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Eli maturing?


Randall
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ELI'S GROOVE

GETS GIANTS HUMMIN'

 

By PAUL SCHWARTZ

GOING DEEP: Eli Manning, starting his third season, looked sharp as Giants held their first practice yesterday at their Albany training camp.

 

July 29, 2006 -- ALBANY - The first pass could not have sailed all the way out to Las Vegas, where Amani Toomer spent much of the offseason, but it was thrown far enough and with the proper accuracy to land directly into Toomer's outstretched hands.

Let Giants training camp begin.

 

That deep post pattern, run by Toomer, thrown by Eli Manning and completed over cornerback Sam Madison, came on the first play of yesterday's team drills. It was a perfectly executed play, one that will soon be forgotten amid the thousands of throws, catches and routes to come. The significance figures to linger, though, as an example of a maturing quarterback commanding a familiar and talented offense.

 

The gang's all here. It is rare indeed when one side of the ball returns everyone, which is the case with the Giants offense. All 11 starters are back in place, continuity that should ensure the attack hums, early and often.

 

"From the first practice we're clicking; that's what I saw today," fullback Jim Finn said. "We came out there and, bam, we're back in the groove just like we left off . . . besides that Carolina [playoff] game."

 

Toomer, entering his 11th season, said he could not recall a first camp practice that went so smoothly.

 

"I was actually impressed with all the completions and how crisp some of the quarterbacks looked," he said.

 

It's certainly not as easy as it looked. Tim Hasselbeck fired a bullet to rookie Sinorice Moss. Tim Carter, shaking off tendinitis in his left knee, got a step on rookie Gerrick McPhearson and hauled in Jared Lorenzen's pinpoint toss. There were a few mistimed steps with Manning and Plaxico Burress and Jeremy Shockey - the two targets who worked out in Miami and not with Manning at Giants Stadium - but there's no doubt this was a strong opening act for the offense in general and Manning in particular.

 

"This is Eli's third year; I feel like he's getting a better grasp of everything," center Shaun O'Hara said. "Already he's been a little more vocal; I just feel like he's got a little bit more of a huddle presence, a little more command of everything that's going on. His progression has been perfect."

 

The first pass caught everyone's attention.

 

"Eli looked good on the first play," linebacker Antonio Pierce said. "Everybody's talking about them not having those [receivers] there, on the first play he still looked sharp."

 

Manning called his first offering "A good way to start . . . I'll take it any time."

 

The pass that truly pleased the coaching staff, though, came on the first play of the next team period and wasn't even a completion. Looking, looking, looking, Manning spotted no one breaking open and calmly threw the ball out of bounds, heeding the advice pounded into his head that sometimes the best play is making no play.

 

"The growth and maturity is very obvious," Tom Coughlin said. "I said to him, Eli, what's the best thing you did this morning? And I answered, you threw the ball away."

 

No one will benefit more from having the same starting cast of characters around him than Manning, who can concentrate on fine-tuning, with no need for major adjustments.

 

"It's a rare thing. There's been a lot of change around here the last three, four years, for us having the whole offense coming back is just going to make everything a lot easier for Eli and a lot easier for everyone on the field," Toomer said. "The way he threw the ball, I was impressed with that."

 

http://www.nypost.com/sports/giants/elis_g...ul_schwartz.htm

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I just got back from UAlbany and Eli definitely looked better. There were still a couple of passes that flew high though.

 

The WRs looked good, Shockey is still a beast (had a nasty sliding catch), and LaVar looked like a new LB who doesn't know the system yet.

Edited by budlitebrad
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