See, if I give specific examples people are going to start putting stuff together and you'll know who I'm talking about. Overall, there's just no room for anybody to just do whatever they want. That's the best way I can put it to you. Everybody's accountable. Everybody has to be on time. Everybody has to show effort at practice, or you would be held accountable.

Q: From what I've been told, Harbaugh has no problem challenging anyone. If he wants to challenge you with something, he's going to challenge you and if he wants an answer. Do you like that approach? The idea of there is no b.s. It's basically tell me what you saw and I'll listen to you…

DARIUS SLAYTON: Yeah. I mean, I've got to be careful (laughter). I don't know. I don't know.

Q: We're trying to trap you…

DARIUS SLAYTON: Yeah, I know but I almost did it to myself (laughter). But already in this camp, he's already kind of expressed that at the end of the day, you know, in this life, if somebody's not doing something up to the echelon that you want them to do, you go to them, you make that clear to them that that's not what we're going to do around here, then they have a chance to respond. And that's something that he's already done in our first few days of camp and has gotten a positive response out of the individuals that he's done that with. So, I think that's really big for a football team.

Q: How long after Dex (Bengals defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence) was traded did you realize you are the solo, you are Mr. Longevity here now by yourself?

DARIUS SLAYTON: Not long. I sent him a text. So, I pretty much knew off rip.

Q: West Virginia, you've been here for close to a week now at this point. What have you thought of it? Is this your first time being in the side of the state? And what have you thought about the fan support over the past few days?

DARIUS SLAYTON: Fan support's been awesome, honestly. I wasn't really expecting a ton being in the middle of nowhere West Virginia. But the fans have definitely showed up, and they've been deep and came out and been loud. And obviously you guys can, well, I guess nobody else can see. But y'all can see in the background, you have these mountains and trees. It's a beautiful landscape and kind of nice to have nothing but football going on.

Q: What have you seen watching (wide receiver) Malik (Nabers) go through drills? And what's your reaction to seeing him out there?

DARIUS SLAYTON: Well, me and him have been rehabbing side-by-side over the past, however X amount of time. So, for me, I love to see him kind of start to get over that hump and get back out there and get to feeling like himself and being the star that we all know that he can be. Obviously he's going to keep working his way back but just seeing him in a helmet at all is a blessing for sure.