The Giants (Finally) Take the Field - New York Sports Nation

Joe Judge finally has his Giants team on the field.

There will be no pads until August 17th, but the players are getting plenty of on-field conditioning and skills time.

The Giants physically came together as a full team this week for the very first time in 2020.

The early focus of the camp is on conditioning and getting into “football shape”. But, football is back Giants fans! Spirals were flying from QBs to RBs, WRs, and TEs again at Quest Diagnostic Center.

Giants Cut Roster to 80 Players as They Take the Field

With the accelerated camp and to comply with NFL COVID-19 protocol, one of the very first decisions the Giants needed to make was to pare the team down to 80 players. This was a late decision by Joe Judge and Dave Gettleman just before camp started.

There were two options per NFL rules:

Remain at 90 players on the roster, but split the squad into two units (approximately 45 players each) to reduce risk of COVID-19 transmission.
Reduce roster to 80 players to allow the full squad to be on the field together.

Joe Judge Training Camp 2020 — *Photo: —*

Originally, Joe Judge briefed the media that the team would be split into two units. Joe further explained that the team would have put all the QBs into one of the split units to keep them on the same schedule. Within a day of completing player physicals, this decision was changed to shift down to 80 players. This gets the full team onto the field and in the position rooms together. Most of the players dropped were recent signees and undrafted free agents with one major exception. Defensive Tackle Leonard Williams was placed on the active/non-football injury list with a hamstring issue.

Much noise was made by the media and the fan base of the FA tag placed on Williams this offseason after the Giants gave up a 3rd round pick midway in the 2019 season to bring him to the team. Now, Williams will be held back from full drills until well into the padded practices. But he can return.

One More Week of Conditioning: Full Pads on August 17th

Sunday’s practice saw coaches allowed on the field and players wearing helmets for the first time. One step closer to football as we know it. The team is using more time for team-focused training. The offense lined up for plays, called out coverage and blocking schemes, and ran plays as a unit.